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HISTORY 



OF THE 



STATE OF CALIFORNIA 



AND 



BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD '^^^C 



OF 



The Sierras. 



An Historical Story of the State's Marvelous Growth from Its Earliest Settlement 

to the Present Time 

BY 

PROF. J. M. GUINN, A. M., 

It 

Author of A History of Los Angeles and Vicinity, History of Southern California, Secretary and Curator 

of the Historical Society of Southern California, Member of the American 

Historical Association, Washington, D. C. 



ALSO 



Containing Biographies of Well-Known Citizens of the Past and Present. 



THE CHAPMAN PUBLISHING CO. 

CHICAGO 
1906 



Fit. 



COPYKIGHT, lg02 
BV 

CHAPMAN PUBLISHING CO. 



BY TRAMSFia^ 

DEC 1 8 1909 



PREFACE. 



HISTORICAL. 

THERE are very few states in the Union that have a more varied and a more interesting 
history than CaHfornia ; and there are few if any whose history is so vaguely and so 
indefinitely known. This is largely due to the fact that its colonization was effected by 
one race and its evolution as a state by another. 

In the rapid development of the state by the conquering race, the trials and struggles of 
the first colonists have been forgotten. No forefathers' day keeps their memory green, and no 
observance celebrates the anniversary of their landing. To many of its people, the history of 
California begins with the discovery of gold, and all behind that is regarded of little impor- 
tance. Tile race characteristics of the two peoples who have dominated California differ 
widely; and from this divergence arises the lack of sympathetic unison. Perhaps no better 
expression for this difference can be given than is found in popular bywords of each. The 
"poco tiempo" (by and by) of the Spaniard is significant of a people who are willing to wait 
— who would rather defer till vianana — to-morrow — than hurry to-day. The "go ahead" of 
the American is indicative of haste, of rush, of a strenuous struggle to overcome obstacles, 
whatever they may be, in the present. 

In narrating the story of California, I have endeavored to deal justly with the different 
eras and episodes of its history; to state facts; to tell the truth without favoritism or preju- 
dice ; to give credit where credit is due and blame where it is deserved. In the preparation of 
this history I have tried to make it readable. I have avoided dull details and have omitted cum- 
brous statistics. 

The subject has been presented by topic, observing so far as possible the chronological 
order of the events. In collecting material for this work, I have visited all the large libraries 
of the state, have consulted state and county archives, and have scanned thousands of pages of 
newspapers and magazines. Where extracts have been made, due credit has been given in the 
body of the work. I have received valuable assi stance from librarians, from pioneers of the state, 
from editors and others. To all who have assist ed me, I return my sincere thanks. 

J. M. GUINN. 



PREFACE. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 

WHEN we study the progress made in northeastern California, especially during the past 
two decades of the nineteenth century and the opening years of the twentieth century, 
we are led to the conclusion that the present gratifying condition is due to the enterprise 
of public-spirited citizens. They have not only developed commercial possibilities and horti- 
cultural resources, but they have also maintained a commendable interest in public affairs, and 
have given to their commonwealth some of its ablest statesmen. The prosperity of the past has 
been gratifying; and, with the building of the canal to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
with the increasing of railroad facilities, with the further development of local resources, there 
is everv reason to believe that the twentieth century will witness the most marvelous growth this 
region has ever made. 

In the compilation of this work and the securing of necessary data, a number of writers 
have been engaged for months. They have visited leading citizens and used every endeavor to 
produce a work accurate and trustworthy in ever)' detail. Owing to the great care exercised, 
and to the fact that every opportunity was given to those represented to secure accuracy in 
their biographies, the publishers believe they are giving to their readers a volume containing few 
errors of consequence. The biographies of a number of representative citizens will be missed 
from the work. In some instances tliis was caused by their absence from home when our writers 
called, and in some instances was caused by a failure on the part of the men themselves to 
imderstand the scope of the work. The publishers, however, have done all within their power 
to make this work a representative one. 

The value of the data herein presented will grow with the passing years. Posterity will 
preserve the volume with care, from the fact that it perpetuates biographical history that other- 
wise would be wholly lost. In those now far-distant days will be realized, to a greater extent 
than at the present time, the truth of Macaulav's statement, "The history of a country is best told 
in the lives of its people." ' CHAPMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

October, 1906. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Spanish Explorations and Discoveries 33 

Romance and Reality — The Seven Cities of Cibola — The Myth of Quivera— El Dorado — 
Sandoval's Isle of the Amazons — Mutineers Discover the Peninsula of Lower California 
— Origin of the Name California — Cortes's Attempts at Colonization — Discovery of the 
Rio Colorado — Coronado's Explorations — Ulloa's Voyage. 

to* (5* «»• 

CHAPTER n. 
Alta or Nueva California 37 

Voyage of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo — Enters the Bay of San Diego in Alta California — 
Discovers the Islands of San Salvador and Vitoria — The Bay of Smokes and Fires — The 
Santa Barbara Islands — Reaches Cape Mendocino — His Death and Burial on the Island of 
San Miguel — Ferrolo Continues the Voyage — Drake, the Sea King of Devon — His Hatred 
of the Spaniard — Sails into the South Sea — Plunders the Spanish Settlements of the South 
Pacific — Vain Search for the Straits of Anian — Refits His Ships in a California Harbor — 
Takes Possession of the Country for the English Queen — Sails Across the Pacific Ocean 
to Escape the Vengeance of the Spaniards — Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno Attempts a 
Survey of the California Coast — Loss of the San .^gustin — Sufferings of the Shipwrecked 
Mariners — Sebastian Viscaino's Explorations — Makes No New Discoveries — Changes the 
Names Given by Cabrillo to the Bays and Islands — Some Boom Literature — Failure of 
His Colonization Schefne — His Death. 

(5* !.?• to* 

CHAPTER HI. 
Colonization of Alta California 43 

Jesuit Missions of Lower California — Father Kino or Kuhn's Explorations — Expulsion of 
the Jesuits — Spain's Decadence — Her Northwestern Possessions Threatened by the Rus- 
sians and English — The Franciscans to Christianize and Colonize .-Mta California — Galvez 
Fits Out Two Expeditions — Their Safe Arrival at San Diego — First Mission Founded — 
Portola's Explorations — Fails to Find Monterey Bay — Discovers the Bay of San Fran- 
cisco — Return of the Explorers — Portola's Second Expedition — Founding of San Carlos 
Mission and the Presidio of Monterey. 

(5* i?* tS* 

CHAPTER IV, 
Aborigines of California 49 

Inferiority of the California Indian — No Great Tribes — Indians of the San Gabriel Valley — 
Hugo Reid's Description of Their Government — Religion and Customs — Indians of the 
Santa Barbara Channel — Their God Chupu — Northern Indians — Indian Myths and Tra- 
ditions. 

10 



20 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

PAGE 

Franciscan Missions of Alta California 56 

Founding of San Diego de Alc?.Ia — San Caries Barromeo — San Antonio de Padua— San 
Gabriel Arcangel — San Luis Obispo — San Francisco de Asis — San Juan Capistrano — Santa 
Clara — San Buenaventura— Santa Barbara— La Purisima Concepcion— Santa Cruz— La 
Soledad — San Jose — San Juan Bautista — San Miguel — San Fernando del Rey, San Luis 
Rey, Santa Ynez — San Rafael^San Francisco Solano — Architecture — General Plan of the 
■ • ■ Missionary Establishinents — Houses of the Neophytes— Their Uncleanliness. 

^^ o^* ^^ 

CHAPTER VI. 

Prf.sidios of California 66 

Presidio in Colonization — Founding of San Diego — General Plan of the Presidio — Found- 
ing of Monterey — Rejoicing over the Event — Hard Times at the Presidio — Bear Meat Diet 
— Two Hundred Immigrants for the Presidio — Founding of the Presidio of San Francisco 
— .Anza's Overland Route from Sonora — Quarrel with Rivera — Anza's Return to Sonora — 
Founding of Santa Barbara — Disappointment of Father Serra — Quarrel of the Captain with 
the Missionaries over Indian Laborers — Soldiers' Dreary Life at the Presidios. 

t^f r^^ t^* 

CHAPTER VH. 
Pueblos 73 

Pueblo Plan of Colonization— Necessity for ,A.gricultural Colonies — Governor Filipe de 
Neve Selects Pueblo Sites — San Jose Founded — Named for the Patron Saint of California 
• — Area of the Spanish Pueblo — Government Supplies to Colonists — Founding of the 
Pueblo of Los Angeles — Names of the Founders — Probable Origin of the Name — Sub- 
divisions of Pueblo Lands — Lands .Assigned to Colonists — Founding of Branciforte, the 
last Spanish Pueblo. 

c5* c^ ^5* 

CHAPTER VHL 
The Pa.ssixc, of Spain's DoMiN.vrioN 78 

Spain's Exclusiveness — The First Foreign Ship in Monterey Bay — Vancouver's Visit — 
Government Monopoly of the Fur Trade — .\nierican Smugglers — The Memorias — Russian 
.Aggression^Famine at Sitka — Rezanoff's Visit — A Love Affair and Its Tragic Ending — 
l^'ort Ross — Failure of the Russian Colony Scheme — The War of Mexican Independence — 
Sola the Royalist Governor — California Loyalists — The Year of Earthquakes — Bouchard 
the Privateer Burns Monterey — The Lima Tallow Ships — Hard Times — No Money and 
Little Credit — The Friars Supreme. 

Ji ..* Jt 

CHAPTER IX. 

From EiiriRE to Republic 82 

Sola Calls for Troops — Cholas Sent Him — Success cf the Revolutionists — Plan of Iguala — 
The Three Guarantee's — The Empires-Downfall of .Agustin L— Rise of the Republic — 
Bitter Disappointments of Governor Sola and the Friars — Disloyalty of the Mission 
l riar.s — Refuse to Take the Oath of .Mlcgiance — .^rguella. Governor — .Advent of Foreign- 
ers — Coming of the Hide Droghers- — Indian Outbreak. 



CONTEXTS. 21 

CHArTKR X. 

P.«GE 

First TyECADic ok Mexican Rule 87 

Echeandia Governor— Make San Diego His Capital— Padres of the Four Southern Mis- 
sions Take the Oalh ol Allegiance to the Republic — Friars of the Northern Missions 
Contumacious — Arrest of Padre Sarria — Expulsion of the Spaniards — Clandestine De- 
parture of Padres Ripoll and Altiniira — Exile of Padre Martinez — The Diputacion — 
Queer Legislation— The Mexican Congress Attempts to Make California a Penal Colony — 
Liberal Colonization Laws — Captain Jedediah S. Smith, the Pioneer of Overland Travel, 
Arrives— Is Arrested— First White Man to Cross the Sierra Nevadas— Coming of the 
Fur Trappers — The Pattie Party — Imprisoned by Echeandia— Death of the Elder Pattie— 
John Ohio Pattie's Bluster— Peg Leg Smith — Ewing Young — The Solis Revolution — A 
Bloodless Battle — Echcandia's Mission Secularization Decree — He Is Hated by the Friars 
— Dios y Libertad — The Fitch Romance. 

^* «,?• i5* 

CHAPTER XI. 
Revolutions — The Hij ar Colonists g^ 

Victoria, Governor — His Unpopularity^Defeated by the Southern Revolutionists — .Abdi- 
cates and is Shipped out of the Country — Pio Pico. Governor — Echeandia, Governor of 
Abajenos (Lowers) — Zamarano of the Arribanos (Uppers) — Dual Governors and a No 
Man's Land — War Clouds — Los Angeles the Political Storm Center — Figueroa Appointed 
Gefe Politico — The Dual Governors Surrender — Figueroa the Right Man in the Place — 
Hijar's Colonization Scheme — Padres, the Promoter — Hijar to be Gefe Politico — A Fa- 
mous Ride — A Cobbler Heads a Revolution— Hijar and Padres Arrested and Deported — 
Disastrous End of the Compania Cosmopolitana — Death of Figueroa. 

fc?* tJ* (5* 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Decline and Fall of the Missions qfi 

Sentirnent vs. History — The Friars' Right to the Mission Lands Only That of Occupa- 
tion — Governor Borica's Opinion of the Mission System — Title to the Mission Domams — 
Viceroy Bucarili's Instructions — Secularization — Decree of the Spanish Cortes in 1813 — 
Mission Land Monopoly — No Land for Settlers — Secularization Plans. Decrees and Regla- 
mentos — No Attempt to Educate the Neophytes — Destruction of Mission Property, 
Ruthless Slaughter of Cattle — Emancipation in Theory and in Practice- — Depravity ot the 
Neophytes — What Did Six Decades of Mission Rule Accomplish? — What Became of the 
Mission Estates — The Passing of the Neophytes. 

^% t<?* ^^ 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Free and Sovereign St.\te of Alta California 10: 

Castro, Gefe Politico — Nicolas Gutierrez. Comandante and Political Chief — Chico, "Gober- 
nador Propritario" — Makes Himself Unpopular — His Hatred of Foreigners — .Makes 
Trouble Wherever He Goes — Shipped Back to Mexico — Gutierrez .Again Political Chief — 
Centralism His Nemesis — Revolt of Castro and Alvarado — Gutierrez Besieged — Surrenders 
and Leaves the Country — Declaration of California's Independence — El Estado Libre y 
Soberano de La .Alta California — Alvarado Declared Governor— The Ship of State 



22 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Launched— Encounters a Storm— The South Opposes California's Independence— Los An- 
geles Made a City and the Capital of the Territory by the Mexican Congress— The Capital 
''hjestion the Cause of Opposition — War Between the North and South — Battle of San 
Buenaventura— Los Angeles Captured— Peace in the Free State— Carlos Carrillo, Gov- 
ernor of the South— War Again— Defeat of Carrillo at Las Flores— Peace— Alvarado 
Appointed Governor by the Supreme Government — Release of Alvarado's Prisoners of 
State— Exit the Free State. 

»5* to* w* 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Decline and Fall of Mexican Domination lo8 

Hijos del Pais in Power — The Capital Question — The Foreigners Becoming a Menace — 
Graham AfYair — Micheltorena Appointed Governor — His Cholo Army — Commodore Jones 
Captures Monterey — The Governor and the Commodore Meet at Los Angeles — Extrava- 
gant Demands of Micheltorena — Revolt Against Micheltorena and His Army of Chicken 
Thieves — Sutter and Graham Join Forces with Micheltorena — The Picos Unite with 
Alvarado i-nd Castro — Battle of Cahuenga — Micheltorena and His Cholos Deported — Pico, 
Governor — Castro Rebellious — The Old Feud Between the North and the South — Los 
Angeles the Capital — Plots and Counter-Plots — Pico Made Governor by President Herrera 
— Immigration from the United States. 

^% %^n 9^^ 



CHAPTER XV. 

Municipal Government — Homes and Home Life of the Californians 114 

The "Muy Ilustre Ayuntamiento," or Municipal Council — Its Unlimited Power. Queer Cus- 
toms and Quaint Usages — Blue Laws — How Office Sought the Man and Caught Him — 
Architecture of the Mission Age Not Aesthetic — Dress of the Better Class — Undress of 
the Neophyte and the Peon — Fashions That Changed but Once in Fifty Years — Filial 
Respect — Honor Thy Father and Mother — Economy in Government — When Men's Pleas- 
ures and Vices Paid the Cost of Governing — No Fire Department — No Paid Police — No 
Taxes. 

t5* *^ to* 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Territorial Expansion by Conquest 1 19 

The Mexican War — More Slave Territory Needed — Hostilities Begun in Texas — Trouble 
Brewing in California — Fremont at Monterey — Fremont and Castro Quarrel — Fremont 
and His Men Depart — Arrival of Lieutenant Gillespie — Follows Fremont — Fremont's Re- 
turn — The Bear Flag Revolt — Seizure of Sonoma — A Short-Lived Republic — Commodore 
Sloat Seizes California — Castro's Army Retreats Southward — Meets Pico's Advancing 
Northward — Retreat to Los Angeles — Stockton and Fremont Invade the South — Pico and 
Castro Vainly Attempt to Arouse the People — Pico's Humane Proclamation — Flight of 
Pico and Castro — Stockton Captures Los .\ngeles — Issues a Proclamation — Some His- 
torical Myths; — The First Newspaper Published in California. 



CONTENTS. 23 

CHAPTER XVII. 

PACE 
REVOLT OF THE CaLIFORNIANS I25 

Stockton Returns to His Ship and Fremont Leaves for the North — Captain Gillespie, 
Comandante, in the South — Attempts Reforms — Californians Rebei — The Americans Be- 
sieged on Fort Hill — Juan Flaca's Famous Ride — Battle of Chino — Wilson's Company 
Prisoners — Americans Agree to Evacute Los Angeles — Retreat to San Pedro — Cannon 
Thrown into the Bay — Flores in Command of the Californians. 

t^v I^V ^v 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Dffeat axd Retreat of Mervine's Men 129 

Mervine, in Command of the Savannah, Arrives at San Pedro — Landing of the Troops— 
Mervine and Gillespie Unite Their Forces — On to Los Angeles — DuvalTs Log Book — An 
Authentic Account of the March, Battle and Retreat — Names of the Killed and Wounded — 
Burial of the Dead on Dead Man's Island — Names of the Commanding Ofificers — Flores 
the Last Gefe Politico and Comandante-General — Jealousy of the Hijos del Pais — Hard 
Times in the Old Pueblo. 

«■ (3* *$■ 

CHAPTER XIX. 

FiXAU CONOL'EST OF CALIFORNIA j^^ 

Affairs in the North — Fremont's Battalion — Battle of Natividad — Bloodless Battle of Santa 
Clara — End of the War in the North — Stockton at San Pedro — Carrillo's Strategy — A Re- 
markable Battle — Stockton Arrives at San Diego — Building of a Fort — Raid on the 
Ranchos — The Flag Episode — General Kearny Arrives at Warner's Pass — Battle of San 
Pasqual — Defeat of Kearny — Heavy Loss — Relief Sent Him from San Diego — Preparing 
for the Capture of Los Angeles — The March — Battle of Paso de Bartolo — Battle of La 
Mesa— Small Losses — American Names of These Battles Misnomers. 

»5* K^ «5* 

CHAPTER XX. 

Capture and Occupation of the Capital 141 

Surrender of Los Angeles — March of the Victors — The Last Volley — A Chilly Recep- 
tion — A Famous Scold — On the Plaza — Stockton's Headquarters — Emory's Fort — Fre- 
mont's Battalion at San Fernando — The Flight of Flores — Negotiations with General Pico — 
Treaty of Cahuenga — Its Importance — Fremont's Battalion Enters the City — Fremont. 
Governor — Quarrel Between Kearny and Stockton — Ktarny Departs for San Diego and 
Stockton's Men for San Pedro. 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Transition and Transformation 144 

Colonel Fremont in Command at Los Angeles — The Mormon Battalion — Its Arrival at 
San Luis Rey, Sent to Los Angeles — General Kearny Governor at Monterey — Rival 
Governors — Col. R. B. Mason, Inspector of the Troops in California — He Quarrels with 
Fremont — Fremont Challenges Him — Colonel Cooke Made Commander of the Military 



24 CONTENTS. 

PAGS 

District of the South — Fremont's Battah'on Mustered Out — Fremont Ordered to Report 
to Kearny— Returns to the States with Kearny — Placed Under Arrest — Court-Martialed 
^Fouiid Guiky — Pardoned by the President — Rumors of a Mexican invasion — Building 
of a Fort — Col. J. B. Stevenson Commands in the Southern District — A Fourth of July 
Celebration — The Fort Dedicated and Named Fort Moore— The New York Volunteers- 
Company F. Third U. S. Artillery, Arrives— The Mormon Battalion Mustered Out- 
Commodore Shubrick and General Kearny Jointly Issue a Proclamation to the People- 
Col. R. B. Mason, Military Governor of California — A Policy of Conciliation— Varela, 
Agitator and Revolutionist, Makes Trouble — Overland Immigration Under Mexican Rule — 
The First Train— Dr. Marsh's Meanness — The Fate of the Donner Party. 

J* <5* t^* 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Mexican L.^wvs and American Officials : 150 

Richard A. Mason, Commander of the Military Forces and Civil Governor of California- 
Civil and Military Laws^— The First Trial by Jury — Americanizing the People — Perverse 
Electors and Contumacious Councilmen — Absolute Alcaldes — Nash at Sonoma and Bill 
Blackburn at Santa Cruz — Queer Decisions — El Cation Pcrdidc of Santa Barbara — Ex- 
Governor Pio Pico Returns — Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo — Peace Proclaimed — The 
News Reaches California — Country Acquired by the Treaty — The Volunteers Mustered 



Out. 






CHAPTER XXIII. 
Gold! Gold! Gold! I55 

Traditions of Early Gold Discoveries in California — The First Authenticated Discovery — 
Marshall's Discovery at Colomas — Disputed Dates and Conflicting Stories About the 
Discovery — Sutter's Account — James VV. Marshall — His Story — The News Travels Slowly — 
First Newspaper Report — The Rush Begins — San Francisco Deserted — The Star and the 
Californian Suspend Publication — The News Spreads— Sonorian Migration — Oregonians 
Come — The News Reaches the States — A Tea Caddy Full of Gold at the War Office, 
Washington — Seeing Is Believing — Gold Hunters Come by Land and Sea — The Pacific 
Mail Steamship Company — Magical Growth of San Francisco — The Dry Diggings — Some 
Remarkable Yields — Forty Dollars for a Butcher Knife — Extent of the Gold Fields. 

<5* t3* «5* 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Making a St.\te 162 

Bennett Riley, Governor — Unsatisfactory Form of Government — Semi-Civil and Semi-Mil- 
itary — Congress Does Nothing — The Slave-Holding Faction Prevents Action — Growing 
Dissatisfaction — Call for Convention — Constitution Making — The Great Seal- Election of 
State Officers-^Peter H. Burnett, Governor — Inauguration of a State Government — The 
"■ First Legislature — A Self-Constituted State — The Pro-Slavery Faction in Congress — Op- 

pose the Admission of California — Defeat of the Obstructionists — California Admitted into 
the Union — Great Rejoicing — A Magnificent Procession — California Full Grown at Birth — 
The Capital Question — San Jose Loses the Capital — Vallejo Wins — Goes to Sacramento — 
Comes to Benicia — Capital Question in the Courts — Sacramento Wins — Capitol Building 
Begun in i860 — Completed in 1869. 



CONTEXTS. 25 

CHAPTER XXV. 

PAGE 

The Argonauts. i6q 

Wlio First Called Them .Argonaiils — How Tliey Came and From Where They Came— 
Extent of the Gold Fields— Mining Appliances— Bateas, Gold Pans. Rockers, Long Toms, 
Sluices— Useless Machines and Worthless Inventions — Some Famous Gold Rushes— Gold 
Lake — Gold Bluffs — Kern River— F'razer River — Washoe — Ho for Idaho! — Social Level- 
ing — Capacity for Physical Labor the Standard— Independency and Honesty of the Argo- 
nauts. 

t^» *2^ ^5* 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

S.\N Franci.'^co 175 

The First House — A Famous Fourth of July Celebration — The Enterprise of Jacob P. Leese 
— General Kearny's Decree for the Sale of Water Lots — .Alcalde Bartlett Changes the 
Name of the Town from Verba Buena to San Francisco — Hostility of the Star to the 
Change — Great Sale of Lots in the City of Francisca, now Benicia — Its Boom Bursts — 
Population of San Francisco Septeinber 4, 1847 — Vocations of Its Inhabitants — Population 
March. 1848 — Vioget's Survey— O'Earrell's Survey — Wharves— The First School House— 
The Gold Discovery Depopulates the City — Reaction — Rapid Growth — Description of the 
City in April, 1850 — Great Increase in Population — How the People Lived and Labored — 
Enormous Rents— High Priced Real Estate— .Vwful Streets — Flour Sacks. Cooking Stove 
and Tobacco Box Sidewalk — Ships for Houses — The Six Great Fires — The Boom of 1853 — 
The Burst of 1855 — Harry Meigs— Steady Growth of the City. 

Vr^ t^* W^ 

CHAPTER XXVH. 
Crime, Criminals and Vigilance Committees 182 

But Little Crime in California Under Spanish and Mexican Rule — The First Vigilance 
Committee of California — The United Defenders of Public Safety — Execution of Alispaz 
and Maria del Rosario Villa — .Advent of the Criminal Element — Criminal Element in the 
Ascendency — Incendiarism, Theft and Murder — The San Francisco Vigilance Committee 
of 1851 — Hanging of Jenkins — .\ Case of Mistaken Identity — Burdue for Stuart — .Arrest, 
Trial and Hanging of Stuart — Hanging of Whittaker and McKenzie — The Committee 
.Adjourns but Does Not Disband — Its Work .'\pproved — Corrupt Officials — James King 
bf William Attacks Political Corruption in the Bulletin — Richardson killed by Cora — 
Scathing Editorials — Murders and Thefts — Attempts to Silence King — King Exposes 
James P. Casey's State's Prison Record — Cowardly Assassination of King by Casey — 
Organization of the Vigilance Committee of 1856 — Fatal Mistake of the Herald — Casey 
and Cora in the Hands of the Cominittec — Death of King — Hanging of Casey and Cora — 
Other Executions — Law and Order Party — Terry and His Chivalrous Friends — They Are 
Glad to Subside — Black List and Deportations — The .Augean Stable Cleaned — The Com- 
mittee's Grand Parade — Vigilance Committees in Los Angeles — Joaquin Murrieta and His 
Banditti — Tiburcio Vasquez and His Gang. 

V'' *^r^ t^r^ 

CHAPTER XXVni. 

FlLIKlSTERS A.ND FILIBUSTERING I93 

The Origin of Filibustering in California — Raoussct-Boulbon's Futile Schemes — His Ex- 
ecution — William Walker — His Career as a Doctor. Lawyer and Journalist — Recruits Fili- 
busters — Lands at La Paz — His Infamous Conduct in Lower California — Failure of His 



26 CONTENTS. 

PAG", 

Scheme— A Farcical Trial — Lionized in San Francisco— His Operations in Nicaragua- 
Battles— Decrees Slavery in Nicaragua— Driven Out of Nicaragua— Tries Again— Is Cap- 
tured and Shot— Crabb and His Unfortunate Expedition— Massacre of the Misguided 
Adventurers — Filibustering Ends When Secession Begins. 

(5* t5* f^* 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
From Gold to Grain axd Fruits 199 

Mexican Farming — But Little Fruit and Few Vegetables — Crude Farming Implements — 
The Agricultural Capabilities of California Underestimated — Wheat the Staple in Central 
California — Cattle in the South — Gold in the North — Big Profits in Grapes — Orange Culture 
Begun in the South — Apples, Peaches, Pears and Plums — The Sheep Industry — The Famine 
Years of 1863 and 1864 Bring Disaster to the Cattle Kings of the South — The Doom of 
Their Dynasty — Improvement of Domestic Animals — Exit the Mustang — Agricultural Col- 
onies. 

tS^ <^* *i5* 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Civil War — Loyaltv and Disloyalty 204 

State Division and What Became of It — Broderick's Early Life — Arrival in California — 
Enters the Political Arena — Gwin and Broderick — Duel Between Terry and Broderick — 
Death of Broderick — Gwin-Latham Combination — Firing on Fort Sumter — State Loyal — 
Treasonable Utterance — A Pacific Republic — Disloyalty Rampant in Southern California — 
Union Sentiments Triumphant — Confederate Sympathizers Silenced. 

«3* «3* <^ 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
Trade, Travel and Transportation 21 1 

Spanish Trade — Fixed Prices — No Cornering the Market— Mexico's Methods of Trade — 
I The Hide Droghers — Trade — Ocean Commerce and Travel — Overland Routes — Overland 
Stage Routes — Inland Commerce — The Pony Express — Stage Lines — Pack Trains — Camel 
Caravans — The Telegraph and the Railroad — Express Companies. 

t?* «5* ti5* 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
Railroads 218 

Early Agitation of the Pacific Railroad Scheme — The Pacific Railroad in Politics — Northern 
Routes and Southern Routes — First Railroad in California — Pacific Railroad Bills in Con- 
gress — A Decade of Agitation and No Road — The Central and Union Pacific Railroads — 
Act of i862^Subsidies — The Southern Pacific Railroad System — Its Incorporation and 
Charter — Its Growth and Development — The Santa Fe System — Other Railroads. 



CONTENTS. 27 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

PAGE 

The Indian Question 22- 

Treatment of *he Indians by Spain and Mexico — A Conquista— Unsanitary Condition of the 
Mission Villages— The .Mission Neophyte and What Became of Him— Wanton Oi-.trages on 
the Savages — Some So-Calied Indian Wars — Extermination of the Aborigines— Indian 
Island Massacre— The Mountaineer Battahon— The Two Years' War— The Modoc War. 

[(5* i!* ^5* 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Some Political History 229 

Advent of the Chinese— Kindly Received at First— Given a Public Reception— The "China 
Boys" Become Too Many— Agitation and Legislation Against Them— Dennis Kearney 
and the Sand Lot Agitation— Kearney's Slogan, "The Chinese Must Go"— How Kearney 
Went — The New Constitution— A Mixed Convention — Opposition to the Constitution — 
The Constitution Adopted- Defeat of the Workingmen's Party— A New Treaty with 
China— Governors of California, Spanish, Mexican and American. 

*5* t.3* (5* 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Education and Educ.\tional Institution 235 

Public Schools in the Spanish Era — Schools of the Mexican Period — No Schools for the 
Neophytes — Early .American Schools — First School House in San Francisco — The First 
American Teacher — The First School Law — A Grand School System — University of the 
Pacific — College of California — University of California — Stanford University — Normal 
Schools. 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 
Cities of Calikorxi.v — Their Origin and Growth 242 

The Spaniards and Mexicans Not Town Builders— Francisca. on the Straits of Cariiuincz, 
the First American City — Its Brilliant Prospects and Dismal Failure — San Francisco — It, 
Population and Expansion— Los Angeles, the Only City in Calilornia Before the Conquest 
—Population and Development- Oakland, an American City— Population- Sacramento, 
the Metropolis of the Mines— San Jose, the Garden City— Stockton, the Entrepot of the 
Southern Mines — San Diego, the Oldest City— Fresno — Vallejo— Nevada Citv— Grass Val- 
ley—Eureka — Marysville — Redding— Pasadena — Pomona— San Bernardino— Riverside. 



INDKX. 



A 

Agee, William £ 350 

Alexander. Jules 325 

Alexander, Samuel 629 

Arms, William 373 

Arnold, Alexander T 323 

Austin, James T 445 

B 

Bacher, Antone 714 

Bagin, Frederick E 744 

Bailey, George B 666 

Bailey, Justus R 537 

Bangham, Eber G 357 

Bangham, Frank H 380 

Barham, Charles 443 

Barham. Thomas L 402 

Barham, Thomas M 459 

Barry, John T 374 

Barry, Norman J 440 

Bass, John E 357 

Bass, Richard D 633 

Bass, Roland 776 

Bass, Stephen S 748 

Bates, Jared 768 

Battelle, Thornton F 751 

Batterson, George 581 

Baty, David 638 

Beatie, Daniel 573 

Bennett, George W 764 

Bergeret, Joseph A 620 

Berry, David C 314 

Bigelow, Orson 410 

Bittner, Jacob 301 

Boggs. Jackson R 474 

Bonner, John H 269 

Borrette, John S 420 

Boucher, Thomas E 389 

Boyle, John 332 

Branham, James 289 

Bringham, Marion C 619 

Bringham, William C 616 

Broadwell, Jacob W 628 

Brock, Isaac N 698 

Brockman, William 349 

Brown, E. C. 403 

Bunnell. T-ucius A 742 

Burnham, William T 779 



Bursham. William T 779 

Burroughs, Harry D 530 

Bush, Frederick E 500 

c 

Cady, Frank P 326 

Cady, Stoel 641 

Cahlan, John 352 

Cain, William M 431 

Campbell, Francis H 705 

Carter, Josiah S., M. D 726 

Chandler, Benjamin F 401 

Chapman, Chester W 302 

Christie Brothers 578 

Church, Isaac S 655 

Churchill, Jerome 755 

Clark, Charles B 460 

Clark, Richard B 375 

Clark, William H 485 

Clarken, Hon. Richard M 568 

Clayburg, Andrew T 496 

Clinch, William 738 

Clough. Fred I\[ 691 

Coates. Gaines L., M. D 270 

Coates, Winston D., M. D 356 

Collins, William S 282 

Compton, Henry C 688 

Conklin, Joseph G 413 

Cooper. James A 515 

Cornelison, Wiley 703 

Cornell, John H 502 

Cottingham. James W 713 

Cottingham, William M 499 

Counter, George 735 

Cressler, William T 722 

Crumbaugh. Peter C 569 

D 

Dakin, Clarence E 755 

Dakin, Hiram H 361 

Davis, Col. Walter S 293 

Decious, Joseph W 657 

DeForest. Alvin E 319 

DeForest, Gilbert E 362 

Denehy, Dennis S 743 

Denten, James W 427 

Dersch, Fred 693 

Dewitt, Walter B 734 



Dooley, Robert M 493 

Dorsch, Henry G 587 

Dotta, Lodovico 775 

Dow, William 381 

Dozier, Leonard F 690 

Droege, Mrs. Margaret A 770 

Dunn, John R 379 

Dyson, Joseph 600 

E 

Ede, Abraham 451 

Ede, Stephen R 592 

Ede, Walter 542 

Edwards, James E 606 

Edwards. William J 265 

Elledge, Adam D 509 

Elledge, F. M. & N. B 762 

Elledge, James H 320 

Ellingson, John 466 

Emerson, Charles E 776 

Enhoming. Olof H 745 

Enscoe, Joseph R 747 

Estes, Clarence A 661 

F 

Fee, James 714 

Finlayson, Donald R 609 

Fletcher, Joseph H 769 

Floumoy, H. C 771 

Flournoy. Robert S 656 

Forbes, Col. Edwin A 559 

Forgay, Nathaniel B 513 

Forkner, Jacob A 760 

Fraser, Daniel 574 

Frazier, Samuel L 556 

Freeman, Joel E 547 

Frisbie. Edward 561 

Fuller, William H. H.. 651 

G 

Gallup, William R 572 

Gerig, William 437 

Gianella. Vincenzo 388 

Gibson, Benjamin F 533 

Gibson, William G 557 

Giles, George E 691 

Glide, Joseph H 393 



ii INDEX. 

Gooch, Charles J 615 Johnston. David 330 McKenzie, John 723 

Goodwin, Hon. John D 259 Johnston, Robert yjd McKinsey, Noble S '.'275 

Gorham, John M 426 Johnstone, Thomas H 665 McKissick, John B ^^510 

Goumaz, Philip J 541 Jones, Benjamin L 407 McKune, Hon. J. H 386 

Grace, Rev. Thomas 559 Jones, David T 610 McLaughlin, Hon. C. E 295 

Gray, Hon. John C 394 Jones, Isaac N 438 McMurphy, Hyman H 623 

Gray, Samuel 387 Jordan. Ernest A 741 McQueen, Charles W 472 

Green, Abbott M 717 Mackay, William M ! . /. ^ ^ ^386 

Green, William 506 K Marcus, John W 746 

Greeno, George W 629 Neddie. Arthur W 772 M^'"''"' Arthur F ! ■..■.' .'707 

n^T\ u 'x. ^f K^ll'^y- Hon. Frank A 345 -^'^■■""' Edward A 307 

C"'"' J°hn H 566 j^^„^y^ ^^^^^^ p ^^^ Mathews, William B 558 

Kellogg, Elijah 458 ^'ayfield, Campbell S 296 

Kellogg, Hon. William W 279 Mayfield, William H 727 

Hail, Hon. Felix G 274 Kenyon, Lewis 586 Megown, James -j-jt, 

Hall. Andrew 644 King. Fred 652 Meyer, Frederick 662 

Hall, Fred D 502 Kistler, Capt. A. C 273 Miliar, James J 410 

Hall, William H 415 Knoch, David 732 Miller. Andrew -j-jt, 

Hall, Wright P 339 Knott, William 534 Mooney, Hugh 688 

Hallsted, Asa D 716 Knudson, Lewis 614 M"'roney, Thomas J 551 

Hamilton. Benjamin 634 Knuthson, Jacob 637 Murray. John R 425 

Hamlen. Edmund H 308 Kruger. Frank 367 Myers. George F 434 

Hansen, Frank A 460 Myers, Lewis .A 419 

Hanvey, Charles B. H., M. D 699 L 

Hardgrave, John 495 Lassen. Peter 780 N 

Hartson, Charles 369 Lauer, Ematiuel 404 Nesemati, Henry 538 

Hastmgs Isaac J 51S Lavery, William A., M. D 318 Neuhaus, Bernhard 730 

Hawes, Wdham 694 Lawrence, Charles H 619 Newman. David D 588 

Hawkms, D. Z. ^ 383 Leavitt. Benjamin H 465 Nichols, Albert S 486 

Hawkms^ John H 363 Lee. Clark J 681 Nichols, Herbert 444 

Heard, Peter K 684 Lewis, Hiram 287 Niles J Eugene w 

Herrmg, George H 749 Lewis. William S 524 Nye Israel K 770 

Hill. Darnel E 630 Lombardi. Pompeo J 744 

Hines, Fred 317 Long, John T 757 --^ 

Holmes, Abraham D 414 Longwill. Robert H 758 

Holmes, John P 548 Lothrop, Sullivan 602 O'Brien, James 563 

Horton, Lewis E 669 Lott, Hon. Charles F. 396 Odbert, William A 736 

Hosselkus. Edwin D 555 Lowrey. George M 564 Odette. Charles, Sr 324 

Hosselkus, John W 778 Ludwig. Wilhelm 573 Odette, Frank 370 

Hostetter, Mrs. Kate 682 Olsen. Peter 739 

Housman, Lord 596 y^ Otto, Anthony 478 

Hovt. Robert C 557 

Hiilsman, John F 452 McBeth, Horace P 311 p 

Hunsinger. Augustus C 766 McChesney, Joseph. M. D 676 

Hunt Daniel G 69S McClellan. Hiram E 601 Packwood. Warren D 548 

Huntley, Alonzo B ..^'..-71% ^^IcClelland. William 329 Pasetta, William F 712 

Hurley, Mrs. Mary E 407 McCluer, Thomas 750 Patterson, David B 454 

Huskinson, Edward 720 McCoy, Alexander M 391 Pauly, Julius E 72S 

McCoy, Leo L 390 Pearce, James H Soo 

.J. McCutcheon, Hugh 729 Peck, Frank F 439 

McDermott, James L 595 Peck, Joseph S 719 

Jacks, Elias B 754 McElroy. John 759 Peck, William D SiP 

Jacks, Richard M 709 McGill, Robert L 523 Peck, William O SIQ 

Jellison, John E 742 Mclntyre, Duncan 680 Perkins, John R 364 

Jensen, Jorgen 67s McKay. Frank B 731 Perry, Charles 767 

Johnson. Burwell 605 McKea. John 696 Peter. Louis N 771 

Johnson. Otis N 700 McKee. James A 385 Peter. William T 724 

Johnson, William 712 McKenzie, Donald W 718 Peters, Claus 501 



INDEX. 



in 



Peterson, Hans 743 

Phelps, Edwin E 706 

Philbrook, Alonzo K 401 

Porter, Charles E 396 

Potter, John J 734 

Pullen, Granville 577 

R 

Raker, David 552 

Raker, William F 467 

Ramelli, Emilio 355 

Ramsay. Thomas H 697 

Ramsey, Thomas A 346 

Randrup, Jacob 748 

Reed, Capt. E. G 571 

Rees, ^^'illiam E 488 

Reid, John E S7o 

Rhodes, John M 306 

Rice, George F. H 494 

Richards. William M 662 

Richmond, Hiram H 261 

Rinehart, Adam E 756 

Robertson, Duncan 728 

Robinson, Henry H 363 

Roop, Hon. Isaac N 33s 

Roseberry, Hon. Thomas A 473 

Rosecrans. Lum 658 

Russell, David 613 

S 

Schieser, Joseph 753 

Schneider. Bernard 71S 

Schofield, Prof. Frank C 336 

Scholl. William W 280 

Schroeder. Mrs. Margaret A 520 

Schroter, Grant A 685 

Sharp, James P .'...368 

Shepard, Irvin 443 

Short, John M 708 

Snyder, Henry 432 

Sorenson, Hans 672 

Spalding. John B 344 

Spalding, Zetus N., M. D 343 

Spann, Sarah E 687 



Spencer, Hon. Ephraim V 528 

Sperry, William A 422 

Spooncr, John F 716 

Stanley, Ran.som H 266 

Stark, John W 627 

Stevens, Warren C 567 

Stewart, Isaac M 471 

Stewart, Robert 762 

Stiles, Lyman C 711 

Stover, Reuben H 670 

Stover, Thaddeus S 721 

Strang, Jared 312 

Sugru. Michael 647 

Sweeney, J. D 384 

Sweetset, Arthur 398 

T 

Talbott, Basil H 763 

Taylor, Alfred H 416 

Taylor, Stillman S 752 

Thatcher, Ezekiel T 383 

Theodore. John 733 

Thibault, Louis 428 

Thielbar, Henry 652 

Thompson, George 533 

Thompson, John W 288 

Thompson, Richard 642 

Thorne, William D 543 

Titherington, Isaac A 760 

Todd, Theodore C. 700 

Tomb, George L 505 

Toney, James P 544 

Toomy, John S 591 

Totton. John G 487 

Tregaskis, Josiah W 468 

Trimble, Alien 477 

Trimble, James H 481 

Trowbridge, Eli S S92 

Troxel, William H 737 

Tucker, John 623 

Turner, George C 301 

Tyler, Jeremiah 453 

V 
Van Liew, Charles C 696 



Vilas, Marcellus B 686 

Vogt, Peter H 779 

Von Gerichtcn. G. P.. M. D 313 

W 

Walker, John M 585 

Watson, Milton 582 

Watson, William 704 

Way, Arad 446 

Wayman, Benjamin M 514 * 

Webster, James W 482 

Welsh, P. R 765 

Wemple, Jay C 630 

Wemple, John B 467 

Wemple, Joseph C 527 

Wemple, N. V 474 

Wemple, Orlo E 482 

Werner, John C 731 

White, Asher B 723 

Whitney. Alvin W 710 

Wiencke, Hans H 725 

Wilcox, Grant B 689 

Wiicox, Sardis D 685 

Wilcox. William S 692 

Wilkerson, .Xndrcw J 679 

Williams, Joseph B 340 

Williamson. Mellen 705 

Wilson, Ezra M 529 

Wilson, L. S 775 

Wilson, Thomas W 351 

Winchester. Elliot 648 

Winchester, Lorenzo E 683 

Winslow, Asa C 516 

Wood, Denis 766 

Woodstock, Loyal 599 

Woodward, George 643 

Wright, Albert S 738 

Wright, George W 421 

Wylie, James 578 

Y 

Young, John C 754 

Young, Plumas A 5,38 

Young, Robert W 671 





, ^iAA/l^^^'^^ 



CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



SPANISH EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES. 



POR centuries there had been a vague tra- 
dition of a land lying somewhere in the 
seeming]}- limitless expanse of ocean 
stretching westward from the shores of Europe. 
The poetical fancy of the Greeks had located in 
it the Garden of Hesperides, where grew the 
Golden Apples. The myths and superstitions of 
the middle ages had peopled it with gorgons 
and demons and made it the abode of lost souls. 
When Columbus proved the existence of a 
new world beyond the Atlantic, his discovery 
did not altogether dispel the mysteries and su- 
perstitions that for ages had enshrouded the 
fabled Atlantis, the lost continent of the Hesperi- 
des. Romance and credulity had much to do 
with hastening the exploration of the newly dis- 
covered western world. Its interior might hold 
wonderful possibilities for wealth, fame and con- 
quest to the adventurers who should penetrate 
its dark unknown. The dimly told traditions of 
the natives were translated to fit the cupidity or 
the credulity of adventurers, and sometimes 
served to promote enterprises that produced re- 
sults far different from those originally intended. 
The fabled fountain of youth lured Ponce 
de Leon over many a league in the wilds of 
Florida; and although he found no spring spout- 
ing forth the elixir of life, he explored a rich 
and fertile country, in which the Spaniards 
planted the first settlement ever made w'ithin the 
territory now held by the United States. The 
legend of El Dorado, the gilded man of the 
golden lake, stimulated adventurers to brave the 
horrors of the miasmatic forests of the Amazon 
and the Orinoco; and the search for that gold- 



covered hombre hastened, perhaps, by a hun- 
dred years, the exploration of the tropical re- 
gions of South America. Although the myth of 
Quivira that sent Coronado wandering over des- 
ert, mountain and plain, far into the interior of 
Xorth America, and his quest for the seven cities 
of Cibola, that a romancing monk^ Marcos de 
Xiza, "led by the Holy Ghost," imagined he 
saw in the wilds of Pimeria, brought neither 
wealth nor pride of conquest to that adventur- 
ous explorer, yet these myths were the indirect 
cause of giving to the world an early knowledge 
of the vast regions to the north of Mexico. 

When Cortes' lieutenant, Gonzalo de Sando- 
val, gave his superior officer an account of a 
wonderful island ten days westward from the 
Pacific coast of Mexico, inhabited by women 
only, and exceedingly rich in pearls and gold, 
although he no doubt derived his story from 
Montalvo's romance, "The Sergias of Esplan- 
dian," a popular novel of that day, yet Cortes 
seems to have given credence to his subordi- 
nate's tale, and kept in view the conquest of the 
island. 

To the energy, the enterprise and the genius 
of Hernan Cortes is due the early exploration 
of the northwest coast of North America. In 
1522, eighty-five years before the English 
planted their first colony in America, and nearly 
a century before the landing of the Pilgrims on 
Plymouth rock, Cortes had established a ship- 
yard at Zacatula, the most northern port on the 
Pacific coast of the country that he had just 
conquered. Here he intended to build ships to 
explore the upper coast of the South Sea Cas 



u 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the Pacific Ocean was then called), but his good 
fortune, that had hitherto given success to his 
undertakings, seemed to liave deserted him, and 
disaster followed disaster. His warehouse, 
filled with material for shipbuilding, that with 
great labor and expense had been packed on 
muleback from Vera Cruz, took fire and all was 
destroyed. It required years to accumulate an- 
other supply. He finally, in 1527, succeeded in 
launching four ships. Three of these were taken 
possession of by the king's orders for service in 
the East Indies. The fourth and the smallest 
made a short voyage up the coast. The com- 
mander, Maldonado, returned with glowing re- 
ports of a rich country he had discovered. He 
imagined he had seen evidence of the existence 
of gold and silver, but he brought none with 
him. 

In 1528 Cortes was unjustly deprived of the 
government of the country he had conquered. 
His successor, Nuno de Guzman, president of 
the royal audiencia, as the new form of gov- 
ernment for New Spain (Mexico) was called, had 
pursued him for years with the malignity of a 
demon. Cortes returned to Spain to defend 
fiimself against the rancorous and malignant 
charges of his enemies. He was received at 
court with a show of high honors, but which in 
reality were hollow professions of friendship 
and insincere expressions of esteem. He was 
rewarded by the bestowal of an empty title. He 
was empowered to conquer and colonize coun- 
tries at his own expense, for which he was to 
receive the twelfth part of the revenue. Cortes 
returned to Mexico and in 1532 he had two ships 
fitted out, which sailed from Acapulco, in June 
of that year, up the coast of Jalisco. Portions 
of the crews of each vessel mutinied. The mu- 
tineers were put aboard of the vessel com- 
manded by Mazuela and the other vessels, com- 
manded by Hurtardo, continued the voyage as 
far as the Yaqui country. Here, having landed 
in search of provisions, the natives massacred 
the commander and all the crew. The crew of 
the other vessel shared the same fate lower 
down the coast. The stranded vessel was after- 
wards plundered and dismantled by Nuno de 
Guzman, who was about as much of a savage as 
the predatory and murderous natives. 



In 1533 Cortes, undismayed by his disasters, 
fitted out two more ships for the exploration 
of the northern coast of Mexico. On board one 
of these ships, commanded by Bercerra de Men- 
doza, the crew, headed by the chief pilot, Jim- 
inez, mutinied. Mendoza was killed and all 
who would not join the mutineers were forced 
to go ashore on the coast of Jalisco. The muti- 
neers, to escape punishment by the authorities, 
under the command of the pilot, Fortuno Jim- 
inez, sailed westerly away from the coast of 
the main land. After several days" sailing out 
of sight of land, they discovered what they sup- 
posed to be an island. They landed at a place 
now known as La Paz, Lower California. Here 
Jiminez and twenty of his confederates were 
killed by the Indians, or their fellow mutineers, 
it is uncertain which. The survivors of the ill- 
fated expedition managed to navigate the vessel 
back to Jalisco, where they reported the dis- 
covery of an island rich in gold and pearls. This 
fabrication doubtlessly saved their necks. There 
is no record of their punishment for mutiny. 
Cortes' other ship accomplished even less than 
the one captured by the mutineers. Grixalvo, 
the commander of this vessel, discovered a des- 
olate island, forty leagues south of Cape San 
Lucas, which he named Santo Tomas. But the 
discovery that should immortalize Grixalvo, and 
place him in the category with the romancing 
Monk, de Niza and Sandoval of the Amazonian 
isle, was the seeing of a merman. It swam about 
about the ship for a long time, playing antics 
like a monkey for the amusement of the sailors, 
washing its face with its hands, combing its hair 
with its fingers; at last, frightened by a sea 
bird, it disappeared. 

Cortes, having heard of Jiminez's discover)', 
and possibly believing it to be Sandoval's isle 
of the Amazons, rich with gold and pearls, set 
about building more ships for exploration and 
for the colonization of the island. He ordered 
the building of three ships at Tehauntepec. The 
royal audencia having failed to give him any 
redress or protection against his enemy, Nuno 
de Guzman, he determined to punish him him- 
self. Collecting a considerable force of cava- 
liers and soldiers, he marched to Chiametla. 
There he found his vessel. La Concepcion, lying 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRArHICAL RECORD. 



33 



on her beam ends, a wreck, and ])lundered of 
everything of vakie. He failed to tind Guzman, 
tliat worthy having taken a hasty departure be- 
fore his arrival His shijxs having come up 
from Tehauntepec, he embarked as many sol- 
diers and settlers as his vessels would carry, and 
sailed away for Jiminez's island. May 3, 1535, 
he landed at the port where Jiminez and his fel- 
low mutineers were killed, which he named 
Santa Cruz. The colonists were landed on the 
supposed island and the ships were sent back 
to Chiametla for the remainder of the settlers. 
His usual ill luck followed him. The vessels 
became separated on the gulf in a storm and 
the smaller of the three returned to Santa Cruz. 
Embarking in it, Cortes set sail to find his miss- 
ing ships. He found them at the port of Guaya- 
bal, one loaded with provisions, the other dis- 
mantled and run ashore. Its sailors had de- 
serted and those of the other ship were about 
to follow. Cortes stopped this, took command 
of the vessels and had them repaired. When the 
repairs were completed he set sail for his colony. 
But misfortune followed him. His chief pilot 
was killed by the falling of a spar when scarce 
out of sight of land. Cortes took command of 
the vessels himself. Then the ships encountered 
a terrific storm that threatened their destruc- 
tion. Finally they reached their destination, 
Santa Cruz. There again misfortune awaited 
him. The colonists could obtain no sustenance 
from the barren soil of the desolate island. 
Their provisions exhausted, some of them died 
of starvation and the others killed themselves 
by" over-eating when relief came. 

Cortes, finding the interior of the supposed 
island as desolate and forbidding as the coast, 
and the native inhabitants degraded and brutal 
savages, without houses or clothing, living on 
vermin, insects and the scant products of the 
sterile land, determined to abandon his coloniza- 
tion scheme. Gathering together the wretched 
survivors of his colony, he embarked them on 
his ships and in the early part of 1537 landed 
them in the port of Acapulco. 

At some time between 1535 and 1537 the 
name California was applied to the supposed 
island, but whether applied by Cortes to en- 
courage his disappointed colonists, or whether 



given by them in derision, is an unsettled ques- 
tion. The name itself is derived from a Spanish 
romance, the "Sergas de Esplandian," written 
by Ordonez de Montalvo and published in Se- 
ville, Spain, about the year 1510. The passage 
in which the name California occurs is as fol- 
lows: "Know that on the right hand of the In- 
dies there is an island called California, very near 
the terrestrial paradise, which was peopled with 
black women, without any men among them, 
because they were accustomed to live after the 
fashion of Amazons. They were of strong and 
hardened bodies, of ardent courage and great 
force. The island was the strongest in the 
world from its steep rocks and great cliffs. 
Their arms were all of gold and so were the 
caparison of the wild beasts which they rode, 
after having trained them, for in all the island 
there is no other metal." The "steep rocks and 
great cliffs" of Jiminez's island may have sug- 
gested to Cortes or to his colonists some fan- 
cied resemblance to the California of Montalvo's 
romance, but there was no other similarity. 

For years Cortes had been fitting out ex- 
peditions by land and sea to explore the un- 
known regions northward of that portion of 
Mexico which he had conquered, but disaster 
after disaster had wrecked his hopes and im- 
poverished his purse. The last expedition sent 
out by him was one commanded by Francisco 
Ulloa, who, in 1539, with two ships, sailed up 
the Gulf of California, or Sea of Cortes, on the 
Sonora side, to its head. Thence he proceeded 
down the inner coast of Lower California to 
the cape at its southern extremity, which he 
doubled, and then sailed up the outer coast to 
Cabo del Engano, the "Cape of Deceit." Fail- 
ing to make any progress against the head 
winds, April 5, 1540, the two ships parted com- 
pany in a storm. The smaller one, the Santa 
Agueda, returned safely to Santiago. The 
larger, La Trinidad, after vainly endeavoring to 
continue the voyage, turned back. The fate of 
L'lloa and of the vessel too, is uncertain. One 
authority says he w^as assassinated after reach- 
ing the coast of Jalisco by one of his soldiers, 
who, for some trivial cause, stabbed him to 
death; another account says that nothing is 
known of his fate, nor is it certainly known 



36 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



whether his vessel ever returned. The only 
thing accomplished by this voyage was to dem- 
onstrate that Lower California was a peninsula. 
Even this fact, although proved by Ulloa's voy- 
age, was not fully admitted by geographers until 
two centuries later. 

In 1540 Cortes returned to Spain to obtain, if 
possible, some recognition and recompense from 
the king for his valuable services. His declin- 
ing years had been filled with bitter disappoint- 
ments. Shipwreck and mutiny at sea; disaster 
and defeat to his forces on land; the treachery 
of his subordinates and the jealousy of royal of- 
ficials continually thwarted his plans and wasted 
his substance. After expending nearly a million 
dollars in explorations, conquests and attempts 
at colonization, fretted and worried by the in- 
difference and the ingratitude of a monarch for 
whom he had sacrified so much, disappointed, 
disheartened, impoverished, he died at an ob- 
scure hamlet near Seville, Spain, in December, 

1547- 

The next exploration that had something to 
do with the discovery of California was that of 
Hernando de Alarcon. With two ships he sailed 
from Acapulco, May g, 1540, up the Gulf of Cal- 
ifornia. His object was to co-operate with the 
expedition of Coronado. Coronado, with an 
army of four hundred men, had marched from 
Culiacan, April 22, 1540, to conquer the seven 
cities of Cibola. In the early part of 1537 Al- 
varo Nunez Cabaza de Vaca and three compan- 
ions (the only survivors of six hundred men that 
Panfilo de Narvaes, ten years before, had landed 
in Florida for the conquest of that province) 
after almost incredible sufferings and hardships 
arrived in Culiacan on the Pacific coast. On 
their long journey passing from one Indian tribe 
to another they had seen many wondrous things 
and had heard of many more. Among others 
they had been told of seven great cities in a 
country called Cibola that were rich in gold and 
silver and precious stones. 

A Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza, having 
heard their wonderful stories determined to find 
the seven cities. Securing the service of 
Estevanico, a negro slave, who was one of Ca- 
beza de ^'aca's party, he set out in quest of the 
cities. With a number of Indian porters and 



Estevanico as a guide, he traveled northward 
a hundred leagues when he came to a desert 
that took four days to cross. Beyond this he 
found natives who told him of people four days 
further away who had gold in abundance. He 
sent the negro to investigate and that individual 
sent back word that Cibola was yet thirty days' 
journey to the northward. Following the trail 
of his guide, Niza travelled for two weeks cross- 
ing several deserts. The stories of the magnifi- 
cence of the seven cities increased with every 
tribe of Indians through whose country he 
passed. At length, when almost to the prom- 
ised land, a messenger brought the sad tidings 
that Estevanico had been put to death with all 
of his companions but two by the inhabitants of 
Cibola. To go forward meant death to the 
monk and all his party, but before turning back 
he climbed a high mountain and looked down 
upon the seven cities with their high houses and 
teeming populations thronging their streets. 
Then he returned to Culiacan to tell his wonder- 
ful stories. His tales fired the ambition and 
stimulated the avarice of a horde of adventurers. 
At the head of four hundred of these Coronado 
penetrated the wilds of Pimeria (now Arizona). 
He found seven Indian towns but no lofty 
houses, no great cities, no gold or silver. Cibola 
was a myth. Hearing of a country called Quivira 
far to the north, richer than Cibola, with part of 
his force he set out to find it. In his search he 
penetrated inland as far as the plains of Kansas, 
but Quivira proved to be as poor as Cibola, and 
Coronado returned disgusted. The Friar de 
Niza had evidently drawn on his imagination 
which seemed to be quite rich in cities. 

Alarcon reached the head of the Gulf of Cal- 
ifornia. Seeing what he supposed to be an in- 
let, but the water proving too shallow for his 
ships to enter it, he manned tw-o boats and 
found his supposed inlet to be the mouth of a 
great river. He named it Buena Guia (Good 
Guide) now the Colorado. He sailed up it some 
distance and was probably the first white man to 
set foot upon the soil of Upper California. He 
heard of Coronado in the interior but was unable 
to establish communication with him. He de- 
scended the river in his boats, embarked on his 
vessels and returned to Mexico. The Viceroy 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



37 



jSIendoza, who had fitted out the expedition of 
Alarcon, was bitterly disappointed on the re- 
turn of that explorer. He had hoped to find the 
ships loaded with the spoils of the seven cities. 



The report gf the discovery of a great river did 
not interest his sordid soul. Alarcon found him- 
self a disgraced man. He retired to private life 
and not long after died a broken hearted man. 



CHAPTER II. 



ALTA OR NUEVA CALIFORNIA. 



HILE Coronado was still wandering 



lAI in the interior of the continent search- 
ing for Quivira and its king, Tatar- 
rax, who wore a long beard, adored a gol- 
den cross and worshipped an image of the 
queen of heaven, Pedro de Alvarado, one of 
Cortes' former lieutenants, arrived from Guate- 
mala, of W'hich country he was governor, with a 
fleet of twelve ships. These were anchored in 
the harbor of Xavidad. Mendoza, the viceroy, 
had been intriguing with Alvarado against 
Cortes; obtaining an interest in the fleet, he 
and Alvarado began preparations for an ex- 
tensive scheme of exploration and conquest. Be- 
fore they had perfected their plans an insurrec- 
tion broke out among the Indians of Jalisco, and 
Pedro de Alvarado in attempting to quell it 
was killed. jMendoza fell heir to the fleet. The 
return of Coronado about this time dispelled the 
popular beliefs in Cibola and Quivira and put 
an end to further explorations of the inland re- 
gions of the northwest. 

It became necessary for Mendoza to find 
something for his fleet to do. The Islas de 
Poiniente, or Isles of the Setting Sun (now the 
Philippines), had been discovered by Magellan. 
To these Mendoza dispatched five ships of the 
fleet under command of Lopez de \'illalobos to 
establish trade with the natives. Two ships of 
the fleet, the San Salvador and the \"itoria, were 
placed under the command of Juan Rodriguez 
Cabrillo, reputed to he a Portuguese by birth and 
dispatched to explore the northwest coast of 
the Pacific. Cabrillo sailed from Xavidad, June 
27, 1542. Rounding the southern extremity of 
the peninsula of Lower California, he sailed up 
its outer coast, .\ugust 20 he reached Cabo del 
Engano, the most northerly point of Ulloa's ex- 
ploration. On the 28tli of September, 1542, he 



entered a bay which he named San Miguel (now 
San Diego), where he found "a land locked and 
very good harbor." He remained in this harbor 
until October 3. Continuing his voyage he sailed 
along the coast eighteen leagues, discovering 
two islands .about seven leagues from the main 
land. These he named San Salvador and Vitoria 
after his ships (now Santa Catalina and San 
Clemente). On the 8th of October he crossed 
the channel between the islands and main land 
and anchored in a bay which he named Bahia 
de los Fumos y Fuegos, the Bay of Smokes and 
l'"ires (now known as the Bay of San Pedro). 
Heavy clouds of smoke hung over the head- 
lands of the coast; and inland, fierce fires were 
raging. The Indians either through accident 
or design had set fire to the long dry grass that 
covered the plains at this season of the year. 

After sailing six leagues further up the coast 
he anchored in a large ensenada or bight, now 
the Bay of Santa Monica. It is uncertain 
whether he landed at either place. The next 
day he sailed eight leagues to an Indian town 
which he named the Pueblo de las Canoas (the 
town of Canoes). This town was located on or 
near the present site of San Buenaventura. 
Sailing northwestward he passed through the 
Santa Barbara Channel, discovering the islands 
of Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel. 
Continuing up the coast he passed a long nar- 
row point of land extending into the sea, which 
from its resemblance to a galley boat he named 
Cabo de la Galera, the Cape of the Galley (now^ 
called Point Concepcion). Baffled by head 
winds, the explorers slowly beat their way up 
the coast. On the 17th of November, they cast 
anchor in a large bay which they named Bahij: 
de los Pinos, the Bay of Pines (now the Bay 
of Monterey). Finding it impossible to land on 



38 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



account of the heavy sea Cabrillo continued his 
voyage northward. After reaching a point on 
the coast in 40 degrees north latitude, accord- 
ing to his reckoning, the increasing cold and 
the storms becoming more frequent, he turned 
back and ran down the coast to the island of 
San Miguel, which he reached November 23. 
Here he decided to winter. 

While on the island in October, he had broken 
his arm by a fall. Suffering from his broken 
arm he had continued in command. Exposure 
and unskilful surgery caused his death. He 
died January 3, 1543, and was buried on the 
island. His last resting place is supposed to 
be on the shore of Cuyler's harbor, on the 
island of San ]\Iiguel. No trace of his grave 
has ever been found. His companions named 
the island Juan Rodriguez, but he has been 
robbed of even this slight tribute to his mem- 
ory. It would be a slight token of regard if 
the state would name the island Cabrillo. Saint 
Miguel has been well remembered in California 
and could spare an island. 

Cabrillo on his death bed urged his successor 
in command, the pilot Bartolome Ferrolo, to 
continue the exploration. Ferrolo prosecuted 
the voyage of discovery with a courage and dar- 
ing equal to that of Cabrillo. About the middle 
of February he left the harbor where he had 
spent most of the winter and after having made 
a short voyage in search of more islands he 
sailed up the coast. February 28, he discovered 
a cape which he named Mendocino in honor of 
the viceroy, a name it still bears. Passing the 
cape he encountered a fierce storm w-hich drove 
him violently to the northeast, greatly endanger- 
ing his ships. On March 1st, the fog partially 
lifting, he discovered a cape which he named 
Blanco, in the southern part of what is now the 
state of Oregon. The weather continuing stormy 
and the cold increasing as he sailed northward, 
Ferrolo reluctantly turned back. Running" 
down the coast he reached the island of San 
Clemente. There in a storm the ships parted 
company and Ferrolo, after a search, gave up 
the Vitoria as lost. The ships, however, came 
together at Cerros island and from there, in 
sore distress for provisions, the explorers 
reached Navidad April 18, 1543. On the discov- 



eries made by Cabrillo and Ferrolo the Span- 
iards claimed the territory on the Pacific coast 
ui North America up to the forty-second degree 
of north latitude, a claim that they maintained 
for three hundred years. 

The next navigator who visited California was 
Francis Drake, an Englishman. He was not 
seeking new lands, but a way to escape the 
vengeance of the Spaniards. Francis Drake, 
the "Sea King of Devon," was one of the brav- 
est men that ever lived. Early in his maritime 
life he had suffered from the cruelty and injus- 
tice of the Spaniards. Throughout his subse- 
quent career, which reads more like romance 
than reality, he let no opportunity slip to pun- 
ish his old-time enemies. It mattered little to 
Drake whether his country was at peace or war 
with Spain ; he considered a Spanish ship or a 
Spanish town his legitimate prey. On one of 
his predatory expeditions he captured a Spanish 
town on the isthmus of Panama named El Nom- 
bre de Dios, The Name of God. Its holy name 
did not protect it from Drake's rapacity. While 
on the isthmus he obtained information of the 
Spanish settlements of the South Pacific and 
from a high point of land saw the South sea, as 
the Pacific ocean was then called. On his re- 
turn to England he announced his intention of 
fitting out a privateering expedition against the 
Spaniards of the South Pacific. Although Spain 
and England were at peace, he received encour- 
agement from the nobility, even Queen Eliza- 
beth herself secretly contributing a thousand 
crown towards the venture. 

Drake sailed out of Plymouth harbor, Eng- 
land, December 13, 1577, in command of a fleet 
of five small vessels, bound for the Pacific coast 
of South America. Some of his vessels were 
lost at sea and others turned back, until when 
he emerged from the Straits of Magellan he had 
but one left, the Pelican. He changed its name 
to the Golden Hind. It was a ship of only one 
hundred tons' burden. Sailing up the South 
Pacific coast, he spread terror and devastation 
among the Spanish settlements, robbing towns 
and capturing ships until, in the quaint language 
of a chronicler of the expedition, he "had loaded 
his vessel with a fabulous amount of fine wares 
of Asia, precious stones, church ornaments. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



39 



gold plate and so mooch silver as did ballas the 
Goulden Hinde." 

From one treasure ship, the Caca Fuego, he 
obtained thirteen chests of silver, eighty pounds 
weight of gold, twenty-six tons of uncoined sil- 
ver, two silver drinking vessels, precious stones 
and a quantity of jewels; the total value of his 
prize amounted to three hundred and sixty 
thousand pesos (dollars). Having spoiled the 
Spaniards of treasure amounting to "eight hun- 
dred sixty-six thousand pesos of silver * * * 
a hundred thousand pesos of gold * * * 
and other things of great worth, he thought it 
not good to return by the streight (Magellan) 
* * * least the Spaniards should there waite 
and attend for him in great numbers and 
strength, whose hands, he being left but one 
ship, he could not possibly escape." 

Surfeited with spoils and his ship loaded with 
plunder, it became necessary for him to find the 
shortest and safest route home. To return by 
the way he came was to invite certain destruc- 
tion to his ship and death to all on board. At 
an island ofT the coast of Nicaragua he over- 
hauled and refitted his ship. He determined to 
seek the Straits of Anian that were believed to 
connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Strik- 
ing boldly out on an unknown sea, he sailed 
more than a thousand leagues northward. En- 
countering contrary winds and the cold in- 
creasing as he advanced, he gave up his search 
for the mythical straits, and, turning, he ran 
down the northwest coast of North America to 
latitude 38°, where "hee found a harborrow for 
his ship." He anchored in it June 17, 1579. 
This "convenient and fit harborrow" is under 
the lee of Point Reyes and is now known as 
Sir Francis Drake's Bay. 

Fletcher, the chronicler of Drake's voyage, in 
his narrative, "The World Encompassed," says: 
"The 3rd day following, viz., the 21st, our ship 
having received a leake at sea was brought to 
anchor neerer the shoare that her goods being 
landed she might be repaired; but for that we 
were to prevent any danger that might chance 
against our safety our Generall first of all 
landed his men with necessary provision to build 
tents and make a fort for defense of ourselves 
and gocds; and that we might under the shel- 



ter of it with more safety (whatsoever should 
befall) end our business." 

The ship was drawn upon the beach, careened 
on its side, caulked and refitted. While the 
crew were repairing the ship the natives visited 
them in great numbers. From some of their ac- 
tions Drake inferred that they regarded himself 
and his men as gods. To disabuse them of this 
idea, Drake ordered his chaplain, Fletcher, to 
perform divine service according to the English 
Church Ritual and preach a sermon. The In- 
dians were greatly delighted with the psalm 
singing, but their opinion of Fletcher's sermon 
is not known. 

From certain ceremonial performance Drake 
imagined that the Indians were offering him the 
sovereignty of their land and themselves as sub- 
jects of the English crown. Drake gladly ac- 
cepted their proffered allegiance and formally 
took possession of the country in the name of 
the English sovereign, Queen Elizabeth. He 
named it New Albion, "for two causes: the one 
in respect of the white bankes and cliffes which 
ly towardes the sea; and the other because it 
might have some aflinitie with our own country 
in name which sometimes was so called." 

Having completed the repairs to his ship, 
Drake made ready to depart, but before leav- 
ing "Our Generall with his company made a 
journey up into the land. The inland we found 
to be farre different from the shoare ; a goodly 
country and fruitful soyle, stored with many 
blessings fit for the use of man; infinite was the 
company of very large and fat deere which 
there we saw by thousands as we supposed in a 
heard."* They saw great numbers of small bur- 
rowing animals, which they called conies, but 
which were probably ground squirrels. Before 
departing, Drake set up a monument to show 
that he had taken possession of the country. To a 
large post firmly set in the ground he nailed a 
brass plate on which was engraved the name of 
the English Queen, the date of his arrival and the 
statement that the king and people of the coun- 
try had voluntarily become vassals of the Eng- 
lish crown; a new sixpence was fastened to the 
plate to show the Queen's likeness. 



*World Encompassed. 



40 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



After a stay of thirty-six days, Drake took 
his departure, much to the regret of the Indians. 
He stopped at the Farahones islands for a short 
time to lay in a supply of seal meat; then he 
sailed for England by the way of the Cape of 
Good Hope. After encountering many perils, 
he arrived safely at Plymouth, the port from 
which he sailed nearly three years before, hav- 
ing "encompassed" or circumnavigated the 
globe. His exploits and the booty he brought 
back made him the most famous naval hero of 
his time. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth 
and accorded extraordinary honors by the na- 
tion. He believed himself to be the first dis- 
coverer of the country he called New Albion. 
"The Spaniards never had any dealings or so 
much as set foote in this country; l"he utmost 
of their discoveries reaching only to many de- 
grees southward of this place.'"* The English 
founded no claim on Drake's discoveries. The 
land hunger that characterizes that nation now 
had not then been developed. 

Fifty years passed after Cabrillo's visit to Cal- 
ifornia before another attempt was made by the 
Spaniards to explore her coast. Through all 
these years on their return voyage far out be- 
yond the islands the iVIanila galleons, freighted 
with the wealth of "Ormus and Ind," sailed 
down the coast of Las Californias from Cape 
Mendocino to Acapulco. Often storm-tossed 
and always scourged with that dread malady of 
the sea, the scurvy, there was no harbor of ref- 
uge for them to put into because his most Cath- 
olic Majesty, the King of Spain, had no money 
to spend in exploring an unknown coast where 
t'nere was no return to be expected except per- 
haps the saving of a few sailors' lives. 

In 1593, the question of a survey of the Cali- 
fornia coast for- harbors to accommodate the in- 
creasing Philippine trade was agitated and Don 
Luis de Velasco, viceroy of New Spain, in a let- 
ter dated at Mexico, April 8, 1593, thus writes to 
his majesty: "In order to make the exploration 
or demarcation of the harbors of this main as 
far as the Philippine islands, as your majesty 
orders, money is lacking, and if it be not taken 
from the royal strong box it cannot be supplied. 



*The World Encompassed. 



as for some time past a great deal of money has 
been owing to the royal treasury on account 
of fines forfeited to it, legal cost and the like." 
Don Luis fortunately discovers a way to save 
the contents of the royal strong box and hastens 
to acquaint his majesty with his plan. In a let- 
ter written to the king from the City of Mexico, 
April 6, 1594, he says: "I ordered the navigator 
who at present sails in the flag ship, who is 
named Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno, and who 
is a man of experience in his calling, one who 
can be depended upon and who has means of 
his own, although he is a Portuguese, there 
being no Spaniards of his profession whose serv- 
ices are available, that he should make the ex- 
ploration and demarcation, and I offered, if he 
would do this, to give him his remuneration in 
the way of taking on board merchandise; and 
I wrote to the governor (of the Philippines) 
that he should allow him to put on board the 
ship some tons of cloth that he might have the 
benefit of the freight-money." The result of 
Don Luis's economy and the outcome of at- 
tempting to explore an unknown coast in a 
heavily laden merchant ship are given in a para- 
graph taken from a letter written by a royal offi- 
cer from Acapulco, February i, 1596, to the 
viceroy Conde de Monterey, the successor of 
\'elasco: "On Wednesday, the 31st of January 
of this year, there entered this harbor a vessel 
of the kind called in the Philippines a viroco, 
having on board Juan de Morgana, navigating 
officer, four Spanish sailors, five Indians and a 
negro, who brought tidings that the ship San 
Agustin, of the exploring expedition, had been 
lost on a coast where she struck and went to 
pieces, and that a barefooted friar and another 
person of those on board had been drowned and 
that the seventy men or more who embarked in 
this small vessel only these came in her, be- 
cause the captain of said ship, Sebastian Rodri- 
guez Cermeiio, and the others went ashore at 
the port of Navidad, and, as they understand, 
have already arrived in that city (Mexico). An 
account of the voyage and of the loss of the 
ship, together with the statement made under 
oath by said navigating officer, Juan de Mor- 
gana, accompany this. We visited officially the 
vessel, finding no kind of merchandise on board, 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



41 



and that the men were ahiiost naked. The ves- 
sel being so small it seems miraculous that she 
should have reached this country with so many 
people on board." A viroco was a small vessel 
without a deck, having one or two square sails, 
and propelled by sweeps. Its hull was formed 
from a single tree, hollowed out and having the 
sides built up with planks. The San Agustin 
was wrecked in what is now called Francis 
Drake's Bay, about thirty miles north of San 
Francisco. To make a voyage from there to 
Acapulco in such a vessel, with seventy men on 
board, and live to tell the tale, was an exploit 
that exceeded the most hazardous undertakings 
of the Argonauts of '49. 

The viceroy, Conde de Monte Rey, in a let- 
ter dated at Mexico, April 19, 1596, gives the 
king tidings of the loss of the San Agustin. He 
vv rites: "Touching the loss of the ship, San 
Agustin, which was on its way from the islands 
of the west (the Philippines) for the purpose of 
making the exploration of the coast of the South 
Sea, in accordance with your Majesty's orders 
to Viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, I wrote to 
Your Majesty by the second packet (mailship) 
what I send as duplicate with this." He then 
goes on to tell how he had examined the offi- 
cers in regard to the loss of the vessel and that 
they tried to inculpate one another. The navi- 
gating officer even in the viroco tried to ex- 
plore the pnncipal bays which they crossed, but 
on account of the hunger and illness they expe- 
rienced he was compelled to hasten the voyage. 
The viceroy concludes: "Thus I take it, as to 
this exploration the intention of Your Majesty 
has not been carried into efifect. It is the gen- 
eral opinion that this enterprise should not be 
attempted on the return voyage from the islands 
and with a laden ship, but from this coast and 
by constantly following along it." The above 
account of the loss of the San Agustin is taken 
from \^olume II, Publications of the Historical 
Society of Southern California, and is the only 
correct account published. In September, 1595, 
just before the viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, 
was superseded by Conde de Monte Rev, he 
entered into a contract with certain parties of 
whom Sebastian \'iscaino, a ship captain, was 
the principal, to make an expedition up the Gulf 



of California "for the purpose of fishing for 
pearls." There was also a provision in the con- 
tract empowering \'iscaino to make explorations 
and take possession of his discoveries for the 
crown of Spain. The Conde de Monte Rey 
seems, from a letter written to the King, to have 
seriously doubted whether \'iscaino was the 
right man for so important an expedition, but 
finally allowed him to depart. In September, 
1596, X'iscaino sailed up the gulf with a fieet of 
three vessels, the flag ship San Francisco, the 
.San Jose and a Lancha. The flag ship was dis- 
abled and left at La Paz. With the other two 
vessels he sailed up the gulf to latitude 29°. He 
encountered severe storms. At some island he 
had trouble with the Indians and killed several. 
As the long boat was departing an Indian 
wounded one of the rowers with an arrow. The 
sailor dropped his oar, the boat careened and 
upset, drowning twenty of the twenty-six sol- 
diers and sailors in it. 

X'iscaino returned without having procured 
any pearls or made any important discoveries. 
He proposed to continue his explorations of the 
Californias, but on account of his misfortunes 
his request was held in abeyance. He wrote a 
letter to the king in 1597, setting forth what 
supplies he required for the voyage. His in- 
ventory of the items needed is interesting, but 
altogether too long for insertion here. Among 
the items were "$35,000 in money"; "eighty ar- 
robas of powder": "twenty quintals of lead"; 
"four pipes of wine for mass and sick friars"; 
"vestments for the clergy and $2,000 to be in- 
vested in trifles for the Indians for the purpose 
of attracting them peaceably to receive the holy 
gospel." Mscaino's request was not granted at 
that time. The viceroy and the royal audiencia 
at one time ordered his commission revoked. 
Philip II died in 1598 and was succeeded by 
Philip III. After five years' waiting, \'iscaino 
was allowed to proceed with his explorations. 
From Acapulco on the 5th of May, 1602, he 
writes to the king that he is ready to sail with 
his ships "for the discovery of harbors and bays 
of the coast of the South Sea as far as Cape 
Mendocino." "I report," he says, "merely that 
the said \'iceroy (Conde de IMonterey) has en- 
trusted to me the accomplishment of the same 



42 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



in two ships, a lancha and a barcoluengo, 
manned with sailors and soldiers and provi- 
sioned for eleven months. To-day being Sun- 
day, the 5th of May, I sail at five o'clock in the 
names of God and his blessed mother and your 
majesty." 

Mscaino followed the same course marked 
out by Cabrillo si.xty years before. November 
10, 1602, he anchored in Cabrillo's Bay of San 
Miguel. Whether the faulty reckoning of Ca- 
brillo left him in doubt of the points named by 
the first discoverer, or whether it was that he 
might receive the credit of their discovery, Vis- 
caino changed the names given by Cabrillo to 
the islands, bays and headlands along the Cali- 
fornia coast. Cabrillo's Bahia San Miguel be- 
came the Bay of San Diego; San Salvador and 
Vitoria were changed to Santa Catalina and 
San Clemente, and Cabrillo's Bahia de los 
Fumos y Fuegos appears on Viscaino's map as 
the Ensenada de San Andres, but in a descrip- 
tion of the voyage compiled by the cosmog- 
rapher, Cabrero Bueno, it is named San Pedro. 
It is not named for the Apostle St. Peter, but 
for St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, whose day 
in the Catholic calendar is November 26, the 
day of the month \'iscaino anchored in the Bay 
of San Pedro. 

Sailing up the coast, Viscaino passed through 
the Santa Barbara channel, which was so named 
by Antonio de la Ascencion, a Carmelite friar, 
who was chaplain of one of the ships. The ex- 
pedition entered the channel December 4, which 
is the day in the Catholic calendar dedicated to 
Santa Barbara. He visited the mainland near 
Point Concepcion where the Indian chief of a 
populous rancheria ofifered each Spaniard who 
would become a resident of his town ten wives. 
This generous offer was rejected. December 
15, 1602, he reached Point Pinos, so named by 
Cabrillo, and cast anchor in the bay formed by 
its projection. This bay he named Monterey, 
in honor of the viceroy, Conde de Alonte Rey. 
Many of his men were sick with the scurvy and 
his provisions were becoming exhausted; so, 
placing the sick and disabled on the San Tomas, 
he sent them back to Acapulco; but few of them 
ever reached their destination. On the 3d of 
January, 1603, with two ships, he proceeded on 



his search for Cape Mendocino, the northern 
limit of his survey. The Manila galleons on 
their return voyage from the Philippines sailed 
up the Asiatic coast to the latitude of Japan, 
when, taking advantage of the westerly winds 
and the Japan current, they crossed the Pacific, 
striking the North American coast in about the 
latitude of Cape Mendocino, and from there 
they ran down the coast of Las Californias and 
across the gulf to Acapulco. After leaving 
Point Reyes a storm separated his ships and 
drove him as far north as Cape Blanco. The 
smaller vessel, commanded by Martin de Agui- 
lar, was driven north by the storm to latitude 
43°, where he discovered what seemed to be 
the mouth of a great river; attempting to enter 
it, he was driven back by the swift current. 
Aguilar, believing he had discovered the western 
entrance of the Straits of Anian, sailed for 
New Spain to report his discovery. He, his 
chief pilot and most of his crew died of scurvy 
before the vessel reached Navidad. Viscaino, 
after sighting Cape Blanco, turned and sailed 
down the coast of California, reaching Acapulco 
March 21, 1603. 

Viscaino, in a letter to the King of Spain, 
dated at the City of Mexico, May 23, 1603, 
grows enthusiastic over California climate and 
productions. It is the earliest known specimen 
of California boom literature. After depicting 
the commodiousness of Monterey Bay as a port 
of safety for the Philippine ships, he says: "This 
port is sheltered from all winds, while on the im- 
mediate shores there are pines, from which masts 
of any desired size can be obtained, as well as 
live oaks and white oaks, rosemary, the vine, the 
rose of Alexandria, a great variety of game, such 
as rabbits, hare, partridges and other sorts and 
species found in Spain. This land has a genial 
climate, its waters are good and it is fertile, 
judging from the varied and luxuriant growth 
of trees and plants; and it is thickly settled with 
people whom I found to be of gentle disposition, 
peaceable and docile. * * * Their food con- 
sists of seeds which they have in great abun- 
dance and variety, and of the flesh of game such 
as deer, which are larger than cows, and bear, 
and of neat cattle and bisons and many other 
animals. The Indians are of good stature and 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



43 



fair complexion, the women being somewhat 
less in size than the men, and of pleasing counte- 
nance. The clothing of the people of the coast 
lands consists of the skins of the sea wolves 
(otter) abounding there, which they tan and 
dress better than is done in Castile; they pos- 
sess also in great quantity flax like that of Cas- 
tile, hemp and cotton, from which they make 
fishing lines and nets for rabbits and hares. 
They have vessels of pine wood, very well made, 
in which they go to sea with fourteen paddle- 
men of a side, with great dexterity in very 
stormy weather. * * * They are well ac- 
quainted with gold and silver and said that 
these were found in the interior." 



The object of Viscaino's boom literature of 
three hundred years ago was the promotion of a 
colony scheme for the founding of a settlement 
on Monterey Bay. He visited Spain to obtain the 
consent of the king and assistance in planting 
a colony. After many delays, Philip III, in 
1606, ordered the viceroy of New Spain to fit 
out immediately an expedition to be com- 
manded by Viscaino for the occupation and set- 
tlement of the port of Monterey. Before the ex- 
pedition could be gotten ready Viscaino died and 
his colonization scheme died with him. Had he 
lived to carry out his scheme, the settlement of 
California would have antedated that of James- 
town, Va., by one year. 



CHAPTER 111. 



COLONIZATION OF ALTA CALIFORNIA. 



^ r\ HUNDRED and sixty years passed after 

l\ the abandonment of \'iscaino's coloniza- 
tion scheme before the Spanish crown 
made another attempt to utilize its vast posses- 
sions in Alta California. The Manila galleons 
sailed down the coast year after year for more 
than a century and a half, yet in all this long 
space of time none of them so far as we know 
ever entered a harbor or bay on the upper Cali- 
fornia coast. Spain still held her vast colonial 
possessions in America, but with a loosening 
grasp. As the years went by she had fallen 
from her high estate. Her power on sea and 
land had weakened. Those brave old sea kings, 
Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher, had destroyed 
her invincible Armada and burned her ships in 
her very harbors. The English and Dutch pri- 
vateers had preyed upon her commerce on the 
high seas and the buccaneers had robbed her 
treasure ships and devastated her settlements on 
the islands and the Spanish main, while the free- 
booters of many nations had time and again 
captured her galleons and ravished her colonies 
on the Pacific coast. The energy and enterprise 
that had been a marked characteristic of her 
people in the days of Cortes and Pizarro were 
ebbing away. The cruelty and religious intol- 



erance of her kings, her nobles and her clergy, 
had sapped the bravery of her people. The fear 
of her Holy Inquisition palsied effort and sub- 
stituted in her people cringing for courage. For 
three centuries the rack and the thumb-screw 
of her Holy Office had never been allowed to 
rust from disuse nor its fires to burn out for 
want of victims. In trying to kill heresy her 
rulers were slowly but s-urcly killing Spain. 
Proscriptive laws and the fear of the inquisition 
had driven into exile the most enterprising and 
the most intelligent classes of her people. Spain 
was decaying with the dry rot of bigotry. Other 
nations stood ready to take advantage of her 
decadence. Her old-time enemy, England, which 
had gained in power as Spain had lost, was ever 
on the alert to take advantage of her weakness; 
and another power, Russia, almost unknown 
among the powers of Europe when Spain was 
in her prime, was threatening her possessions in 
Alta California. To hold this vast country it 
must be colonized, but her restrictions on com- 
merce and her proscriptive laws against foreign 
immigrants had shut the door to her colonial 
possessions against colonists from all other na- 
tions. Her sparse settlements in Mexico could 
spare no colonists. The indigenous inhabitants 



44 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



of California must be converted to Christianity 
and made into citizens. Poor material indeed 
were these degraded savages, but Spain's needs 
were pressing and missionary zeal was powerful. 
Indeed, the pristine courage and daring of the 
Spanish soldier seemed to have passed to her 
missionary priest. 

The Jesuits had begun missionary work in 
1697 among the degraded inhabitants of Lower 
California. With a perseverance that was highly 
commendable and a bravery that was heroic, 
under their devoted leaders, Salvatierra, Kino, 
Ugarte, Piccolo and their successors, they 
founded sixteen missions on the peninsula. 
Father Kino (or Kuhn), a German Jesuit, be- 
sides his missionary work, between 1694 and 
1702, had made explorations around the head 
of the Gulf of California and up the Rio Colo- 
rado to the mouth of the Gila, which had clearly 
demonstrated that Lower California was a pen- 
insula and not an island. Although Ulloa had 
sailed down the inner coast and up the outer 
coast of Lower California and Domingo del 
Castillo, a Spanish pilot, had made a correct 
map showing it to be a peninsula, so strong was 
the belief in the existence of the Straits of 
Anian that one hundred and sixty years after 
UUoa's voyage Las Californias were still be- 
lieved to be islands and were sometimes called 
Islas Carolinas, or the Islands of Charles, named 
so for Charles II. of Spain. Father Kino had 
formed the design of establishing a chain of mis- 
sions from Sonora around the head of the gulf 
and down the inner coast of Lower California to 
Cape San Lucas. He did not live to complete 
his ambitious project. The Jesuit missions of 
Baja California never grew rich in flocks and 
herds. The country was sterile and the few 
small valleys of fertile land around the missions 
gave the padres and the neophytes at best but a 
frugal return for their labors. 

For years there had been, in the Catholic 
countries of Europe, a growing fear and dis- 
trust of the Jesuits. Portugal had declared them 
traitors to the government and had banished 
them in 1759 from her dominions. France had 
suppressed the order in her domains in 1764. 
In 1767, King Carlos III., by a pragmatic sanc- 
tion or decree, ordered their expulsion from 



Spain and all her American colonies. So great 
and powerful was the influence of the order that 
the decree for their expulsion was kept secret 
until the moment of its execution. Throughout 
all parts of the kingdom, at a certain hour of 
the night, a summons came to every college, 
monastery or other establishment where mem- 
bers of the order dwelt, to assemble by com- 
mand of the king in the chapel or refectory 
immediately. The decree of perpetual banish- 
ment was then read to them. They were hastily 
bundled into vehicles that were awaiting them 
outside and hurried to the nearest seaport, 
where they were shipped to Rome. During 
their journey to the sea-coast they were not al- 
lowed to communicate with their friends nor 
permitted to speak to persons they met on the 
way. By order of the king, any subject who 
should undertake to vindicate the Jesuits in writ- 
ing should be deemed guilty of treason and con- 
demned to death. 

The Lower California missions were too dis- 
tant and too isolated to enforce the king's de- 
cree with the same haste and secrecy that was 
observed in Spain and Mexico. To Governor 
Caspar de Portola was entrusted the enforce- 
ment of their banishment. These missions were 
transferred to the Franciscans, but it took time 
to make the substitution. He proceeded with 
great caution and care lest the Indians should 
become rebellions and demoralized. It was not 
until February, 1768, that all the Jesuit mis- 
sionaries were assembled at La Paz; from there 
they were sent to Mexico and on the 13th of 
April, at Vera Cruz, they bade farewell to the 
western continent. 

At the head of the Franciscan contingent that 
came to Bahia, Cal., to take charge of the aban- 
doned missions, was Father Junipero Serra, a 
man of indomitable will and great missionary 
zeal. Miguel Jose Serra was born on the island of 
Majorica in the year 1713. After completing his 
studies in the Lullian LTniversity, at the age of 
eighteen he became a monk and was admitted 
into the order of Franciscans. On taking or- 
ders he assumed the name of Junipero (Juniper). 
Among the disciples of St. Francis was a very 
zealous and devoted monk who bore the name 
of Junipero. of whom St. Francis once said, 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



45 



"Would to God, my brothers, that I had a whole 
forest of such Junipers." Serra's favorite study 
was the "Lives of the Saints," and no doubt the 
study of the life of the original Junipero influ- 
enced him to take that saint's name. Serra's 
ambition was to become a missionary, but it was 
not until he was nearly forty years of age that 
his desire was gratified. In 1749 he came to 
Mexico and January i, 1750, entered the College 
of San Fernando. A few months later he was 
given charge of an Indian mission in the Sierra 
Gorda mountains, where, with his assistant and 
lifelong friend. Father Palou, he remained nine 
years. Under his instructions the Indians were 
taught agriculture and the mission became a 
model establishment of its kind. From this 
mountain mission Serra returned to the city of 
Mexico. He spent seven years in doing mis- 
sionary work among the Spanish population of 
the capital and surrounding country. His suc- 
cess as a preacher and his great missionary zeal 
led to his selection as president of the missions 
of California, from which the Jesuits had been 
removed. April 2, 1768, he arrived in the port of 
Loreto with fifteen associates from the College 
of San Fernando. These were sent to the dif- 
ferent missions of the peninsula. These mis- 
sions extended over a territory seven hundred 
miles in length and it required several months 
to locate all the missionaries. The scheme for 
the occupation and colonization of Alta Cali- 
fornia was to be jointly the work of church and 
state. The representative of the state was Jose 
de Galvez, visitador-general of New Spain, a 
man of untiring energy, great executive ability, 
sound business sense and, as such men are and 
ought to be, somewhat arbitrary. Galvez 
reached La Paz in July, 1768. He immediately 
set about investigating the condition of the 
peninsula missions and supplying their needs. 
This done, he turned his attention to the north- 
ern colonization. He established his headquar- 
ters at Santa Ana near La Paz. Here he sum- 
moned Father Junipero for consultation in 
regard to the founding of missions in Alta Cali- 
fornia. It was decided to proceed to the initial 
points San Diego and Monterey by land and sea. 
Three ships were to be dispatched carrying the 
heavier articles, such as agricultural imple- 



ments, church ornaments, and a supply of provi- 
sions for the support of the soldiers and priest 
after their arrival in California. The expedi- 
tion by land was to take along cattle and 
horses to stock the country. This expedition 
was divided into two dc^tachments, the advance 
one under tiie command of Rivera y Moncada, 
who had been a long time in the country, and 
the second division under Governor Caspar de 
Portola, who was a newcomer. Captain Rivera 
was sent northward to collect from the missions 
ail the live stock and supplies that could be 
spared and take them to Santa Maria, the most 
northern mission of the peninsula. Stores of 
all kinds were collected at La Paz. Father 
Serra made a tour of the missions and secured 
such church furniture, ornaments and vestments 
as could be spared. 

The first vessel fitted out for the expedition 
by sea was the San Carlos, a ship of about 
two hundred tons burden, leaky and badly con- 
structed. She sailed from La Paz January 9, 
1769, under the command of \''icente Vila. In 
addition to the crew- there were twenty-five Cat- 
aionian soldiers, commanded ' by Lieutenant 
Fages, Pedro Prat, the surgeon, a Franciscan 
friar, two blacksmiths, a baker, a cook and two 
tortilla makers. Galvez in a small vessel accom- 
panied the San Carlos to Cape San Lucas, where 
he landed and set to w-ork to fit out the San 
Antonio. On the 15th of February this vessel 
sailed from San Jose del Cabo (San Jose of the 
Cape), under the command of Juan Perez, an 
expert pilot, who had been engaged in the Phil- 
ippine trade. On this vessel went two Franciscan 
friars, Juan Viscaino and Francisco Gomez. 
Captain Rivera y Moncada, who was to pioneer 
the way, had collected supplies and cattle at \'el- 
icata on the northern frontier. From here, with 
a small force of soldiers, a gang of neophytes 
and three muleteers, and accompanied by Padre 
Crespi, he began his march to San Diego on the 
24th of March, 1769. 

The second land expedition, commanded by 
Governor Caspar de Portola in person, began 
its march from Loreto, March 9, 1769. Father 
Serra, who was to have accompanied it, was de- 
tained at Loreto by a sore leg. He joined the 
expedition at Santa Maria, May 5, where it had 



46 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



been waiting for him some time. It then pro- 
ceeded to Rivera's camp at Velicata, sixty miles 
further north, where Serra founded a mission, 
naming it San Fernando. Campa Coy, a friar 
who had accompanied the expedition thus far, 
was left in charge. This mission was intended 
as a frontier post in the travel between the pen- 
insula missions and the Alta California settle- 
ments. On the 15th of May Portola began his 
northern march, following the trail of Rivera. 
Galvez had named, by proclamation, St. Joseph 
as the patron saint of the California expeditions. 
Santa Maria was designated as the patroness of 
conversions. 

The San Antonia, the last vessel to sail, was 
the first to arrive at San Diego. It anchored in 
the bay April 11, 1769, after a prosperous voy- 
age of twenty-four days. There she remained 
at anchor, awaiting the arrival of the San Car- 
los, the flag ship of the expedition, which had 
sailed more than a month before her. On the 
29th of April the San Carlos, after a disastrous 
voyage of one hundred and ten days, drifted 
into the Bay of San Diego, her crew prostrated 
with the scurvy, not enough able-bodied men 
being left to man a boat. Canvas tents were 
pitched and the afflicted men taken ashore. 
When the disease had run its course nearly all 
of the crew of the San Carlos, half of the sol- 
diers who had come on her, and nine of the 
sailors of the San Antonio, were dead. 

On the 14th of May Captain Rivera y Mon- 
cada's detachment arrived. The expedition had 
made the journey from Velicata in fifty-one 
days. On the first of July the second division, 
commanded by Portola, arrived. The journey 
had been uneventful. The four divisions of the 
grand expedition were now united, but its num- 
bers had been greatly reduced. Out of two 
hundred and nineteen who had set out by land 
and sea only one hundred and twenty-six re- 
mained; death from scurvy and the desertion of 
llie neophytes had reduced the numbers nearly 
one-half. The ravages of the scurvy had de- 
stroved the crew of one of the vessels and 
greatly crippled that of the other, so it was im- 
possible to proceed by sea to Monterey, the 
second objective point of the expedition. A 
council of the officers was held and it was de- 



cided to send the San .A.ntonia back to San Bias 
for supplies and sailors to man the San Carlos. 
The San Antonia sailed on the 9th of July and 
after a voyage of twenty days reached her des- 
tination; but short as the voyage was, half of 
the crew died of the scurvy on the passage. In 
early American navigation the scurvy was the 
most dreaded scourge of the sea, more to be 
feared than storm and shipwreck. These might 
happen occasionally, but the scurvy always made 
its appearance on long voyages, and sometimes 
destroyed the whole ship's crew. Its appearance 
and ravages were largely due to the neglect of 
sanitary precautions and to the utter indifTer- 
ence of those in authority to provide for the 
comfort and health of the sailors. The interces- 
sion of the saints, novenas, fasts and penance 
were relied upon to protect and save the vessel 
and her crew, while the simplest sanitary meas- 
ures were utterly disregarded. A blind, unrea- 
soning faith that was always seeking interposi- 
tion from some power without to preserve and 
ignoring the power within, was the bane and 
curse of that age of superstition. 

If the mandates of King Carlos III. and the 
instructions of the visitador-general, Jose de 
Galvez, vvere to be carried out, the expedition 
for the settlement of the second point designated 
(Monterey) must be made by land; accordingly 
Governor Portola set about organizing his 
forces for the overland journey. On the 14th 
of July the expedition began its march. It con- 
sisted of Governor Portola, Padres Crespi and 
Gomez, Captain Rivera y Moncada, Lieutenant 
Pedro Pages, Engineer Miguel Constanso, sol- 
diers, muleteers and Indian servants, number- 
ing in all sixty-two persons. 

On the i6th of July, two days after the de- 
parture of Governor Portola, Father Junipero, 
assisted by Padres Viscaino and Parron, founded 
the mission of San Diego. The site selected 
was in what is now Old Town, near the tempo- 
rary presidio, which had been hastily con- 
structed before the departure of Governor Por- 
tola. A hut of boughs had been constructed 
and in this the ceremonies of founding were 
held. The Indians, while interested in what was 
going on. manifested no desire to be converted. 
They were willing to receive gifts, particularly 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



47 



of cloth, but would not taste the food of the 
Spaniards, fearing that it contained poison and 
attributing the many deaths among the soldiers 
and sailors to the food. The Indians had a great 
liking for pieces of cloth, and their desire to 
obtain this led to an attack upon the people of 
the mission. On the 14th of August, taking 
advantage of the absence of Padre Parron and 
two soldiers, they broke into the mission and 
began robbing it and the beds of the sick. The 
four soldiers, a carpenter and a blacksmith ral- 
lied to the defense, and after several of their 
numbers had fallen by the guns of the soldiers, 
the Indians fled. A boy servant of the padres 
was killed and Father Viscaino wounded in the 
hand. After this the Indians were more cau- 
tious. 

We now return to the march of Portola's ex- 
pedition. As the first exploration of the main 
land of California was made by it, I give con- 
siderable space to the incidents of the journey. 
Crespi, Constanso and Pages kept journals of 
the march. I quote from those of Constanso 
and Crespi. Lieutenant Constanso thus de- 
scribes the order of the march. "The setting- 
forth was on the 14th day of June* of the cited 
year of '69. The two divisions of the expedition 
by land marched in one, the commander so ar- 
ranging because the number of horse-herd and 
packs was much, since of provisions and victuals 
alone they carried one hundred packs, which he 
estimated to be necessary to ration all the folk 
during six months; thus providing against a 
delay of the packets, altho' it was held to be 
impossible that in this interval some one of 
them should fail to arrive at Monterey. On 
the marches the following order was observed: 
At the head went the commandant with the offi- 
cers, the six men of the Catalonia volunteers, 
who added themselves at San Diego, and some 
friendly Indians, with spades, mattocks, crow- 
bars, axes and other nnplements of pioneers, to 
chop and open a passage whenever necessary. 
After them followed the pack-train, divided into 
four bands with the muleteers and a competent 
number of garrison soldiers for their escort with 
each band. In the rear .-Tuard with the rest of 



♦Evidently an error: it should be July 14th. 



the troops and friendly Indians came the cap- 
tain, Don Fernando Rivera, convoying the 
horse-herd and the mule herd for relays." 
* * * 

"It must be well considered that the marches 
of these troops with such a train and with such 
embarrassments thro' unknown lands and un- 
used paths could not be long ones; leaving aside 
the other causes which obliged them to halt 
and camp early in the afternoon, that is to sav. 
the necessity of exploring the land one day for 
the next, so as to regulate them (the marches) 
according to the distance of the watering-places 
and to take in consequence the proper precau- 
tions; setting forth again on special occasions 
in the evening, after having given water to the 
beasts in that same hour upon the sure infurma- 
tion that in the following stretch there was no 
water or that the watering place was low, or the 
pasture scarce. The restings were measured by 
the necessity, every four days, more or less, 
according to the extraordinary fatigue occa- 
sioned by the greater roughness of the road, 
the toil of the pioneers, or the wandering off of 
the beasts which were missing from the horse 
herd and which it was necessary to seek by their 
tracks. At other times, by the necessity of 
humoring the sick, when there were any, and 
with time there were many who yielded up their 
strength to the continued fatigue, the excessive 
heat and cruel cold. In the form and according 
to the method related the Spaniards executed 
their marches; traversing immense lands more 
fertile and more pleasing in proportion as they 
penetrated more to the north. All in general are 
peopled with a multitude of Indians, who came 
out to meet tliem and in some jiarts accompa- 
nied them from one stage of the journey to the 
next; a folk very docile and tractable chiefly 
from San Diego onward." 

Constanso's description of the Indians of 
Santa Barbara will be found in the chapter on the 
"Aborigines of California." "From the chan- 
nel of Santa Barbara onward the lands are not 
so populous nor the Indians so industrious, but 
they are equally affable and tractable. The 
•Spaniards pursued their voyage without opposi- 
tion up to the Sierra of Santa Lucia, which thev 
contrived to cross with much hardship. At the 



48 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



foot of said Sierra on the north side is to be 
found the port of Monterey, according to an- 
cient reports, between the Point of Pines and 
that of Ano Nuevo (New Year). The Spaniards 
caught sight of said points on the ist of October 
of the year '69, and, believing they had arrived 
at the end of their voyage, the commandant sent 
the scouts forward to reconnoitre the Point of 
Pines; in whose near vicinity lies said Port in 

36 degrees and 40 minutes North Latitude. But 
the scant tokens and equivocal ones which are 
given of it by the Pilot Cabrera Bueno, the only 
clue of this voyage, and the character of this 
Port, which rather merits the name of Bay, 
being spacious (in likeness to that of Cadiz), 
not corresponding with ideas which it is natural 
to form in reading the log of the aforemen- 
tioned Cabrera Bueno, nor with the latitude of 

37 degrees in which he located it, the scouts were 
persuaded that the Port must be farther to the 
north and they returned to the camp which our 
people occupied with the report that what they 
sought was not to be seen in those parts." 

They decided that the Port was still further 
north and resumed their march. Seventeen of 
their number were sick with the scurvy, some of 
whom, Constanso says, seemed to be in their 
last extremity; these had to be carried in lit- 
ters. To add to their miseries, the rains began 
in the latter part of October, and with them 
came an epidemic of diarrhea, "which spread to 
all without exception; and it came to be feared 
that this sickness which prostrated their powers 
and left the persons spiritless, would finish with 
the expedition altogether. But it turned out 
quite to the contrary." Those afflicted with the 
scurvy began to mend and in a short time they 
wererestoredto health. Constanso thus describes 
the discovery of the Bay of San Francisco: 
"The last day of October the Expedition by land 
came in sight of Punta de Los Reyes and the 
Farallones of the Port of San Francisco, whose 
landmarks, compared with those related by 
the log of the Pilot Cabrera Bueno, v^-ere found 
exact. Thereupon it became of evident knowl- 
edge that the Port of Monterey had been left 
behind; there being few who stuck to the 
contrary opinion. Nevertheless the comman- 
dant resolved to send to reconnoitre the 



land as far as Point de los Reyes. The scouts 
who were commissioned for this purpose found 
themselves obstructed by immense estuaries, 
which run extraordinarily far back into the land 
and were obliged to make great detours to get 
around the heads of these. * * * Having 
arrived at the end of the first estuary and recon- 
noitered the land that would have to be followed 
to arrive at the Point de Los Reyes, interrupted 
with new estuaries, scant pasturage and fire- 
wood and having recognized, besides this, the 
uncertainty of the news and the misapprehen- 
sion the scouts had labored under, the com- 
mandant, with the advice of his officers, resolved 
upon a retreat to the Point of Pines in hopes of 
linding the Port of Monterey and encountering 
in it the Packet San Jose or the San Antonia, 
whose succor already was necessary; since of 
the provisions which had been taken in San 
Diego no more remained than some few sacks of 
flour of which a short ration was issued to each 
individual daily." 

"On the eleventh day of November was put 
into execution the retreat in search of Mon- 
terey. The Spaniards reached said port and 
the Point of Pines on the 28th of Novem- 
ber. They maintained themselves in this place 
until the loth of December without any ves- 
sel having appeared in this time. For which 
reason and noting also a lack of victuals, and 
that the sierra of Santa Lucia was covering 
itself with snow, the commandant, Don Caspar 
de Portola, saw himself obliged to decide to 
continue the retreat unto San Diego, leaving 
it until a better occasion to return to the enter- 
prise. On this retreat the Spaniards experi- 
enced some hardships and necessities, because 
they entirely lacked provisions, and because the 
long marches, which necessity obliged to make 
to reach San Diego, gave no time for seeking 
sustenance by the chase, nor did game abound 
equally everywhere. At this juncture they killed 
twelve mules of the pack-train on whose meat 
the folk nourished themselves unto San Diego, 
at which new establishment they arrived, all in 
health, on the 24th of January, 1770." 

The San Jose, the third ship fitted out by 
A'isitador-General Galvez, and which Governor 
Portola expected to find in the Bay of Monte- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



49 



rey, sailed from San Jose del Cabo in May, 
1770, with supplies and a double crew to sup- 
ply the loss of sailors on the otlier vessels, but 
nothing was ever heard of her afterwards. Pro- 
visions were running low at San Diego, no shi[) 
liad arrived, and Governor Portola had decided 
to abandon the place and return to Loreto. 
Father Junipero was averse to this and prayed 
unceasingly for the intercession of Saint Joseph, 
the patron of the expedition. A novena or nine 
days' public prayer was instituted to terminate 
with a grand ceremonial on March 19th, which 
was the saint's own day. But on the 23rd of 
March, when all were ready to depart, the 
packet San Antonia arrived. She had sailed 
from San Bias the 20th of December. She en- 
countered a storm which drove her four hun- 
dred leagues from the coast; then she made 
land in 35 degrees north latitude. Turning her 
prow southward, she ran down to Point Concep- 
cion, where at an anchorage in the Santa Bar- 
bara channel the captain, Perez, took on water 
and learned from the Indians of the return of 
Portola's expedition. The vessel then ran down 
to San Diego, where its opportune arrival 
prevented the abandonment of that settle- 
ment. 



With an abundant supply of provisions and a 
vessel to carry the heavier articles needed in 
forming a settlement at Monterey, Portola or- 
ganized a second expedition. This time he took 
with him only twenty soldiers and one officer. 
Lieutenant Pedro Pages. Pie set out from San 
Diego on the 17th of -A-pril and followed his trail 
made the previous year. Father Serra and the 
engineer, Constanso, sailed on the San Antonia, 
which left the port of San Diego on the i6th of 
April. The land expedition reached Monterey 
on the 23d of May and the San Antonia on the 
31st of the same month. On the 3d of June, 
1770, the mission of San Carlos Borromeo de 
Monterey was formally founded with solemn 
church ceremonies, accompanied by the ringing 
of bells, the crack of musketry and the roar of 
cannon. Father Serra conducted the church 
services. Governor Portola took possession of 
the land in the name of King Carlos III. A 
presidio or fort of palisades was built and a few 
huts erected. Portola, having formed the nu- 
cleus of a settlement, turned over the command 
of the territory to Lieutenant Fages. On the 
9th of July, 1770, he sailed on the San Antonia 
for San Bias. He never returned to Alta Cali- 
fornia. 



CHAPTER IV. 



ABORIGINES OF CALIFORNIA. 



WHETHER the primitive California In- 
dian was the low and degraded being 
that some modern writers represent 
him to have been, admits of doubt. A mis- 
sion training continued through three gen- 
erations did not elevate him in morals at least. 
When freed from mission restraint and brought 
in contact with the white race he lapsed into a 
condition more degraded and more debased than 
that in which the missionaries found him. 
Whether it was the inherent fault of the Indian 
or the fault of his training is a question that is 
useless to discuss now. If we are to believe the 
accounts of the California Indian given by Vis- 
caino and Constanso, who saw him before he 



had come in contact with civilization he was not 
inferior in intelligence to the nomad aborigines 
of the country east of the Rocky mountains. 

Sebastian Viscaino thus describes the In- 
dians he found on the shores of Monterey Bay 
three hundred years ago: 

"The Indians are of good stature and fair 
complexion, the women being somewhat less in 
size than the men and of pleasing countenance. 
The clothing of the people of the coast lands 
consists of the skins of the sea-wolves (otter) 
abounding there, which tliey tan and dress bet- 
ter than is done in Castile; they possess also, 
in great quantity, flax like that of Castile, hemp 
and cotton, from which thev make fishing-lines 



50 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and nets for rabbits and hares. They have ves- 
sels of pine wood very well made, in which they 
go to sea with fourteen paddle men on a side 
with great dexterity, even in stormy weather." 

Indians who could construct boats of pine 
boards that took twenty-eight paddle men to 
row were certainly superior in maritime craft 
to the birch bark canoe savages of the east. 
We might accuse Viscaino, who was trying to 
induce King Philip III. to found a colony on 
Monterey Bay. of exaggeration in regard to 
the Indian boats were not his statements con- 
firmed by the engineer, Miguel Constanso, who 
accompanied Portola's expedition one hundred 
and sixty-seven years after Viscaino visited the 
coast. Constanso, writing of the Indians of the 
Santa Barbara Channel, says, "The dexterity 
and skill of these Indians is surpassing in the 
construction of their launches made of pine 
planking. They are from eight to ten varas 
(twenty-three to twenty-eight feet) in length, 
including their rake and a vara and a half (four 
feet three inches) beam. Into their fabric enters 
no iron whatever, of the use of which they know 
little. But they fasten the boards with firmness, 
one to another, working their drills just so far 
apart and at a distance of an inch from the edge, 
the holes in the upper boards corresponding 
with those in the lower, and through these holes 
they pass strong lashings of deer sinews. They 
pitch and calk the seams, and paint the whole 
in sightly colors. They handle the boats with 
equal cleverness, and three or four men go out 
to sea to fish in them, though they have capacity 
to carry eight or ten. They use long oars with 
two blades and row with unspeakable lightness 
and velocity. They know all the arts of fishing, 
and fish abound along their coasts as has been 
said of San Diego. They have communication 
and commerce with the natives of the islands, 
whence they get the beads of coral which are 
current in place of money through these lands, 
although they hold in more esteem the glass 
beads which the Spaniards gave them, and of- 
fered in exchange for these whatever they had 
like trays, otter skins, baskets and wooden 
plates. * * * 

"They are likewise great hunters. To kill 
deer and antelope they avail themselves of an 



admirable ingenuity. They preserve the hide 
of the head and part of the neck of some one 
of these animals, sVinned with care and leaving 
the horns attached to the same hide, which they 
stuff with grass or straw to keep its shape. 
They put this said shell like a cap upon the head 
and go forth to the woods with this rare equip- 
age. On sighting the deer or antelope they go 
dragging themselves along the ground little by 
little with the left hand. In the right they carry 
the bow and four arrows. They lower and raise 
the head, moving it to one side and the other, 
and making other demonstrations so like these 
animals that they attract them without difficulty 
to the snare; and having them within a short 
distance, they discharge their arrows at them 
with certainty of hitting." 

In the two chief occupations of the savage, 
hunting and fishing, the Indians of the Santa 
Barbara Channel seem to have been the equals 
if not the superiors of their eastern brethren. 
In the art of war they were inferior. Their 
easy conquest by the Spaniards and their tame 
subjection to mission rule no doubt had much 
to do with giving them a reputation for infe- 
riority. 

The Indians of the interior valleys and those 
of the coast belonged to the same general fam- 
ily. There were no great tribal divisions like 
those that existed among the Indians east of the 
Rocky mountains. Each rancheria was to a 
certain extent independent of all others, al- 
though at times they were known to combine 
for war or plunder. Although not warlike, they 
sometimes resisted the whites in battle with 
great bravery. Each village had its own terri- 
tory in which to hunt and fish and its own sec- 
tion in which to gather nuts, seeds and herbs. 
While their mode of living was somewhat no- 
madic they seem to have had a fixed location for 
their rancherias. 

The early Spanish settlers of California and 
the mission padres have left but very meager 
accounts of the manners, customs, traditions, 
government and religion of the aborigines. The 
padres were too intent upon driving out the old 
religious beliefs of the Indian and instilling new 
ones to care much what tlie aborigine had for- 
merly believed or what traditions or myths he 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



51 



had inherited from his ancestors. They ruth- 
lessly destroyed his fetiches anil his altars 
wherever they found them, regarding them as 
inventions of the devil. 

The best account that has come down to us 
of the primitive life of the Southern California 
aborigines is found in a series of letters written 
by Hugo Reid and published in the Los An- 
geles Star in 1851-52. Reid was an educated 
Scotchman, who came to Los .\ngeles in 1834. 
He married an Indian woman, Dona Victoria, a 
neophyte of the San Gabriel mission. She was 
the daughter of an Indian chief. It- is said that 
Reid had been crossed in love by some high 
toned Spanish senorita and married the Indian 
woman because she had the same name as his 
lost love. It is generally believed that Reid was 
the putative father of Helen Hunt Jackson's 
heroine, Ramona. 

From these letters, now in the possession of 
the Historical Society of Southern California, 
I briefly collate some of the leading character- 
istics of the Southern Indians: 

GOVERNMENT. 

"Before the Indians belonging to the greater 
part of this country were known to the whites 
they comprised, as it were, one great family 
under distinct chiefs; they spoke nearly the same 
language, with the exception of a few words, 
and were more to be distinguished by a local 
intonation of the voice than anything else. Be- 
ing related by blood and marriage war was 
never carried on between them. When war was 
consequently waged against neighboring tribes 
of no affinity it was a common cause." 

"Tlie government of the people was invested 
in the hands of their chiefs, each captain com- 
manding his own lodge. The command was 
hereditary in a family. If the right line of de- 
scent ran out they elected one of the same kin 
nearest in blood. Laws in general were made 
as required, with some few standing ones. Rob- 
bery was never known among them. Murder 
was of rare occurrence and punished with death. 
Incest was likewise punished with death, being 
held in such abhorrence that marriages between 
kinsfolk were not allowed. The manner of put- 
ting to death was by shooting the delinquent 



with arrows. If a quarrel ensued between two 
parties the chief of the lodge took cognizance 
in the case and decided according to the testi- 
mony produced. But if a quarrel occurred 
between parties of distinct lodges, each chief 
heard the witnesses produced by his own people, 
and then, associated with the chief of the oppo- 
site side, they passed sentence. In case they 
could not agree an impartial chief was called in, 
who heard the statements made by both and he 
alone decided. There was no appeal from his de- 
cision. Whipping was never resorted to as a 
punishment. All fines and sentences consisted in 
delivering shells, money, food and skins." 

RELIGION. 

"They believed in one God, the Maker and 
Creator of all things, whose name was and is 
held so sacred among them as hardly ever to be 
used, and when used only in a low voice. That 
name is Qua-o-ar. When they have to use the 
name of the supreme being on an ordinary oc- 
casion they substitute in its stead the word 
Y-yo-ha-rory-nain or the Giver of Life. They 
have only one word to designate life and 
soul." 

"The world was at one time in a state of chaos, 
until God gave it its present formation, fi.xing 
it on the shoulders of seven giants, made ex- 
pressly for this end. They have their names, 
and when they move themselves an earthquake 
i.> the consequence, .\nimals were then formed, 
and lastly man and woman were formed, separ- 
ately from earth and ordered to live together. 
The man's name was Tobahar and the woman's 
Probavit. God ascended to Heaven immediately 
afterward, where he receives the souls of all who 
die. They had no bad spirits connected with 
their creed, and never heard of a 'devil' or a 
'heir until the coming of the Spaniards. Tliey 
believed in no resurrection whatever " 

.MARRIAGE. 

"Chiefs had one, two or three wives, as their 
inclination dictated, the subjects only one. When 
a person wished to marry and had selected a 
suitable partner, he advertised the same to all 
liis relatives, even to the nineteenth cousin. On 
a day appointed the inale portion of the lodge 



52 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



brought in a collection of money beads. All the 
relations having come in with their share, 
they (the males) proceeded in a body to the resi- 
dence of the bride, to whom timely notice had 
been given. All of the bride's female relations 
had been assembled and the money was equally 
divided among them, the bride receiving noth- 
ing, as it was a sort of purchase. After a few 
days the bride's female relations returned the 
compliment by taking to the bridegroom's 
dwelling baskets of meal made of chia, which 
was distributed among the male relatives. These 
preliminaries over, a day was fixed for the cere- 
mony, which consisted in decking out the bride 
in innumerable strings of beads, paint, feathers 
and skins. On being ready she was taken up 
in the arms of one of her strongest male rela- 
tives, who carried her, dancing, towards her 
lover's habitation. All of her family, friends and 
neighbors accompanied, dancing around, throw- 
ing food and edible seeds at her feet at every 
step. These were collected in a scramble by the 
spectators as best they could. The relations 
of the bridegroom met them half way. and. tak- 
ing the bride, carried her themselves, joining in 
the ceremonious walking dance. On arriving at 
the bridegroom's (who was sitting within his 
hut) she was inducted into her new residence by 
being placed alongside of her husband, while 
baskets of seeds were liberally emptied on their 
heads to denote blessings and plenty. This was 
likewise scrambled for by the spectators, who, 
on gathering up all the bride's seed cake, de- 
parted, leaving them to enjoy their honeymoon 
according to usage. A grand dance was given 
on the occasion, the warriors doing the danc- 
ing, the young women doing the singing. The 
wife never visited her relatives from that day 
forth, although they were at liberty to visit her." 

BURI.\LS. 

"When a person died all the kin collected to 
mourn his or her loss. Each one had his own 
peculiar mode of crying or howling, as easily dis- 
tinguished the one from the other as one song 
is from another. After lamenting awhile a 
mourning dirge was sung in a low whining tone, 
accompanied bv a shrill whistle produced by 
blowing into the tube of a deer's leg bone. 



Dancing can hardly be said to have formed a 
part of the rites, as it was merely a monotonous 
action of the foot on the ground. This was con- 
tinued alternately until the body showed signs 
of decay, when it was wrapped in the covering 
used in life. The hands were crossed upon the 
breast and the body tied from head to foot. A 
grave having been dug in their burial ground, 
the body was deposited with seeds, etc., accord- 
ing to the means of the family. If the deceased 
were the head of the family or a favorite son, 
the hut in which he lived was burned up, as 
likewise were all his personal effects." 

FEUDS THE SONG FIGHTS. 

"Animosity between persons or families was 
of long duration, particularly between those of 
different tribes. These feuds descended from 
father to son until it was impossible to tell of 
how many generations. They were, however, 
harmless in themselves, being merely a war of 
songs, composed and sung against the conflict- 
ing party, and they were all of the most obscene 
and indecent language imaginable. There are 
two families at this day (1851) whose feud com- 
menced before the Spaniards were ever dreamed 
of and they still continue singing and dancing 
against each other. The one resides at the mis- 
sion of San Gabriel and the other at San Juan 
Capistrano; they both lived at San Bernardino 
when the quarrel commenced. During the sing- 
ing they continue stamping on the ground to 
express the pleasure they would derive from 
tramping on the graves of their foes. Eight days 
was the duration of the song fight." 

UTENSILS. 

"From the bark of nettles was manufactured 
thread for nets, fishing lines, etc. Needles, fish- 
hooks, awls and many other articles were made 
of either bone or shell; for cutting up meat a 
knife of cane was invariably used. Mortars and 
pestles were made of granite. Sharp stones and 
perseverance were the only things used in their 
manufacture, and so skillfully did they combine 
the two that their work was always remarkably 
uniform. Their pots to cook in were made of 
soapstone of about an inch in thickness and 
procured from the Indians of Santa Catalina. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



53 



Their baskets, made out of a certain species df 
rush, were used only for dry purposes, although 
they were water proof. The vessels in use for 
liquids were roughly made of rushes and jjlas- 
tered outside and in with bitumen or pitch." 

INDIANS OK THE S.VNTA BARBARA CHAX.NEL. 

Miguel Constanso, the engineer who accom- 
panied Portola's expedition in 1769, gives us the 
best description of the Santa Barbara Indians 
extant. 

"The Indians in whom was recognized more 
vivacity and industry are those that inhabit the 
islands and the coast of the Santa Barbara 
channel. They live in pueblos (villages) whose 
houses arc of spherical form in the fashion of a 
lialf orange covered with rushes. They are up 
to twenty varas (fifty-five feet) in diameter. Each 
house contains three or four families. The 
hearth is in the middle and in the top of the 
house they leave a vent or chimney to give exit 
for the smoke. In nothing did these gentiles 
give the lie to the affability and good treatment 
which were experienced at their hands in other 
times (1602) by the Spaniards who landed upon 
those coasts with General Sebastian Vizcayno. 
They are men and women of good figure and as- 
pect, very much given to painting and staining 
their faces and bodies with red ochre. 

"They use great head dresses of feathers and 
some panderellas (small darts) which they bind 
up amid their hair with various trinkets and 
beads of coral of various colors. The men go 
entirely naked, but in time of cold they sport 
some long capes of tanned skins of nutrias (ot- 
ters) and some mantles made of the same skins 
cut in long strips, which they twist in such a 
manner that all the fur remains outside; then 
they weave these strands one with another, 
forming a weft, and give it the pattern referred 
to. 

"The women go with more decency, girt 
about the waist with tanned skins of deer which 
cover them in front and behind more than half 
down the leg, and with a mantelet of nutria over 
the body. There are some of them with good 
features. These are the Indian women who 
make the trays and vases of rushes, to which 
they give a thousand different forms and grace- 



ful patterns, according to the uses to which they 
are destined, whether it be for eating, drinking, 
guarding their seeds, or for other purposes; for 
these peoples do not know the use of earthen 
ware as those of San Diego use it. 

"The men work handsome tra\s of wood, with 
finer inlays of coral or of bone; and some vases 
of nuich capacity, closing at the mouth, which 
appear to be made with a lathe — and with this 
machine they would not come out better hol- 
lowed nor of more perfect form. They give the 
whole a luster which appears the finished handi- 
work of a skilled artisan. The large vessels 
which hold water are of a very strong weave of 
rushes jjitched within ; and they give them the 
same form as our water jars. 

"To eat the seeds which they use in place of 
bread they toast them first in great trays, put- 
ting among the seeds some pebbles or small 
stones heated until red; then they move and 
shake the tray so it may not burn ; and getting 
the seed sufficiently toasted they grind it in mor- 
tars or almireses of stone. Some of these mor- 
tars were of extraordinary size, as well wrought 
as if they had had for the purpose the best steel 
tools. The constancy, attention to trifles, and 
labor which they employ in finishing these pieces 
are well worthy of admiration. The mortars are 
so appreciated among themselves that for those 
who, dying, leave behind such handiworks, they 
are wont to place them over the s])ot where they 
are buried, that the memory of their skill and 
application may not be lost. 

"They inter their dead. They have their cem- 
eteries within the very pueblo. The funerals of 
their captains they make with great pomp, and 
set up over their bodies some rods or poles, ex- 
tremely tall, from wdiich they hang a variety of 
utensils and chattels which w-ere used by them. 
They likewise put in the sarne place some great 
planks of pine, with various paintings and fig- 
ures in which without doubt they explain the 
exploits and prowesses of the personage. 

"Plurality of wives is not lawful among these 
peoples. Only the captains have a right to 
inarry two. In all their pueblos the attention 
was taken by a species of men who lived like the 
women, kept company with them, dressed in the 
same garb, adorned themselves with beads, pen- 



54 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



dants, necklaces and other womanish adorn- 
ments, and enjoyed great consideration among 
the people. The lack of an interpreter did not 
permit us to find out what class of men they 
were, or to what ministry they were destined, 
though all suspect a defect in sex, or some 
abuse among those gentiles. 

"In their houses the married couples have 
their separate beds on platforms elevated from 
the ground. Their mattresses are some simple 
petates (mats) of rushes and their pillows are 
of the same petates rolled up at the head of the 
bed. All these beds are hung about with like 
mats, which serve for decency and protect from 
the cold." 

From the descriptions given by Viscaino and 
Constanso of the coast Indians they do not ap- 
pear to have been the degraded creatures that 
some modern writers have pictured them. In 
mechanical ingenuity they were superior to the 
Indians of the Atlantic seaboard or those of the 
Mississippi valley. Much of the credit that has 
been given to the mission padres for the patient 
training thev gave the Indians in mechanical 
arts should be given to the Indian himself. He 
was no mean mechanic when the padres took 
him in hand. 

Bancroft says "the Northern California In- 
dians were in every way superior to the central 
and southern tribes." The difference was more 
in climate than in race. Those of Northern Cal- 
ifornia living in an invigorating climate were 
more active and more warlike than their 
sluggish brethren of the south. They gained 
their living by hunting larger game than 
those of the south whose subsistence was derived 
mostly from acorns, seed's, small game and fish. 
Those of the interior valleys of the north were 
of lighter complexion and had better forms and 
features than their southern kinsmen. Thev 
v.-ere divided into numerous small tribes or 
clans, like those of central and Southern Cali- 
fornia. The Spaniards never penetrated very 
far into the Indian country of the north and 
consequently knew little or nothing about the 
habits and customs of the aborigines there. 
After the discovery of gold the miners invaded 
their country in search of the precious metal. 
The Indians at first were not hostile, but ill 



treatment soon made them so. When they re- 
taliated on the whites a war of extermination 
was waged against them. Like the mission In- 
dians of the south they are almost extinct. 

All of the coast Indians seem to have had 
some idea of a supreme being. The name dif- 
fered with the difYerent tribes. According to 
Hugo Reid the god of the San Gabriel Indian 
was named Quaoar. Father Boscana, who 
wrote "A Historical Account of the Origin, 
Customs and Traditions of the Indians" at the 
missionary establishment of San Juan Capis- 
trano, published in Alfred Robinson's "Life in 
California," gives a lengthy account of the relig- 
ion of those Indians before their conversion to 
Christianity. Their god was Chinigchinich. Evi- 
dently the three old men from whom Boscana 
derived his information mi.xed some of the 
religious teachings of the padres with their 
own primitive beliefs, and made up for the father 
a nondescript religion half heathen and half 
Christian. Boscana was greatly pleased to find 
so many allusions to .Scriptural truths, evidently 
never suspecting that the Indians were imposing 
upon him. 

The religious belief of the Santa Barbara 
Channel Indians appears to have been the most 
rational of any of the beliefs held by the Cali- 
fornia aborigines. Their god, Chupu, was the 
deification of good; and Nunaxus, their Satan, 
the personification of evil. Chupu the all-powerful 
created Nunaxus, who rebelled against his cre- 
ator and tried to overthrow him; but Chupu, the 
almighty, punished him by creating man who, by 
devouring the animal and vegetable products of 
the earth, checked the physical growth of 
Nunaxus, who had hoped by liberal feeding to 
become like unto a mountain. Foiled in his am- 
bition, Nunaxus ever afterwards sought to in- 
jure mankind. To secure Chupu's protection, 
ofiferings were made to him and dances were 
instituted in his honor. Flutes and other in- 
struments were played to attract his attention. 
When Nunaxus brought calamity upon the In- 
dians in the shape of dry years, which caused a 
dearth of animal and vegetable products, or sent 
sickness to afilict them, their old men interceded 
with Chupu to protect them; and to exorcise 
their Satan thev shot arrows and threw 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



55 



stones in the direction in which he was sup- 
posed to be. 

Of the Indian myths and traditions Hugo 
Reid says: "They were of incredible length 
and contained more metamorphoses than Ovid 
could have engendered in his brain had he lived 
a thousand years." 

The Cahuilla tribes who formerly inhabited 
the mountain districts of the southeastern part 
of the state had a tradition of their creation. Ac- 
cording to this tradition the primeval Adam and 
Eve were created by the Supreme Being in the 
waters of a northern sea. They came up out 
of the water upon the land, which they found to 
be soft and miry. They traveled southward for 
many moons in search of land suitable for their 
residence and where they could obtain susten- 
ance from the earth. This they found at last on 
the mountain sides in Southern California. 

Some of the Indian myths when divested of 
their crudities and ideas clothed in fitting 
language are as poetical as those of Greece or 
Scandinavia. The following one which Hugo 
Reid found among the San Gabriel Indians 
bears a striking resemblance to the Grecian 
myths of Orpheus and Eurydice but it is not at 
all probable that the Indians ever heard the 
Grecian fable. Ages ago, so runs this Indian 
myth, a powerful people dwelt On the banks of 
the Arroyo Seco and hunted over the hills and 
plains of what are now our modern Pasadena 
and the valley of San Fernando. They com- 
mitted a grievous crime against the Great Spirit. 
A pestilence destroyed them all save a boy and 
girl who were saved by a foster mother pos- 
sessed of supernatural powers. They grew to 
manhood and womanhood and became husband 
and wife. Their devotion to each other angered 
the foster mother, who fancied herself neglected. 
She plotted to destroy the wife. The young 
woman, divining her fate, told her husband that 
should he at any time feel a tear drop on his 
shoulder, he might know that she was dead. 
While he was away hunting the dread signal 
came. He hastened back to destroy the hag who 
had brought death to his wife, but the sorceress 
had escaped. Disconsolate he threw himself on 
the grave of his wife. For three days he neither 
ate nor drank. On the third dav a whirlwind 



arose from the grave and moved toward the 
south. Perceiving in it the form of his wife, he 
hastened on until he overtook it. Then a voice 
came out of the cloud saying: "Whither I go, 
thou canst not come. Thou art of earth but I 
am dead to the world. Return, my husband, 
return!" He plead piteously to be taken with 
her. She consenting, he was wrapt in the cloud 
with her and borne across the illimitable sea»that 
separates the abode of the living from that of 
the dead. When they reached the realms of 
ghosts a spirit voice said: "Sister, thou comest 
to us with an odor of earth; what dost thou 
bring?" Then she confessed that she had 
brought her living husband. "Take him away!" 
said a voice stern and commanding. She plead 
that he might remain and recounted his many 
virtues. To test his virtues, the spirits gave hi:n 
four labors. First to bring a feather from the 
top of a pole so high that its summit was in- 
visible. Xe.xt to split a hair of great length and 
exceeding fineness; third to make on the ground 
a map of the constellation of the lesser bear and 
locate the north star and last to slay the celestial 
deer that had the form of black beetles and were 
exceedingly swift. With the aid of his wife he 
accomplished all the tasks. 

But no mortal was allowed to dwell in the 
abodes of death. "Take thou thy wife and re- 
turn with her to the earth," said the spirit. "Yet 
remember, thou shalt not speak to her; thou 
shall not touch her until three suns have passed. 
A penalty aw^aits thy disobedience." He prom- 
ised. They pass from the spirit land and travel 
to the confines of matter. By dav she is invis- 
ible but by the flickering light of his camp-fire 
he sees the dim outline of her form. Three davs 
pass. .As the sun sinks behind the western hills 
he builds his camp-fire. She appears before 
him in all the beauty of life. He stretches forth 
iiis arms to embrace her. She is snatched from, 
his grasp, .'\lthough invisible to him yet the 
upper rim of the great orb of day hung above 
the w-estern verge. He had broken his prom- 
ise. Like Orpheus, disconsolate, he wandered 
over the earth until, relenting, the spirits sent 
their servant Death to liring him to Tecupar 
(Heaven). 

The following myth of the mountain Indians 



56 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



of the north bears a strong resemblance to the 
Norse fable of Gyoll the River of Death and its 
glittering bridge, over which the spirits of the 
dead pass to Hel, the land of spirits. The In- 
dian, however, had no idea of any kind of a 
bridge except a foot log across a stream. The 
myth in a crude form was narrated to me many 
years ago by an old pioneer. 

According to this myth when an Indian died 
his spirit form was conducted by an unseen 
guide over a mountain trail unknown and inac- 
cessible to mortals, to the rapidly flowing river 
which separated the abode of the living from 
that of the dead. As the trail descended to the 
river it branched to the right and left. The right 
hand path led to a foot bridge made of the mas- 



sive trunk of a rough barked pine which spanned 
the Indian styx; the left led to a slender, fresh 
peeled birch pole that hung high above the roar- 
ing torrent. At the parting of the trail an in- 
exorable fate forced the bad to the left, while 
the spirit form of the good passed on to the 
right and over the rough barked pine to the 
happy hunting grounds, the Indian heaven. The 
bad reaching the river's brink and gazing long- 
ingly upon the delights beyond, essayed to cross 
the slippery pole — a slip, a slide, a clutch at 
empty space, and the ghostly spirit form was 
hurled into the mad torrent below, and was 
borne by the rushing waters into a vast lethean 
lake where it sunk beneath the waves and was 
blotted from existence forever. 



CHAPTER V. 



FRANCISCAN MISSIONS OF ALTA CALIFORNIA. 

San Diego de Alcala. 



THE two objective points chosen by Vis- 
itador General Galvez and President 
Junipero Serra to begin the spiritual 
conquest and civilization of the savages of Alta 
California, were San Diego and Monterey. The 
expeditions sent by land and sea were all united 
at San Diego July i, 1769. Father Serra lost no 
time in beginning the founding of missions. 
On the i6th of July, 1769, he founded the mis- 
sion of San Diego de Alcala. It was the first 
link in the chain of missionary establishments 
that eventually stretched northward from San 
Diego to Solano, a distance of seven hundred 
miles, a chain that was fifty-five years in forging. 
The first site of the San Diego mission was at 
a place called by the Indians "Cosoy." It was 
located near the presidio established by Gov- 
ernor Portola before he set out in search of 
Monterey. The locality is now knov^-n as Old 
Town. 

Temporary buildings were erected here but 
the location proved unsuitable and in August, 
1774, the mission was removed about two 
leagues up the San Diego river to a place called 
by the natives "Nipaguay." Here a dwelling for 



the padres, a store house, a smithy and a 
wooden church 18x57 feet were erected. 

The mission buildings at Cosoy were given 
up to the presidio except two rooms, one for 
the visiting priests and the other for a temporary 
store room for mission supplies coming by sea. 
The missionaries had been fairly successful in 
the conversions of the natives and some prog- 
ress had been made in teaching them to labor. 
On the night of November 4, 1775. without any 
previous warning, the gentiles or unconverted 
Indians in great numbers attacked the mission. 
(Jne of the friars. Fray Funster, escaped to the 
soldiers' quarters; the other. Father Jaume, was 
killed by the savages. The blacksmith also w-as 
killed ; the carpenter succeeded in reaching the 
soldiers. The Indians set fire to the buildings 
which were nearly all of wood. The soldiers, the 
priest and carpenter were driven into a small 
adobe building that had been used as a kitchen. 
Two of the soldiers were wounded. The cor- 
poral, one soldier and the carpenter were all 
that were left to hold at bay a thousand howl- 
ing fiends. The corporal, who was a sharji 
shooter, did deadly execution on the savages. 



HISTORICAL AND BTOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



57 



Father Funster saved tlie defenders from being 
blown to pieces by the explosion of a fifty pound 
sack of gunpowder. lie spread his cloak over 
the sack and sat on it, thus preventing the pow- 
der from being ignited by the sparks of the 
burning building. The fight lasted till daylight, 
when the hostiles fled. The Christian Indians 
who professed to have been coerced by the sav- 
ages then appeared and made many protesta- 
tions of sorrow at what had happened. The mili- 
tary commander was not satisfied that they were 
innocent but the padres believed them. New 
buildings were erected at the same place, the 
soldiers of the presidio for a time assisting the 
Indians in their erection. 

The mission was fairly prosperous. In 1800 
the cattle numbered 6,960 and the agricultural 
products amounted to 2,600 bushels. From 
1769 to 1834 there were 6,638 persons baptized 
and 4,428 buried. The largest number of cat- 
tle possessed by the mission at one time was 
9,245 head in 1822. The old building now stand- 
ing on the mission site at the head of the valley 
is the third church erected there. The first, 
built of wood and roofed with tiles, was erected 
in 1774; the second, built of adobe, was com- 
pleted in 1780 (the walls of this were badly 
cracked by an earthquake in 1803); the third was 
begun in 1808 and dedicated November 12, 
1813. The mission was secularized in 1834. 

S.-VN C.XRLOS DE BORROMEO. 

As narrated in a former chapter, Governor 
Portola, who with a small force had set out from 
San Diego to find Monterey Bay, reached that 
port May 24, 1770. Father Serra, who came 
up by sea on the San Antonia, arrived at the 
same place May 31. All things being in readi- 
ness the Presidio of Monterey and the mission 
of San Carlos de Borromeo were founded on 
the same day — June 3, 1770. The boom of ar- 
tillery and the roar of musketry accompani- 
ments to the service of the double founding 
frightened the Indians away from the mission 
and it was some time before the savages could 
muster courage to return. In June, i77i- the 
site of the mission was moved to the Carmelo 
river. Tliis was done by Father Serra to re- 
move the neophytes from the contaminating in- 



fluence of the soldiers at the presidio. The erec- 
tion of the stone church still standing was be- 
gun in 1793. It was completed and dedicated 
in 1797. The largest neophyte population at 
San Carlos was reached in 1794, when it num- 
bered nine hundred and seventy-one. Between 
1800 and 1810 it declined to seven hundred and 
forty-seven. In 1820 the population had de- 
creased to three hundred and eighty-one and 
at the end of the next decade it had fallen to 
two hundred and nine. In 1834, when the de- 
cree of secularization was put in force, there were 
about one hundred and fifty neophytes at the 
mission. At the rate of decrease under mission 
rule, a few more years would have pro- 
duced the same result that secularization did, 
namely, the extinction of the mission Indian. 

S.\N .\NT0.\I0 Die 1\\UU.\. 

The third mission founded in California was 
San Antonio de Padua. It was located about 
twenty-five leagues from Monterey. Here, on 
the 14th of June, 1771, in La Canada de los 
Robles, the cafion of oaks beneath a shelter of 
Ijranches, Father Serra performed the services 
of founding. The Indians seem to have been 
more tractable than those of San Diego or Mon- 
terey. The first convert was baptized one 
month after the establishment of the mission. 
San Antonio attained the highest limit of its 
neophyte population in 1805, when it had 
twelve hundred and ninety-six souls within its 
fold. In 183 1 there were six hundred and sixty- 
one Indians at or near the mission. In 1834, the 
date of secularization, there were five hundred 
and sixty-seven. After its disestablishment the 
property of the mission was quickly squandered 
through inefficient administrators. The build- 
ings are in ruins. 

SAN GABRIEL ARCANGEL. 

San Gabriel Arcangel was the fourth mission 
founded in California. Father Junipero Serra, 
as previously narrated, had gone north in 1770 
and founded the mission of San Carlos Bor- 
romeo on Monterey Bay and the following year 
he established the mission of San .\ntonio de 
Padua on the -Salinas river about twenty-five 
leagues south of Monterey. 



58 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



On the 6th of August, 1771, a cavalcade of 
soldiers and musketeers escorting Padres 
Somero and Canibon set out from San Diego 
over the trail made by Portola's expedition in 
1769 (when it went north in search of Monterey 
Bay) to found a new mission on the River Jesus 
de los Temblores or to give it its full name, El 
Rio del Dulcisimo Nombre de Jesus de los 
Temblores, the river of the sweetest name of 
Jesus of the Earthquakes. Not finding a suit- 
able location on that river (now the Santa Ana) 
they pushed on to the Rio San Miguel, also 
known as the Rio de los Temblores. Here 
they selected a site where wood and water were 
abundant. A stockade of poles was built inclos- 
ing a square within which a church was erected, 
covered with boughs. 

September 8, 1771, the mission was formally 
founded and dedicated to the archangel Gabriel. 
The Indians who at the coming of the Spaniards 
were docile and friendly, a few days after the 
founding of the mission suddenly attacked two 
soldiers who were guarding the horses. One of 
these soldiers had outraged the wife of the chief 
who led the attack. The soldier who committed 
the crime killed the chieftain with a musket ball 
and the other Indians fled. The soldiers then 
cut off the chief's head and fastened it to a pole 
at the presidio gate. From all accounts the sol- 
diers at this mission were more brutal and bar- 
barous than the Indians and more in need of 
missionaries to convert them than the Indians. 
The progress of the mission was slow. At the 
end of the second year only seventy-three chil- 
dren and adults had been baptized. Father Serra 
attributed the lack of conversions to the bad 
conduct of the soldiers. 

The first buildings at the mission Vieja were 
all of wood. The church was 45x18 feet, built of 
logs and covered with tule thatch. The church 
and other wooden buildings used by the padres 
stood within a square inclosed by pointed stakes. 
In 1776, five years after its founding, the mis- 
sion was moved from its first location to a new 
site about a league distant from the old one. 
The old site was subject to overflow by the 
river. The adobe ruins pointed out to tourists 
as the foundations of the old mission are the 
debris of a building erected for a ranch house 



about sixty years ago. The buildings at the 
mission Vieja were all of wood and no trace of 
them remains. A chapel was first built at the 
new site. It was replaced by a church built of 
adobes one hundred and eight feet long by 
twenty-one feet wide. The present stone church, 
begun about 1794, and completed about 1806, 
is the fourth church erected. 

The mission attained the acme of its impor- 
tance in 1 817, when there were seventeen hun- 
dred and one neophytes in the mission fold. 

The largest grain crop raised at any mission 
was that harvested at San Gabriel in 1821, which 
amounted to 29,400 bushels. The number ol cat- 
tle belonging to the mission in 1830 was 25,725. 
During the whole period of the mission's exist- 
ence, i. e., from 1771 to 1834, according to sta- 
tistics compiled by Bancroft from mission rec- 
ords, the total number of baptisms was 7,854, 
of which 4,355 were Indian adults and 2,459 
were Indian children and the remainder gente de 
razon or people of reason. The deaths were 
5,656, of which 2,916 were Indian adults and 
2,363 Indian children. If all the Indian children 
born were baptized it would seem (if the sta- 
tistics are correct) that but very few ever grew 
up to manhood and womanhood. In 1834, the 
year of its secularization, its neophyte popula- 
tion was 1,320. 

The missionaries of San Gabriel established 
a station at old San Bernardino about 1820. It 
was not an asistencia like pala, but merely an 
agricultural station or ranch headquarters. The 
buildings were destroyed by the Indians in 1834. 

SAX LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA. 

On his journey southward in 1782, President 
Serra and Padre Cavalier, with a small escort of 
soldiers and a few Lower California Indians, on 
September i, 1772, founded the mission of San 
Luis Obispo de Tolosa (St. Louis, Bishop of 
Tolouse). The site selected was on a creek 
twenty-five leagues southerly from San An- 
tonio. The soldiers and Indians were set at 
work to erect buildings. Padre Cavalier was left 
in charge of the mission. Father Serra continu- 
ing his journey southward. This mission was 
never a very important one. Its greatest popu- 
lation was in 1803. when there were eight 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



59 



luindred and fifty-two neophytes within its juris- 
diction. From that time to 1834 their number 
declined to two hundred and sixty-four. The 
average death rate was 7.30 per cent of the pop- 
ulation — a lower rate than at some of the more 
populous missions. The adobe church built in 
1793 is still in use, but has been so remodeled 
that it bears but little resemblance to the church 
of mission days. 

SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS. 

The expedition under command of Portola 
in 1769 failed to find Monterey Bay but it passed 
on and discovered the great bay of San Fran- 
cisco. So far no attempt had been made to 
plant a mission or presidio on its shores. Early 
in 1775, Lieutenant Ayala was ordered to ex- 
plore the bay with a view to forming a settle- 
ment near it. Rivera had previously explored 
the land bordering on the bay where the city 
now stands. Captain Anza, the discoverer of the 
overland route from Mexico to California via 
the Colorado river, had recruited an expedition 
of two hundred persons in Sonora for the pur- 
pose of forming a settlement at San Francisco. 
He set out in 1775 and reached Monterey March 
10, 1776. A quarrel between him and Rivera, 
who was in command at Monterey, defeated for 
a time the purpose for which the settlers had 
been brought, and Anza, disgusted with the 
treatment he had received from Rivera, aban- 
doned the enterprise. Anza had selected a site 
for a presidio at San Francisco. After his de- 
parture Rivera changed his policy of delay that 
had frustrated all of Anza's plans and decided at 
once to proceed to the establishment of a pre- 
sidio. The presidio was formally founded Sep- 
tember 17, 1776, at what is now known as Fort 
Point. The ship San Carlos had brought a num- 
ber of persons; these with the settlers who had 
come up from Monterey made an assemblage of 
more than one hundred and fifty persons. 

After the founding of the presidio Lieutenant 
Moraga in command of the military and Captain 
Quiros of the San Carlos, set vigorously at work 
to build a church for the mission. A wooden 
building having been constructed on the 9th of 
October, 1776, the mission was dedicated. 
Father Palou conducting the service, assisted by 



Fathers Cambon, Nocedal and Pcna. The site 
selected for the mission was on the Laguna de 
los Dolores. The lands at the mission were not 
very productive. The mission, however, was 
fairly prosperous. In 1820 it owned 11,240 cat- 
tle and the total product of wheat was 114.480 
bushels. In 1820 there were 1,252 neophytes 
attached to it. The death rate was very heavy — 
the average rate being 12.4 per cent of the pop- 
ulation. In 1832 the population had do^creased 
to two hundred and four and at the time of 
secularization it had declined to one hundred 
and fifty. A number of neophytes had been 
taken to the new mission of San Francisco So- 
lano. 

SAN JUA.N CAl'ISTUAXO. 

The revolt of the Indians at .San Diego de- 
layed the founding of San Juan Capistrano a 
year. October 30, 1775, the initiatory services 
of the founding had been held when a messenger 
came with the news of the uprising of the sav- 
ages and the massacre of Father Jaume and 
others. The bells which had been hung on a 
tree were taken down and buried. The soldiers 
and the padres hastened to San Diego. Novem- 
ber I, 1776, Fathers Serra, Mugartegui and 
Amurrio, with an escort of soldiers, arrived at 
the site formerly selected. The bells were dug up 
and hung on a tree, an enramada of boughs was 
constructed and Father Serra said mass. The 
first location of the mission was several miles 
northeasterly from the present site at the foot 
of the mountain. The abandoned site is still 
known a la Mision Vieja (the Old Mission). 
Just when the change of location was made is 
not known. 

The erection of a stone church was begun in 
February, 1797, and completed in 1806. A 
master builder had been brought from Mexico 
and under his superintendence the neophytes 
did the mechanical labor. It was the largest and 
handsomest church in California and was the 
pride of mission architecture. The year 1812 
was known in California as el ano dc los tem- 
])lores — the year of earthquakes. For months 
the seismic disturbance was almost continuous. 
On Sunday, December 8, 1812, a severe shock 
threw down the lofty church tower, which 
crashed through the vaulted roof on the congre- 



GO 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



gatioi) below. The padre who was celebrating 
mass escaped through the sacristy. Of the fifty 
persons present only five or six escaped. The 
church was never rebuilt. "There is not much 
doubt," says Bancroft, "that the disaster was 
due rather to faulty construction than to the 
violence of the temblor." The edifice was of the 
usual cruciform shape, about 90x180 feet on 
the ground, with very thick walls and arched 
dome-like roof all constructed of stones imbed- 
ded in mortar or cement. The stones were not 
hewn, but of irregular size and shape, a kind of 
structure evidently requiring great skill to en- 
sure solidity. The mission reached its maxi- 
nnim in 1819; from that on till the date of its 
secularization there was a rapid decline in the 
numbers of its live stock and of its neophytes. 

This was one of the missions in which Gov- 
ernor Figueroa tried his experiment of forming 
Indian pueblos of the neophytes. For a time 
the experiment was a partial success, but even- 
tually it went the way of all the other missions. 
Its lands were granted to private individuals 
and the neophytes scattered. Its picturesque 
ruins are a great attraction to tourists. 

SANTA CLAR.\. 

The mission of Santa Clara was founded Jan- 
uary 12, 1777. The site had been selected some 
time before and two missionaries designated for 
service at it, but the comandante of the terri- 
tory, Rivera y Moncada, who was an exceed- 
ingly obstinate person, had opposed the found- 
ing on various pretexts, but posititve orders 
coming from the viceroy Rivera did not longer 
delay, so on the 6th of January, 1777, a detach- 
ment of soldiers under Lieutenant Aloraga, ac- 
companied by Father Pena, was sent from San 
Francisco to the site selected which was about 
sixteen leagues south of San Francisco. Here 
under an enramada the services of dedication 
were held. The Indians were not averse to re- 
ceiving a new religion and at the close of the 
year sixty-seven had been baptized. 

The mission was quite prosperous and be- 
came one of the most important in the territory. 
It was located in the heart of a rich agricul- 
tural district. The total product of wheat was 
175,800 bushels. In 1828 the mission flocks and 



herds numbered over 30,000 animals. The 

neophyte population in 1827 was 1,464. The 

death rate was high, averaging 12.63 per cent 

of the population. The total number of bap- 
tisms was 8,640; number of deaths 6,950. In 

1834 the population had declined to 800. 
Secularization was effected in 1837. 

SAN BUENAVENTURA. 

The founding of San Buenaventura had been 
long delayed. It was to have been among the 
first missions founded by Father Serra; it proved 
to be his last. On the 26th of March, 1782, 
Governor de Neve, accompanied by Father 
Serra (who had come down afoot from San 
Carlos), and Father Cambon, with a convoy of 
soldiers and a number of neophytes, set out 
from San Gabriel to found the mission. At the 
first camping place Governor de Neve was re- 
called to San Gabriel by a message from Col. 
Pedro Fazes, informing him of the orders of the 
council of war to proceed against the Yumas 
who had the previous year destroyed the two 
missions on the Colorado river and massacred 
the missionaries. 

On the 29th, the remainder of the company 
reached a place on the coast named by Portola 
in 1769, Asuncion de Nuestra Senora, which 
had for some time been selected for a mission 
site. Near it was a large Indian rancheria. On 
Easter Sunday, Alarch 31st, the mission was for- 
mally founded with the usual ceremonies and 
dedicated to San Buenaventura (Giovanni de 
Fidanza of Tuscany), a follower of St. Francis, 
the founder of the Franciscans. 

The progress of the mission was slow at first, 
only two adults were baptized in 1782, the 
year of its founding. The first buildings built 
of wood were destroyed by fire. The church 
still used for service, built of brick and adobe, 
was completed and dedicated, September 9, 1809. 
The earthquake of December 8, 181 2, damaged 
the church to such an extent that the tower 
and part of the facade had to be rebuilt. After 
the earthquake the whole site of the mission 
for a time seemed to be sinking. The inhabi- 
tants, fearful of being engulfed by the sea, re- 
moved to San Joaquin y Santa Ana, where they 
remained several months. The mission at- 




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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



61 



taincd its greatest prosperity in 1816, when its 
neophyte population numbered 1,330 and it 
owned 23,400 cattle. 

SANTA BARBARA. 

Governor Felipe dc Neve founded the presidio 
of Santa liarbara April 2\. 1782. Father Scrra 
had hoped to found the mission at the same time, 
but in ihis he was disappointed. His death in 
1784 still further delayed the founding and it 
was not until the latter part of 1786 that every- 
thing was in readiness for the establishing of 
the new mission. On the 22d of November 
Father Lasuen, who had succeeded Father 
Serra as president of the missions, arrived at 
Santa Barbara, accompanied by two missiona- 
ries recently from Mexico. He selected a site 
about a mile distant from the presidio. The 
place was called Taynagan (Rocky Hill) by the 
Indians. There was a plentiful supply of stone 
on the site for building and an abundance of 
water for irrigation. 

On the 15th of December, 1786, Father 
Lasuen, in a hut of boughs, celebrated the first 
mass ; but December 4, the day that the fiesta of 
Santa Barbara is commemorated, is considered 
the date of its founding. Part of the services 
were held on that day. A chapel built of adobes 
and roofed with thatch was erected in 1787. Sev- 
eral other buildings of adobe were erected the 
same year. In 1788, tile took the place of 
thatch. In 1789, a second church, much larger 
than the first, was built. A third church of adobe 
was commenced in 1793 and finished in 1794. 
A brick portico was added in 1795 and the walls 
plastered. 

The great earthquake of December, 1812, de- 
molished the mission church and destroyed 
nearly all the buildings. The years 1813 and 
1814 were spent in removing the debris of the 
ruined buildings and in preparing for the erec- 
tion of new ones. The erection of the present 
mission church was begun in 18 15. It was com- 
pleted and dedicated September 10, 1820. 

Father Caballeria, in his History of Santa 
Barbara, gives the dimensions of the church as 
follows: "Length (including walls), sixty varas; 
width, fourteen varas; height, ten varas fa vara 
is thirty-four inches)." The walls are of stone 



and rest on a foundation of rock and cement. 
They are six feet thick and are further strength- 
ened by buttresses. Notwithstanding the build- 
ing has withstood the storms of four score years, 
it is still in an excellent state of preservation. 
Its exterior has not been disfigured by attempts 
at modernizing. 

The highest neophyte population was reached 
at Santa Barbara in 1803, when it numbered 
1,792. The largest number of cattle was 5,200 in 
1809. In 1834, the year of secularization, the 
neophytes numbered 556, which was a decrease 
of 155 from the number in 1830. At such a rate 
of decrease it would not, even if mission rule 
had continued, have taken more than a dozen 
years to depopulate the mission. 

I. A PUKISIMA CONCEPCION. 

Two m!-.-ions, San Buenaventura and Santa 
Barbara, had been founded on the Santa Bar- 
bara channel in accordance with Neve's report of 
1777, in which he recommended the founding of 
three missions and a presidio in that district. 
It was the intention of General La Croix to con- 
duct these on a difTerent plan from that prevail- 
ing in the older missions. The natives were not 
to be gathered into a missionary establishment, 
but were to remain in their rancherias, which 
were to be converted into mission pueblos. The 
Indians were to receive instruction in religion, 
industrial arts and self-government while com- 
paratively free from restraint. The plan which 
no doubt originated with Governor de Neve, 
was a good one theoretically, and possibly might 
have been practically. The missionaries were 
bitterly opposed to it. L^nfortunately it was 
tried first in the Colorado river missions among 
the fierce and treacherous Yumas. The mas- 
sacre of the padres and soldiers of these mis- 
sions was attributed to this innovation. 
■ In establishing the channel missions the mis- 
sionaries opposed the inauguration of this plan 
and by their persistence succeeded in setting it 
aside: and the old system was adopted. La 
Purisima Coficepcion, or the Immaculate Con- 
ception of the Blessed \^irgin, the third of the 
channel missions, was founded December 8, 
1787. by Father Lasuen at a place called by the 
natives Algsacupi. Its location is about twelve 



62 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



miles from the ocean on the Santa Ynez river. 
Three years after its founding three hundred 
converts had been baptized but not all of them 
lived at the mission. The first cliurch was a 
temporary structure. The second church, built 
of adobe and roofed with tile, was completed in 
1802. December 21, 1812, an earthquake de- 
molished the church and. also about one hundred 
adobe houses of the neophytes. A site across 
the river and about four miles distant from the 
former one, was selected for new buildings. A 
temporary building for a church was erected 
there. A new church, built of adobe and roofed 
with tile, was completed and dedicated in 1818. 

The Indians revolted in 1824 and damaged 
the building. They took possession of it and a 
battle lasting four hours was fought between one 
hundred and thirty soldiers and four hundred 
Indians. The neophytes cut loop holes in the 
church and used two old rusty cannon and a 
few guns they possessed; but, unused to fire 
arms, they were routed with the loss of several 
killed. During the revolt which lasted several 
months four white men and fifteen or twenty In- 
dians were killed. The hostiles, most of whom 
fled to the Tulares, were finally subdued. The 
leaders were punished with imprisonment and 
the others returned to their missions. 

This mission's population was largest in 1804, 
when it numbered 1,520. In 1834 there were but 
407 neophytes connected with it. It was secular- 
ized in February, 1835. During mission rule 
from 1787 to 1834, the total number of Indian 
children baptized was 1,492; died 902, which was 
a lower death rate than at most of the southern 
missions. 

SANTA CRUZ. 

Santa Cruz, one of the smallest of the twenty- 
one missions of California, was founded Septem- 
ber 25, 1790. The mission was never very pros- 
perous. In 1798 many of the neophytes de- 
serted and the same year a flood covered the 
planting fields and damaged the church. In 1812 
the neophytes murdered the missionary in 
charge. Padre Andres Ouintana. They claimed 
that he had treated them with great cruelty. 
Five of those implicated in the murder received 
two hundred lashes each and were sentenced to 
work in chains from two to ten years. Only 



one survived the punishment. The maximum 
of its population was reached in 1798, when 
there were six hundred and forty-four Indians 
in the mission fold. The total number bap- 
tized from the date of its founding to 1834 was 
2,466; the total number of deaths was 2,034. The 
average death rate was 10.93 P^'' cent of the 
population. At the time of its secularization in 
1834 there were only two hundred and fifty In- 
dians belonging to the mission. 

LA SOLEDAD. 

The mission of our Lady of Solitude was 
founded September 29, 1791. The site selected 
had borne the name Soledad (solitude) ever 
since the first exploration of the country. The 
location was thirty miles northeast of San Car- 
los de Monterey. La Soledad, by which name 
it was generally known, was unfortunate in its 
early missionaries. One of them, Padre Gracia, 
was supposed to be insane and the other. Padre 
Rubi, was very immoral. Rubi was later on ex- 
pelled from his college for licentiousness. At 
the close of the century the mission had become 
fairly prosperous, but in 1802 an epidemic broke 
out and five or six deaths occurred daily. The 
Indians in alarm fled from the mission. The 
largest population of the mission was seven 
hundred and twenty-five in 1805. At the time 
of secularization its population had decreased to 
three hundred. The total number of baptisms 
during its existence was 2,222; number of deaths 
1,803. 

SAN JOSE. 

St. Joseph had been designated by the visita- 
dor General Galvez and Father Junipero Serra 
as the patron saint of the mission colonization of 
California. Thirteen missions had been founded 
and yet none had been dedicated to San Jose. 
Orders came from Mexico that one be estab- 
lished and named for him. Accordingly a de- 
tail of a corporal and five men, accompanied by 
Father Lasuen, president of the missions, pro- 
ceeded to the site selected, which was about 
twelve miles northerly from the pueblo of San 
Jose. There, on June 11, 1797, the mission was 
founded. The mission was well located agricul- 
turally and became one of the most prosperous 
in California. In 1820 it had a population of 




o 
w 

Q 

y, 

D 

o 



>- 
3 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



63 



1,754, the highest of any mission except San 
Luis Key. The total number of baptisms from 
its founding to 1834 was 6,737; deaths 5,109. 
Secularization was effected in 1836-37. The to- 
tal valuation of the mission property, not in- 
cluding lands or the church, was $155,000. 

SAN JUAN BAUTISTA. 

In May, 1797, Governor Borica ordered the 
comandante at Monterey to detail a corporal 
and five soldiers to proceed to a site that had 
been previously chosen for a mission which was 
about ten leagues northeast from Monterey. 
Here the soldiers erected of wood a church, 
priest's house, granary and guard house. June 
24, 1797, President Lasuen, assisted by Fathers 
Catala and Martiari, founded the mission of 
San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist). At 
the close of the year, eighty-five converts had 
been baptized. The neighboring Indian tribes 
were hostile and some of them had to be killed 
before others learned to behave themselves. A 
new church, measuring 60x160 feet, was com- 
pleted and dedicated in 1812. San Juan was the 
only mission whose population increased between 
1820 and 1830. This was due to the fact that its 
numbers were recruited from the eastern tribes, 
its location being favorable for obtaining new 
recruits from the gentiles. The largest popula- 
tion it ever reached was 1,248 in 1823. In 1834 
there were but 850 neophytes at the mission. 

S.'VN MIGUEL. 

Midway between the old missions of San An- 
tonio and San Luis Obispo, on the 25th of July, 
1797, was founded the mission of San Miguel 
Arcangel. The two old missions contributed 
horses, cattle and sheep to start the new one. 
The mission had a propitious beginning; fifteen 
children were baptized on the day the mission 
was founded. At the close of the century the 
number of converts reached three hundred and 
eighty-five, of whom fifty-three had died. Tlie 
mission population numbered 1,076 in 1814; 
after that it steadily declined until, in 1834, there 
were only 599 attached to the establishment. 
Total number of baptisms was 2,588; deaths 
2,038. The average death rate was 6.91 per 
cent of the population, the lowest rate in any 



of the missions. The mission was secularized 
in 1836. 

SAN FERNA.NDO RICY DE ESPAN.\. 

In the closing years of the century explora- 
tions were made for new mission sites in Cali- 
fornia. These were to be located between mis- 
sions already founded. Among those selected 
at that time was the site of the mission San Fer- 
nando on the Encino Ranclio, then occupied by 
I'^ancisco Reyes. Reyes surrendered whatever 
right he had to the land and the padres occupied 
his house for a dwelling while new buildings 
were in the course of erection. 

September 8, 1797, with the usual ceremo- 
nies, the mission was founded by President 
Lasuen, assisted by Father Dumetz. .\ccording 
to instructions from Mexico it was dedicated to 
San Fernando Rey de Espana (Fernando III., 
King of Spain, 1217-1251). At the end of the 
year 1797, fifty-five converts had been gathered 
into the mission fold and at the end of the cen- 
tury three hundred and fifty-two had been bap- 
tized. 

The adobe church began before the close of 
the century was completed and dedicated in De- 
cember, 1806. It had a tiled roof. It was but 
slightly injured by the great earthquakes of De- 
cember, 1812, which were so destructive to the 
mission buildings at San Juan Capistrano, Santa 
Barbara, La Purisima and Santa Ynez. This 
mission reached its greatest prosperity in 1819, 
when its neophyte population numbered 1,080. 
The largest number of cattle owned by it at one 
time was 12,800 in 1819. 

Its decline was not so rapid as that of some 
of the other missions, but the death rate, espe- 
cially among the children, was fully as high. Of 
the 1,367 Indian children baptized there during 
the existence of mission rule 965, or over seventy 
per cent, died in childhood. It was not strange 
that the fearful death rate both of children and 
adults at the missions sometimes frightened 
the neophytes into running away. 

SAN LUIS Rr.V Die 1-KANCL\. 

Several explorations had been made for a mis- 
sion site between San Diego and San Juan 
Capistrano. There was quite a large Indian 



04 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



population that had not been brought into the 
folds of either mission. In October, 1797, a 
new exploration of this territory was ordered 
and a site was finally selected, although the ag- 
ricultural advantages were regarded as not sat- 
isfactory. 

Governor Borica, February 28, 1798, issued 
orders to the comandante at San Diego to 
furnish a detail of soldiers to aid in erecting the 
necessary buildings. June 13, 1798, President 
Lasuen, the successor of President Serra, as- 
sisted by Fathers Peyri and Santiago, with the 
usual services, founded the new mission. It 
was named San Luis Rey de Francia (St. Louis. 
King of France). Its location was near a river 
on which was bestowed the name of the mis- 
sion. The mission flourished from its very be- 
ginning. Its controlling power was Padre An- 
tonio Peyri. He remained in charge of it from 
its founding almost to its downfall, in all thirty- 
three years. He was a man of great executive 
abilities and under his administration it be- 
came one of the largest and most prosperous 
missions in California. It reached its maximum 
in 1826, when its neophyte population numbered 
2,869, tlie largest number at one time connected 
with any mission in the territory. 

The asistencia or auxiliary mission of San 
Antonio was established at Pala, seven leagues 
easterly from the parent mission. A chapel was 
erected here and regular services held. One of 
the padres connected with San Luis Rey was 
in charge of this station. Father Peyri left Cal- 
ifornia in 1831, with the exiled Governor Mc- 
toria. He went to ^lexico and from there to 
Spain and lastly to Rome, where he died. The 
mission was converted into an Indian pueblo in 
1834, but the pueblo was not a success. Most 
of the neophytes drifted to Los Angeles and 
San Gabriel. During the Mexican conquest 
American troops were stationed there. It has 
recently been partially repaired and is now used 
for a Franciscan school under charge of Father 
J. J. O'Keefe. 

SANTA YNEZ. 

Santa Ynez was the last mission founded in 
Southern California. It was established Sep- 
tember 17. 1804. Its location is about forty miles 



northwesterly from Santa Barbara, on the east- 
erly side of the Santa Ynez mountains and 
eighteen miles southeasterly from La Purisima. 
Father Tapis, president of the missions from 
1803 to 1812, preached the sermon and was 
assisted in the ceremonies by Fathers Cipies, 
Calzada and Gutierrez. Carrillo, the comandante 
at the presidio, was present, as were also a num- 
ber of neophytes from Santa Barbara and La 
Purisima. Some of these were transferred to 
the new mission. 

The earthquake of December, 1812, shook 
down a portion of the church and destroyed a 
number of the neophytes' houses. In 1815 the 
erection of a new church was begun. It was built 
of adobes, lined with brick, and was completed 
and dedicated July 4, 1817. The Indian revolt of 
1824, described in the sketch of La Purisima, 
broke out first at this mission. The neophytes 
took possession of the church. The mission 
guard defended themselves and the padre. At 
the approach of the troops from Santa Barbara 
the Indians fled to La Purisima. 

San Ynez attained its greatest population, 
770, in 1816. In 1834 its population had de- 
creased to 334. From its founding in 1804 to 
1834, when the decrees of secularization were 
put in force, 757 Indian children were baptized 
and 519 died, leaving only 238, or about thirty 
per cent of those baptized to grow up. 

SAN RAFAEL. 

San Rafael was the first mission established 
north of the Bay of San Francisco. It was 
founded December 14, 1817. At first it was an 
asistencia or branch of San Francisco. An epi- 
demic had broken out in the Mission Dolores 
and a number of the Indians were transferred to 
San Rafael to escape the plague. Later on it 
attained to the dignity of a mission. In 1828 its 
population was 1,140. After 1830 it began to 
decline and at the time of its secularization in 
1834 there were not more than 500 connected 
with it. In the seventeen years of its existence 
under mission rule there were 1,873 baptisms and 
698 deaths. The average death rate was 6.09 
per cent of the population. The mission was 
secularized in 1834. All traces of the mission 
building have disappeared. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



65 



SAN FRANCISCO SOLANO. 

The mission of San I'Vancisco de Asis had 
fallen into a rapid decline. The epidemic that 
had carried ofif a number of the neophytes and 
had caused the transfer of a considerable num- 
ber to San Rafael had greatly reduced its popu- 
lation. Besides, the sterility of the soil in the 
vicinity of the mission necessitated going a long- 
distance for agricultural land and pasturage for 
the herds and Hocks. On this account and also 
for the reason that a number of new converts 
might be obtained from the gentiles living in 
the district north of the bay, Governor Arguello 
and the mission authorities decided to establish 
a mission in that region. Explorations were 
made in June and July, 1823. On the 4th of 
July a site was selected, a cross blessed and 
raised, a volley of musketry fired and mass said 
at a place named New San Francisco, but after- 
wards designated as the Mission of San Fran- 
cisco Solano. On the 25th of August work was 
begun on the mission building and on the 4th of 
April, 1824. a church, 24x105 feet, built of wood, 
was dedicated. 

It had been intended to remove the neophytes 
from the old mission of San Francisco to the 
new; but the padres of the old mission opposed 
its depopulation and suppression. A com- 
promise was effected by allowing all neophytes 
of the old mission who so elected to go to the 
new. Although well located, the Mission of 
Solano was not prosperous. Its largest popula- 
tion, 996, was reached in 1832. The total num- 
ber of baptisms were 1,315; deaths, 651. The 
average death rate was 7.8 per cent of the pop- 
ulation. The mission was secularized in 1835, at 
which time there were about 550 neophytes at- 
tached to it. 

The architecture of the missions was Moorish 
— that is, if it belonged to any school. The 
padres in most cases were the architects and mas- 
ter builders. The main feature of the buildings 
was massiveness. Built of adobe or rough stone, 
their walls were of great thickness. Most of the 
church buildings were narrow, their width being 
out of proportion to their length. This was 
necessitated by the difficulty of procuring joists 
and rafters of sufficient length for wide build- 
ings. The padres had no means or perhaps no 
5 



knowledge of trussing a roof, and the width 
of the building had to be proportioned to the 
length of the timbers procurable. Some of the 
buildings were planned with an eye for the pic- 
turesque, others for utility only. The sites se- 
lected for the mission buildings in nearly every 
case commanded a fine view of the surrounding 
country. In their prime, their white walls loom- 
ing up on the horizon could be seen at long 
distance and acted as beacons to guide the trav- 
eler to their hospitable shelter. 

Col. J. J. Warner, who came to California in 
1831, and saw the mission buildings before they 
had fallen into decay, thus describes their gen- 
eral plan: "As soon after the founding of a 
mission as circumstances would permit, a large 
pile of buildings in the form of a quadrangle, 
composed in part of burnt brick, but chiefly of 
sun-dried ones, was erected around a spaciou.s 
court. A large and capacious church, which 
usually occupied one of tl'.e outer corners of the 
quadrangle, was a conspicuous part of the pile. 
]n this massive building, covered with red tile, 
was the habitation of the friars, rooms for guests 
and for the major domos and their families. In 
other buildings of the quadrangle were hospital 
wards, storehouses and granaries, rooms for 
carding, spinning and weaving of woolen fab- 
rics, shops for blacksmiths, joiners and carpen- 
ters, saddlers, shoemakers and soap boilers, and 
cellars for storing the product (wine and brandy) 
of the vineyards. Near the habitation of the 
friars another building of similar material was 
placed and used as quarters for a small number 
— about a corporal's guard — of soldiers under 
command of a non-commissioned officer, to hold 
the Indian neophytes in check as well as to pro- 
tect the mission from the attacks of hostile In- 
dians." The Indians, when the buildings of the 
establishment were complete, lived in adobe 
houses built in lines near the quadrangle. Some 
of the buildings of the square were occupied by 
the alcaldes or Indian bosses. When the In- 
dians were gathered into the missions at first 
tliey lived in brush shanties constructed in the 
same manner as their forefathers had built them 
for generations. In some of the missions these 
huts were not replaced by adobe buildings for 
a generation or more. \'ancouver. who visited 



66 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the Mission of San Francisco in 1792, sixteen 
years after its founding, describes the Indian 
village with its brush-built huts. He says: 
"These miserable habitations, each of which was 
allotted for the residence of a whole family, 
were erected with some degree of uniformity 
about three or four feet asunder in straight rows, 
leaving lanes or passageways at right angles be- 
tween them; but these were so abominably in- 
fested with every kind of filth and nastiness as 
to be rendered no less oiifensive than degrading 
to the human species." 

Of the houses at Santa Clara, Vancouver 
says: "The habitations were not so regularly 
disposed nor did it (the village) contain so many 
as the village of San Francisco, yet the same 
horrid state of uncleanliness and laziness seemed 
to pervade the whole." Better houses were then 
in the course of construction at Santa Clara. 
"Each house would contain two rooms and a 
garret with a garden in the rear." Vancouver 



visited San Carlos de Monterey in 1792, twenty- 
two years after its founding. He says: "Not- 
withstanding these people are taught and em- 
ployed from time to time in many of the occu- 
pations most useful to civil society, they had not 
made themselves any more comfortable habita- 
tions than those of their forefathers; nor did 
they seem in any respect to have benefited by 
the instruction they had received." 

Captain Beechey, of the English navy, who 
visited San Francisco and the missions around 
the bay in 1828, found the Indians at San Fran- 
cisco still living in their filthy hovels and grind- 
ing acorns for food. "San Jose (mission)," he 
says, "on the other hand, was all neatness, clean- 
liness and comfort." At San Carlos he found 
that the filthy hovels described by Vancouver 
iiad nearly all disappeared and the Indians were 
comfortably housed. He adds: "Sickness in 
general prevailed to an incredible extent in all 
the missions." 



CHAPTER VI. 



PRESIDIOS OF CALIFORNIA. 

San Diego. 



THE presidio was an essential feature of 
the Spanish colonization of America. It 
was usually a fortified square of brick or 
stone, inside of which were the barracks of the 
soldiers, the officers' quarters, a church, store 
houses for provisions and military supplies. The 
gates at the entrance were closed at night, and 
it was usually provisioned for a siege. In the 
colonization of California there were four pre- 
sidios established, namely: San Diego, Monte- 
rey, San Francisco and Santa Barbara. Each 
was the headquarters of a military district and 
besides a body of troops kept at the presidio 
it furnished guards for the missions in its re- 
spective district and also for the pueblos if there 
were any in the district. The first presidio was 
founded at San Diego. As stated in a previous 
chapter, the two ships of the expedition by sea 
for the settlement of California arrived at the 
port of San Diego in a deplorable condition 



from scurvy. The San Antonia, after a voyage 
of fifty-nine days, arrived on April 1 1 ; the San 
Carlos, although she had sailed a month earlier, 
did not arrive until April 29, consuming one 
hundred and ten days in the voyage. Don 
Miguel Constanso, the engineer who came on 
this vessel, says in his report : "The scurvy had 
infected all without exception ; in such sort that 
on entering San Diego already two men had 
died of the said sickness; most of the seamen, 
and half of the troops, foimd themselves pros- 
trate in their beds; only four mariners remained 
on their feet, and attended, aided by the troops, 
to trimming and furling the sails and other 
working of the ship." "The San Antonia," says 
Constanso, "had the half of its crew equally 
affected by the scurvy, of which illness two men 
had likewise died." This vessel, although it had 
arrived at the port on the nth of April, had evi- 
dentlv not landed anv of its sick. On the ist of 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



67 



May, Don Pedro Pages, the commander of the 
troops, Constanso and Estorace, tlie second cap- 
tain of the San Carlos, with twenty-five soldiers, 
set out to find a watering place where they could 
fill their barrels with fresh water. "Following 
the west shore of the port, after going a mat- 
ter of three leagues, they arrived at the banks 
of a river hemmed in with a fringe of willows 
and cottonwoods. Its channel must have been 
twenty varas wide and it discharges into an 
estuary which at high tide could admit the 
launch and made it convenient for accomplish- 
ing the taking on of water." * * * "Hav- 
ing reconnoitered the watering place, the Span- 
iards betook themselves back on board the 
vessels and as these were found to be very far 
away from the estuary in which the river dis- 
charges, their captains, Vicente Vila and Don 
Juan Perez, resolved to approach it as closely 
as they could in order to give less work to the 
people handling the launches. These labors 
were accomplished with satiety of hardship; for 
from one day to the ne.xt the number of the sick 
kept increasing, along with the dying of the 
most aggravated cases and augmented the fa- 
tigue of the few who remained on their 
feet." 

"Immediate to the beach on the side toward 
the east a scanty enclosure was constructed 
formed of a parapet of earth and fascines, which 
was garnished with two cannons. They disem- 
barked some sails and awnings from the packets 
with which they made two tents capacious 
enough for a hospital. At one side the two offi- 
cers, the missionary fathers and the surgeon put 
up their own tents; the sick were brought in 
launches to this improvised presidio and hospi- 
tal." "But these diligencies," says Constanso, 
"were not enough to procure them health." 
* * * "The cold made itself felt with rigor at 
night in the barracks and the sun by day, alter- 
nations which made the sick suffer cruelly, two 
or three of them dying every day. And this 
whole expedition, which had been composed of 
more than ninety men, saw itself reduced to only 
eight soldiers and as many mariners in a state to 
attend to the safeguarding of the barks, the 
working of the launches, custody of the camp 
and service of the sick." 



Rivera y Moncada, the commander of the 
first detachment of the land expedition, arrived 
at San Diego May 14. It was decided by the 
officers to remove the camp to a point near the 
river. This had not been done before on ac- 
count of the small force able to work and the 
lack of beasts of burden. Rivera's men were all 
in good health and after a day's rest "all were 
removed to a new camp, which was transferred 
one league further north on the right side of 
the river upon a hill of middling height." 

Here a presidio was built, the remains of 
which can still be seen. It was a parapet of 
earth similar to that thrown up at the first camp, 
which, according to Bancroft, was probably 
within the limits of New Town and the last one 
in Old Town or North San Diego. 

While Portola's expedition was away searcb- 
ing for the port of Monterey, the Indians made 
an attack on the camp at San Diego, killed a 
Spanish youth and wounded Padre Viscaino, the 
blacksmith, and a Lower California neophyte. 
The soldiers remaining at San Diego sur- 
rounded the buildings with a stockade. Con- 
stanso says, on the return of the Spaniards of 
Portola's expedition; "They found in good con- 
dition their humble buildings, surrounded with 
a palisade of trunks of trees, capable of a good 
defense in case of necessity." 

"In 1782, the presidial force at San Diego, be- 
sides the commissioned officers, consisted of five 
corporals and forty-six soldiers. Six men were 
constantly on duty at each of the three missions 
of the district, San Diego, San Juan Capistrano 
and San Gabriel ; while four served at the pueblo 
of Los Angeles, thus leaving a sergeant, two 
corporals and about twenty-five men to garrison 
the fort, care for the horses and a small herd of 
cattle, and to carry the mails, which latter duty 
was the hardest connected with the presidio 
service in time of peace. There were a carpenter 
and blacksmith constantly employed, besides a 
few servants, mostly natives. The population of 
the district in 1790, not including Indians, was 
220."* 

Before the close of the century the wooden 
palisades had been replaced by a thick adobe 



♦Bancroft's History of California, Vol. I. 



68 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



wall, but even then the fort was not a very for- 
midable defense. Vancouver, the English navi- 
gator, who visited it in 1793, describes it as 
"irregularly built on very uneven ground, which 
makes it liable to some inconveniences without 
the obvious appearance of any object for select- 
ing such a spot." It then mounted three small 
brass cannon. 

Gradually a town grew up around the pre- 
sidio. Robinson, who visited San Diego in 
1829, thus describes it: "On the lawn beneath 
the hill on which the presidio is built stood 
about thirty houses of rude appearance, mostly 
occupied by retired veterans, not so well con- 
structed in respect either to beauty or stability 
as the houses at Monterey, with the exception of 
that belonging to our Administrador, Don Juan 
-Bandini, whose mansion, then in an unfinished 
state, bid fair, when completed, to surpass any 
other in the country." 

Lender Spain there was attempt at least to 
keep the presidio in repair, but under Mexican 
domination it fell into decay. Dana describes it 
as he saw it in 1836: "The first place we went 
to was the old ruinous presidio, which stands on 
rising ground near the village which it over- 
looks. It is built in the form of an open square, 
like all the other presidios, and was in a most 
ruinous state, with the exception of one side, 
in which the comandante lived with his family. 
There were only two guns, one of which was 
spiked and the other had no carriage. Twelve 
half clothed and half starved looking fellows 
composed the garrison; and they, it was said, 
had not a musket apiece. The small settlement 
lay directly below the fort composed of about 
forty dark brown looking huts or houses and 
three or four larger ones whitewashed, which 
belonged to the gente de razon." 

THE PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY. 

In a previous chapter has been narrated the 
story of Portola's expedition in search of Mon- 
terey Bay, how the explorers, failing to recog- 
nize it, passed on to the northward and discov- 
ered the great Bay of San' Francisco. On their 
return they set up a cross at what they supposed 
was the Bay of Monterey: and at the foot of 
the cross buried a letter giving information to 



any ship that might come up the coast in search 
of them that they had returned to San Diego. 
They had continually been on the lookout for 
the San Jose, which was to co-operate with 
them, but that vessel had been lost at sea with 
all on board. On their return to San Diego, in 
January, 1770, preparations were made for a 
return as soon as a vessel should arrive. It 
was not until the i6th of April that the San An- 
tonia, the only vessel available, was ready to 
depart for the second objective point of settle- 
ment. On the 17th of April, Governor Portola, 
Lieutenant Pages, Father Crespi and nineteen 
soldiers took up their line of march for Alonte- 
rey. They followed the trail made in 1769 and 
reached the point where they had set up the 
cross April 24. They found it decorated with 
feathers, bows and arrows and a string of fish. 
Evidently the Indians regarded it as the white 
man's fetich and tried to propitiate it by offer- 
ings. 

The San Antonia, bearing Father Serra, 
Pedro Prat, the surgeon, and Miguel Constanso, 
the civil engineer, and supplies for the mission 
and presidio, arrived the last day of May. Por- 
tola was still uncertain whether this was really 
Monterey Bay. It was hard to discover in the 
open roadstead stretching out before them Vis- 
caino's land-locked harbor, sheltered from all 
winds. After the arrival of the San Antonia the 
ofificers of the land and sea expedition made a 
reconnaissance of the bay and all concurred that 
at last they had reached the destined port. They 
located the oak under whose wide-spreading 
branches Padre Ascension, Viscaino's chaplain, 
had celebrated mass in 1602, and the springs of 
fresh water near by. Preparations were begun 
at once for the founding of mission and presidio. 
A shelter of boughs was constructed, an altar 
raised and the bells hung upon the branch of a 
tree. Father Serra sang mass and as they had 
no musical instrument, salvos of artillery and 
volleys of musketry furnished an accompani- 
ment to the service. After the religious services 
the royal standard was raised and Governor 
Portola took possession of the country in the 
name of King Carlos III., King of Spain. The 
ceremony closed with the pulling of grass and 
the casting of stones around, significant of en- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



69 



tire possession of the earth and its products. 
After the service all feasted. 

Two messengers were sent by Portola with 
dispatches to the city of Mexico. A day's jour- 
ney below San Diego they met Rivera and 
twenty soldiers coming with a herd of cattle and 
a flock of sheep to stock the mission pastures. 
Rivera sent back five of his soldiers with Por- 
tola's carriers. The messengers reached Todos 
Santos near Cape San Lucas in forty-nine days 
from Monterey. From there the couriers were 
sent to San Bias by ship, arriving at the city of 
Mexico August lo. There was great rejoicing 
at the capital. Marquis Le Croix and X'isitador 
Galvcz received congratulations in the King's 
name for the extension of his domain. 

Portola superintended the l^uilding of some 
rude huts for the shelter of the soldiers, the 
officers and the padres. Around the square 
containing the huts a palisade of poles was con- 
structed. July 9, Portola having turned over 
the command of the troops to Lieutenant Pages, 
embarked on the San Antonia for San Bias; 
with him went the civil engineer, Constanso, 
from whose report I have frequently quoted. 
Neither of them ever returned to California. 

The difficulty of reaching California by ship 
on account of the head winds that blow down 
the coast caused long delays in the arrival of 
vessels with supplies. This brought about a 
scarcity of provisions at the presidios and mis- 
sions. 

In 1772 the padres of San Gabriel were re- 
duced to a milk diet and what little they could 
obtain from the Indians At Monterey and San 
.\ntonio the padres and the soldiers were obliged 
to live on vegetables. In this emergency Lieu- 
tenant Pages and a squad of soldiers went on a 
bear hunt. They spent three months in the 
summer of 1772 killing bears in the Canada de 
los Osos (Bear Canon). The soldiers and mis- 
sionaries had a plentiful supply of bear meat. 
There were not enough cattle in the country to 
admit of slaughtering any for food. The pre- 
sidial walls which were substituted for the pal- 
isades were built of adobes and stone. The 
inclosure measured one hundred and ten yards 
on each side. The buildings were roofed with 
tiles. "On the north were the main entrance. 



the guard house, and the warehouses; on the 
west the houses of the governor comandante 
and other officers, some fifteen apartments in 
all; on the east nine houses for soldiers, and a 
blacksmith shop; and on the south, besides 
nine similar houses, was the presidio church, 
opposite the main gateway."* 

The military force at the presidio consisted of 
cavalry, infantry and artillery, their numbers 
varying from one hundred to one hundred and 
twenty in all. These soldiers furnished guards 
for the missions of San Carlos, San Antonio, 
San Miguel, Soledad and San Luis Obispo. The 
total population of gente de razon in the district 
at the close of the century numbered four lum- 
dren and ninety. The rancho "'del rey" or 
rancho of the king was located where Salinas 
City now stands. This rancho was managed by 
the soldiers of presidio and was intended to 
furnish the military with meat and a supply of 
horses for the cavalry. At the presidio a num- 
ber of invalided soldiers who had served out 
their time were settled; these were allowed to 
cultivate land and raise cattle on the unoccu- 
pied lands of the public domain. A town grad- 
ually grew up around the presidio square. 

Vancouver, the English navigator, visited the 
presidio of Monterey in 1792 and describes it as 
it then appeared: "The buildings of the pre- 
sidio form a parallelogram or long scjuare com- 
prehending an area of about three hundred 
yards long by two hundred and fifty wide, mak- 
ing one entire enclosure. The external wall is 
of the same magnitude and built with the same 
materials, and except that the officers' apart- 
ments are covered with red tile made in the 
neighborhood, the whole presents the same 
lonely, uninteresting appearance as that already 
described at San Francisco. Like that estab- 
lishment, the several buildings for the use of the 
officers, soldiers, am! for the ]5rotection of stores 
and provisions are erected along the walls nn 
the inside of the inclosure, which admits of but 
one entrance for carriages or persons on horse- 
back; this, as at San Francisco, is on the side 
of the square fronting the church which was 
rebuilding with stone like that at San CaHos." 
* * * 

*Bancroft's History of California. Vol. I. 



70 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR-APHICAL RECORD. 



"At each corner of the square is a small kind 
of block house raised a little above the top of 
the wall where swivels might be mounted for its 
protection. On the outside, before the entrance 
into the presidio, which fronts the shores of 
the bay, are placed seven cannon, four nine and 
three three-pounders, mounted. The guns are 
planted on the open plain ground without 
breastwork or other screen for those employed 
in working them or the least protection from the 
weather." 

THE PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO. 

In a previous chapter I have given an account 
of the discovery of San Francisco Bay by Por- 
tola's expedition in 1769. The discovery of that 
great bay seems to have been regarded as an 
unimportant event by the governmental offi- 
cials. While there was great rejoicing at the 
city of Mexico over the founding of a mission 
for the conversion of a few naked savages, the 
discovery of the bay was scarcely noticed, ex- 
cept to construe it into some kind of a miracle. 
Father Serra assumed that St. Francis had con- 
cealed Monterey from the explorers and led 
them to the discovery of the bay in order that 
he (St. Francis) might have a mission named 
for him. Indeed, the only use to which the 
discovery could be put, according to Serra's 
ideas, was a site for a mission on its shores, dedi- 
cated to the founder of the Franciscans. Several 
explorations were made with this in view. In 
1772, Lieutenant Fages, Father Crespi and six- 
teen soldiers passed up the western side of the 
bay and in 1774 Captain Rivera, Father Palou 
and a squad of soldiers passed up the eastern 
shore, returning by way of Alonte Diablo, 
.■\mador valley and .\Iameda creek to the Santa 
Clara valley. 

In the latter part of the year 1774, viceroy 
Bucureli ordered the founding of a mission and 
presidio at San Francisco. Hitherto all explora- 
tions of the bay had been made by land expedi- 
tions. No one had ventured on its waters. In 
1775 Lieutenant Juan de Ayala of the royal 
navy was sent in the old pioneer mission ship, 
the San Carlos, to make a survey of it. August 
5, 1775, he passed through the Golden Gate. 
He moored his ship at an island called by him 



Nuestra Sehora de los Angeles, now Angel 
Island. He spent forty days in making explora- 
tions. His ship was the first vessel to sail upon 
the great Bay of San Francisco. 

In 1774, Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, com- 
mander of the presidio of Tubac in Sonora, had 
made an exploration of a route from Sonora via 
the Colorado river, across the desert and 
through the San Gorgonia pass to San Gabriel 
mission. From Tubac to the Colorado river the 
route had been traveled before but from the 
Colorado westward the country was a terra in- 
cognita. He was guided over this by a lower 
California neophyte who had deserted from San 
Gabriel mission and alone had reached the 
rancherias on the Colorado. 

After Anza's return to Sonora he was com- 
missioned by the viceroy to recruit soldiers and 
settlers for San Francisco. October 23, 1775, 
Anza set out from Tubac with an expedition 
numbering two hundred and thirty-five persons, 
composed of soldiers and their families, colon- 
ists, musketeers and vaqueros. They brought 
with them large herds of horses, mules and cat- 
tle. The journey was accomplished without loss 
of life, but with a considerable amount of suf- 
fering. January 4, 1776, the immigrants ar- 
rived at San Gabriel mission, where they stopped 
to rest, but were soon compelled to move on, 
provisions at the mission becoming scarce. They 
arrived at Monterey March 10. Here they went 
into camp. Anza with an escort of soldiers pro- 
ceeded to San Francisco to select a presidio 
site. Having found a site he returned to ]\Ion- 
terey. Rivera, the commander of the territory, 
had manifested a spirit of jealousy toward Anza 
and had endeavored to thwart him in his at- 
tempts to found a settlement. Disgusted with 
the action of the commander, Anza, leaving his 
colonists to the number of two hundred at Mon- 
terey took his departure from California. Anza 
in his explorations for a presidio site had fixed 
upon what is now Fort Point. 

After his departure Rivera experienced a 
change of heart and instead of trying to delay 
the founding he did everything to hasten it. The 
imperative orders of the viceroy received at 
about this time brought about the change. He 
ordered Lieutenant Moraga, to whom Anza had 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



71 



turned over the command of his soldiers and 
colonists, to proceed at once to San Francisco 
with twenty soldiers to found the fort. The San 
Carlos, which had just arrived at Alonterey, was 
ordered to proceed to San Francisco to assist 
in the founding. Moraga with his soldiers ar- 
rived June 2y, and encamped on the Laguna 
de los Dolores, whore the mission was a short 
time afterwards founded. Moraga decided to 
located the presidio at the site selected by Anza 
but awaited the arrival of the San Carlos before 
proceeding to build. August 18 the vessel ar- 
rived. It had been driven down the coast to the 
latitude of San Diego by contrary winds and 
then up the coast to latitude 42 degrees. On the 
arrival of the vessel work was begun at once on 
the fort. A square of ninety-two varas (two 
hundred and forty-seven feet) on each side was 
inclosed with palisades. Barracks, officers' 
quarters and a chapel were built inside the 
square. September 17, 1776, was set apart for 
the services of founding, that being the day of 
the "Sores of our seraphic father St. Francis." 
The royal standard was raised in front of the 
square and the usual ceremony of pulling grass 
and throwing stones was performed. Posses- 
sion of the region round about was taken in the 
name of Carlos III., King of Spain. Over one 
hundred and fifty persons witnessed the cere- 
mony. Vancouver, who visited the presidio in 
November, 1792, describes it as a "square area 
whose sides were about two hundred yards in 
length, enclosed by a rnud wall and resembling 
a pound for cattle. Above this wall the thatched 
roofs of the low small houses just made their 
appearance." The wall was "about fourteen feet 
high and five feet in breadth and was first 
formed by upright and horizontal rafters of 
large timber, between which dried sods and 
moistened earth were pressed as close and hard 
as possible, after which the whole was cased with 
the earth made into a sort of mud plaster which 
gave it the appearance of durability." 

In addition to the presidio there was another 
fort at Fort Point named Castillo de San Joa- 
quin. It was completed and blessed December 
8, 1794. "It w'as of horseshoe shape, about one 
hundred by one hundred and twenty feet." The 
structure rested mainly on sand; the brick-faced 



adobe walls crumbled at the shock whenever a 
salute was fired; the guns were badly mounted 
and for the most part worn out, only two of the 
thirteen twenty-four-pounders being serviceable 
or capable of sending a ball across the entrance 
of the fort.* 

PRESIDIO OF S.AXT.V BARBARA. 

Cabrillo, in 1542, found a large Indian popula- 
tion inhabiting the main land of the Santa Bar- 
bara channel. Two hundred and twenty-seven 
years later, when Portola made his exploration, 
apparently there had been no decrease in the 
number of inhabitants. No portion of the coast 
offered a better field for missionary labor and 
Father Scrra was anxious to enter it. In ac- 
cordance with Governor Felipe de Neve's report 
of 1777, it had been decided to found three mis- 
sions and a presidio on the channel. \'ariou3 
causes had delayed the founding and it was not 
until April 17, 1782, that Governor de Neve 
arrived at the point where he had decided to 
locate the presidio of Santa Barbara. The 
troops that were to man the fort reached San 
Gabriel in the fall of 178 1. It was thought best 
for them to remain there until the rainy sea- 
son was over. March 26, 1782, the governor and 
Father Serra, accompanied by the largest body 
of troops that had ever before been collected in 
California, set out to found the mission of San 
Buenaventura and the presidio. The governor, 
as has been stated in a former chapter, was re- 
called to San Gabriel. The mission was founded 
and the governor having rejoined the cavalcad? 
a few weeks later proceeded to find a location 
for the presidio. 

"On reaching a point nine leagues from San 
Buenaventura, the governor called a halt and in 
company with Father Serra at once proceeded to 
select a site for the presidio. The choice re- 
sulted in the adoption of the square now 
formed by city blocks 139, 140, 155 and 156. 
and bounded in common by the following 
streets: Figueroa, Caiion Perdido, Garden and 
.-\nacapa. .A large community of Indians were 
residing there but orders were given to leave 
them undisturbed. The soldiers were at once 



*Bancroft's "History of California," Vol. I. 



72 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



directed to hew timbers and gather brush to 
erect temporary barracks which, when com- 
pleted, were also used as a chapel. A large 
wooden cross was made that it might be planted 
in the center of the square and possession of 
the country was taken in the name of the cross, 
the emblem of Christianity. 

April 21, 1782, the soldiers formed a square 
and with edifying solemnity raised the cross and 
secured it in the earth. Father Serra blessed 
and consecrated the district and preached a ser- 
mon. The royal standard of Spain was un- 
furled."* 

An inclosure, sixty varas square, was made of 
palisades. The Indians were friendly, and 
llirough their chief yanoalit, who controlled thir- 
teen rancherias, details of them were secured 
to assist the soldiers in the work of building. 
The natives were paid in food and clothing for 
their labor. 

Irrigation works were constructed, consisting 
of a large reservoir made of stone and cement, 
with a zanja for conducting water to the pre- 
sidio. The soldiers, who had families, cultivated 
small gardens which aided in their support. 
Lieutenant Ortega was in command of the pre- 
sidio for two years after its founding. He was 
succeeded by Lieutenant Felipe de Goycoechea. 
After the founding of the mission in 1786, a 
bitter feud broke out between the padres and 
the comandante of the presidio. Goycoechea 
claimed the right to employ the Indians in the 
building of the presidio as he had done before 
the coming of the friars. This they denied. 
After an acrimonious controversy the dispute 
was finally compromised by dividing the Indians 
into two bands, a mission band and a presidio 
band. 

Gradually the palisades were replaced by an 
adobe wall twelve feet high. It had a stone 
fotmdation and was strongly built. The plaza or 
inclosed square was three hundred and thirtv 
feet on each side. On two sides of this inclos- 
ure were ranged the family houses of the sol- 
diers, averaging in size 15x25 feet. On one side 
stood the officers' quarters and the church. On 



*Father Cabelleria's History of Santa Barbara. 



the remaining side were the main entrance four 
varas wide, the store rooms, soldiers' quarters 
and a guard room; and adjoining these outside 
the walls were the corrals for cattle and horses. 
A force of from fifty to sixty soldiers was kept 
at the post. There were bastions at two of the 
corners for cannon. 

The presidio was completed about 1790, with 
the e.xception of the chapel, which was not fin- 
ished until 1797- Many of the soldiers when 
they had served out their time desired to re- 
main in the country. These were given permis- 
sion to build houses outside the walls of the 
presidio and in course of time a village grew up 
around it. 

At the close of the century the population of 
the gente de razon of the district numbered 
three hundred and seventy. The presidio when 
completed was the best in California. Van- 
couver, the English navigator, who visited it in 
November, 1793, says of it: "The buildings ap- 
peared to be regular and well constructed; the 
walls clean and white and the roofs of the houses 
were covered with a bright red tile. The pre- 
sidio excels all the others in neatness, cleanli- 
ness and other smaller though essential com- 
forts; it is placed on an elevated part of the 
plain and is raised some feet from the ground 
by a basement story which adds much to its 
pleasantness." 

During the Spanish regime the settlement at 
the presidio grew in the leisurely way that all 
Spanish towns grew in California. There was 
but little immigration from Mexico and about 
the only source of increase was from invalid 
soldiers aftd the children of the soldiers grow- 
ing up to manhood and womanhood. It was a 
dreary and monotonous existence that the sol- 
diers led at the presidios. A few of them had 
their families with them. These when the coun- 
try became more settled had their own houses 
adjoining the presidio and formed the nuclei 
of the towns that grew up around the different 
forts. There was but little fighting to do and 
the soldiers' service consisted mainly of a round 
of guard duty at the forts and missions. Oc- 
casionally there were conquistas into the In- 
dian country to secure new material for con- 
verts from the gentiles. The soldiers were oc- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



73 



casionally employed in liunliiig liindas or run- 
aways from the missions. These when brought 
l)ack were thoroughly flogged and coinpclled to 
wear clogs attached to their legs. Once a month 
the soldier couriers brought up from Loreta a 
budget of mail made up of ofificial bandos and a 



lew letters. These contained about all the news 
that reached them from their old homes in 
Mexico. I'.ut few of the soldiers returned to 
Mexico when their term of enlistment expired, 
in course of time these and their descendants 
formed the bulk of California's population. 



CHAPTER Vll, 



PUEBLOS. 



THE pueblo plan of colonization so com- 
mon in Hispano-American coimtries did 
not originate with the Spanish-Amer- 
ican colonists. It was older even than Spain 
herself. In early European colonization, the 
pueblo plan, the common square in the center 
of the town, the house lots grouped round it, 
the arable fields and the common pasture lands 
beyond, appears in the Aryan village, in the an- 
cient German mark and in the old Roman 
praesidium. The Puritans adopted this form in 
their first settlements in New England. Around 
the public square or common where stood the 
meeting house and the town house, they laid off 
their home lots and beyond these were their 
cultivated fields and their common pasture lands. 
This form of colonization was a combination of 
communal interests and individual ownership. 
Primarily, no doubt, it was adopted for protec- 
tion against the hostile aborigines of the coun- 
try, and secondly for social advantage. It re- 
versed the order of our own western coloniza- 
tion. The town came first, it was the initial 
point from which the settlement radiated; while 
with our western pioneers the town was an after- 
thought, a center point for the convenience of 
trade. 

When it had been decided to send colonists 
to colonize California the settlements naturally 
took the pueblo form. The difficulty of obtain- 
ing regular supplies for the presidios from Mex- 
ico, added to the great expense of shipping such 
a long distance, was the principal cause that in- 
fluenced the government to establish pueblos de 
gente de razon. The presidios received their 
shinments of grain for breadstuff from San Bias 



by sailing vessels. The arrival of these was un- 
certain. Once when the vessels were uimsually 
long in coming, the padres and the soldiers at 
the presidios and missions were reduced to liv- 
ing on milk, bear meat and what provisions they 
could obtain from the Indians. When Felipe de 
iVeve w-as made governor of Alta or Nueva 
California in 1776 he was instructed by the vice- 
roy to make observations on the agricultural 
possibilities of the country and the feasibility of 
founding pueblos where grain could be produced 
to supply the military establishments. 

On his journey from San Diego to San Fran- 
cisco in 1777 he carefully e.'^amined the coun- 
try; and as a result of his observations recom- 
mended the founding of two pueblos; one on the 
Rio de Porciuncula in the south, and the other 
on the Rio de Guadalupe in the north. On the 
29th of November, 1777, the Pueblo of San 
Jose de Guadelupe was founded. The colonists 
were nine of the presidio soldiers from San 
Francisco and Monterey, who had some knowl- 
edge of farming and five of Anza's pobladores 
who had come with his expedition the previous 
years to found the presidio of San Francisco, 
making with their families sixty-one persons in 
ail. The pueblo was named for the patron saint 
of California, San Jose (St. Joseph), husband of 
Santa Maria, Queen of the Angeles. 

The site selected for the town was about a 
mile and a quarter north of the center of the 
present city. The first houses were built of pal- 
isades and the interstices plastered with mud. 
These huts were roofed with earth and the floor 
was the hard beaten ground. Each head of a 
family was given a suerte or sowing lot of two 



74 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



hundred varas square, a house lot, "ten dollars 
a month and a soldier's rations." Each, also, 
received a yoke of oxen, two cows, a mule, two 
sheep and two goats, together with the neces- 
sary implements and seed, all of which were to 
be repaid in products of the soil delivered at the 
royal warehouse. The first communal work 
done by the pobladores (colonists) was to dam 
the river, and construct a ditch to irrigate their 
sowing fields. The dam was not a success and 
the first sowing of grain was lost. The site se- 
lected for the houses was low and subject to 
overflow. 

During wet winters the inhabitants were com- 
pelled to take a circuitous route of three leagues 
to attend church service at the mission of Santa 
Clara. After enduring this state of affairs 
through seven winters they petitioned the 
governor for permission to remove the pu- 
eblo further south on higher ground. The gov- 
ernor did not have power to grant the request. 
The petition was referred to the comandante- 
general of the Intendencia in Mexico in 1785. 
He seems to have studied over the matter two 
years and having advised with the asesor-general 
"finally issued a decree, June 21, 1787, to Gov- 
ernor Fages, authorizing the settlers to remove 
to the "adjacent loma (hill) selected by them as 
more useful and advantageous without chang- 
ing or altering, for this reason, the limits and 
boundaries of the territory or district assigned 
to said settlement and to the neighboring Mis- 
sion of Santa Clara, as there is no just cause 
why the latter should attempt to appropriate to 
herself that land." 

Having frequently suffered from floods, it 
would naturally be supposed that the inhabi- 
tants, permission being granted, moved right 
away. They did nothing of the kind. Ten years 
passed and they were still located on the old 
marshy site, still discussing the advantages of 
the new site on the other side of the river. 
Whether the padres of the Mission of Santa 
Clara opposed the moving does not appear in 
the records, but from the last clause of the com- 
andante-general's decree in which he says "there 
is not just cause why the latter (the Mission of 
Santa Clara) should attempt to appropriate to 
herself the land," it would seem that the mission 



padres were endeavoring to secure the new site 
or at least prevent its occupancy. There was a 
dispute between the padres and the pobladores 
over the boundary line between the pueblo and 
mission that outlived the century. After hav- 
ing been referred to the titled officials, civil and 
ecclesiastical, a boundary line was finally estab- 
lished, July 24, 1801, that was satisfactory to 
both. "According to the best evidence I have 
discovered," says Hall in his History of San 
Jose, "the removal of the pueblo took place in 
1797," just twenty years after the founding. In 
1798 the juzgado or town hall was built. It 
was located on Market street near El Dorado 
street. 

The area of a pueblo was four square leagues 
(Spanish) or about twenty-seven square miles. 
This was sometimes granted in a square and 
sometimes in a rectangular form. The pueblo 
lands were divided into classes: Solares, house 
lots; suertes (chance), sowing fields, so named 
because they were distributed by lot ; propios, 
municipal lands or lands the rent of which went 
to defray municipal expenses; ejidas, vacant 
suburbs or commons; dehesas, pasture where 
the large herds of the pueblo grazed; realenges, 
royal lands also used for raising revenue; these 
were unappropriated lands. 

From various causes the founding of the sec- 
ond pueblo had been delayed. In the latter part 
of 1779, active preparations were begun for car- 
rying out the plan of founding a presidio and 
three missions on the Santa Barbara Channel 
and a pueblo on the Rio Porciuncula to be 
named "Reyna de Los Angeles." The comand- 
ante-general of the Four Interior Provinces of 
the West (which embraced the Californias, So- 
nora. New Mexico and Viscaya), Don Teodoro 
de Croix or "El Cavallero de Croix," "The 
Ivnight of the Cross," as he usually styled him- 
self, gave instructions to Don Fernando de Ri- 
vera y Moncada to recruit soldiers and settlers 
for the proposed presidio and pueblo in Nueva 
California. He, Rivera, crossed the gulf and be- 
gan recruiting in Sonora and Sinaloa. His in- 
structions were to secure twenty-four settlers. 
who were heads of families. They must be ro- 
l)ust and well behaved, so that they might set 
a good example to the natives. Their families 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



75 



must accompany them and unmarried female 
relatives must be encouraged to go, with the 
view to niarrxing them to bachelor sol- 
diers. 

According to the regulations drafted by Gov- 
ernor Felipe de Neve, June i, 1779, for the gov- 
ernment of the province of California and ap- 
proved by the king, in a royal order of the 24th 
of October, 1781, settlers in California from the 
older provinces were each to be granted a house 
lot and a tract of land for cultivation. Each 
poblador in addition was to receive $116.50 a 
year for the first two years, "the rations to be 
understood as comprehended in this amount, 
and in lieu of rations for the next three years 
they will receive $60 yearly." 

Section 3 of Title 14 of the Reglamento pro- 
vided that "To each poblador and to the com- 
munity of the pueblo there shall be given under 
condition of repayment in horses and mules fit 
to be given and received, and in the payment of 
the other large and small cattle at the just prices, 
which are to be fi.xed by tariff, and of the tools 
and implements at cost, as it is ordained, two 
mares, two cows, and one calf, two sheep and 
two goats, all breeding animals, and one yoke of 
oxen or steers, one plow point, one hoe, one 
spade, one a.xe, one sickle, one wood knife, one 
musket and one leather shield, two horses and 
one cargo mule. To the community there shall 
likewise be given the males corresponding to 
the total number of cattle of different kinds dis- 
tributed amongst all the inhabitants, one forge 
and anvil, six crowbars, six iron spades or shov- 
els and the necessary tools for carpenter and 
cast work." For the government's assistance to 
the pobladores in starting their colony the set- 
tlers were required to sell to the presidios the 
surplus products of their lands and herds at fair 
prices, which were to be fixed by the govern- 
ment. 

The terms offered to the settlers were cer- 
tainly liberal, and by our own hardy pioneers, 
who in the closing years of the last century were 
making their way over the Alleghany mountains 
into Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, they would 
have been considered munificent; but to the in- 
dolent and energyless mixed breeds of Sonora 
and Sinaloa thev were no inducement. After 



spending nearly nine months in recruiting, Ri- 
vera was able to obtain only fourteen pobladores, 
but little over half the number required, and two 
of these deserted before reaching California. 
The soldiers that Rivera had recruited for Cal- 
ifornia, forty-two in number, with their families, 
were ordered to proceed overland from Alamos, 
in Sonora, by way of Tucson and the Colorado 
river to San Gabriel Mission. These were com- 
manded by Rivera in person. 

Leaving Alamos in April, 1781, they arrived 
in the latter part of June at the junction of the 
Gila and Colorado rivers. After a short delay 
to rest, the main company was sent on to San 
Gabriel Mission. Rivera, with ten or twelve 
soldiers, remained to recruit his live stock before 
crossing the desert. Two missions had been es- 
tablished on the California side of the Colorado 
the previous year. Before the arrival of Rivera 
the Indians had been behaving badly. Rivera's 
large herd of cattle and horses destroyed the 
niesquite trees and intruded upon the Indians' 
melon patches. This, with their previous quar- 
rel with the padres, provoked the savages to an 
uprising. They, on July 17, attacked the two 
missions, massacred the padres and the Spanish 
settlers attached to the missions and killed Ri- 
vera and his soldiers, forty-six persons in all. 
The Indians burned the mission buildings. 
These were never rebuilt nor was there any at- 
tempt made to convert the Yumas. The hos- 
tility of the Yumas practically closed the Colo- 
rado route to California for many years. 

The pobladores who had been recruited for 
the founding of the new pueblo, with their fami- 
lies and a military escort, all under the command 
of Lieut. Jose Zuniga. crossed the gulf from 
Guaymas to Loreto, in Lower California, and by 
the i6th of May were ready for their long jour- 
ney northward. In the meantime two of the re- 
cruits had deserted and one was left behind at 
Loreto. On the 18th of August the eleven who 
had remained faithful to their contract, with 
their families, arrived at San Gabriel. On ac- 
count of smallpox among some of the children 
the company was placed in (|uarantine about a 
league from the mission. 

On the 26th of August, 1781. from San Ga- 
briel, Governor de Neve issued his instructions 



76 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



for the founding of Los Angeles, which gave 
some additional rules in regard to the distribu- 
tion of lots not found in the royal reglamento 
previously mentioned. 

On the 4th of September, 1781, the colonists, 
with a military escort headed by Governor Fe- 
lip de Neve, took up their line of march from 
the Mission San Gabriel to the site selected for 
their pueblo on the Rio de Porciuncula. There, 
with religious ceremonies, the Pueblo de Nues- 
tra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles was for- 
mally founded. A mass was said by a priest 
from the Mission San Gabriel, assisted by the 
choristers and musicians of that mission. There 
were salvos of musketry and a procession with 
a cross, candlestick, etc. At the head of the 
procession the soldiers bore the standard of 
Spain and the women followed bearing a ban- 
ner with the image of our Lady the Queen of 
the Angels. This procession made a circuit of 
the plaza, the priest blessing it and the building 
lots. At the close of the services Governor de 
Neve made an address full of good advice to the 
colonists. Then the governor, his military es- 
cort and the priests returned to San Gabriel and 
the colonists were left to work out their 
destiny. 

Few of the great cities of the land have had 
such humble founders as Los Angeles. Of the 
eleven pobladores who built their huts of poles 
and tule thatch around the plaza vieja one hun- 
dred and twenty-two years ago, not one could 
read or write. Not one could boast of an un- 
mi.xed ancestry. They were mongrels in race, 
Caucasian, Indian and Negro mixed. Poor in 
purse, poor in blood, poor in all the sterner qual- 
ities of character that our own hardy pioneers 
of the west possessed, they left no impress on 
the city they founded; and the conquering race 
that possesses the land that they colonized has 
forgotten them. No street or landmark in the 
city bears the name of any one of them. No 
monument or tablet marks the spot where thev 
planted the germ of their settlement. No Fore- 
fathers' day preserves the memory of their serv- 
ices and sacrifices. Their names, race and the 
number of persons in each family have been 
preserved in the archives of California. They 
are as follows: 



1. Jose de Lara, a Spaniard (or reputed to be 
one, although it is doubtful whether he was of 
pure blood) had an Indian wife and three chil- 
dren. 

2. Jose Antonio Navarro, a Mestizo, forty- 
two years old; wife a mulattress; three children. 

3. Basilio Rosas, an Indian, sixty-eight years 
old, had a mulatto wife and two children. 

4. Antonio Mesa, a negro, thirty-eight years 
old; had a mulatto wife and two children. 

5. Antonio Felix Villavicencio, a Spaniard, 
thirty years old; had an Indian wife and one 
child. 

6. Jose Vanegas, an Indian, twenty-eight 
years old; had an Indian wife and one child. 

7. Alejandro Rosas, an Indian, nineteen years 
old, and had an Indian wife. (In the records, 
"wife, Coyote-Indian.") 

8. Pablo Rodriguez, an Indian, twenty-five 
years old; had an Indian wife and one child. 

9. Manuel Camero, a mulatto, thirty years 
old; had a mulatto wife. 

10. Luis Quintero, a negro, fifty-five years 
old, and had a mulatto wife and five children. 

11. Jose Morena, a mulatto, twenty-two 
years old, and had a mulatto wife. 

Antonio Miranda, the twelfth person described 
in the padron (list) as a Chino, fifty years old 
and having one child, was left at Loreto when 
the expedition marched northward. It would 
have been impossible for him to have rejoined 
the colonists before the founding. Presumably 
his child remained with him, consequently there 
were but forty-four instead of "forty-six persons 
in all." Col. J. J. Warner, in his "Historical 
Sketch of Los Angeles." originated the fiction 
that one of the founders (Miranda, the Chino,) 
was born in China. Chino, while it does mean a 
Chinaman, is also applied in Spanish-American 
countries to persons or animals having curly 
hair. Miranda was probably of mixed Spanish 
and Negro blood, and curly haired. There is 
no record to show that ]\Iiranda ever came to 
.Alta California. 

When Jose de Galvez was fitting out the ex- 
pedition for occupying San Diego and Monte- 
rey, he issued a proclamation naming St. Jo- 
seph as the patron saint of his California colon- 
'zation scheme. Bearing this fact in mind, no 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



77 



doubt, Governor de Neve, when lie founded San 
Jose, named St. JosepK its patron saint. Hav- 
ing named one of the two pueblos for San Jose 
it naturally followed that the other should be 
named for Santa Maria, the Queen of the An- 
gels, wife of San Jose. 

On the I St of August, 1769, Portola's expedi- 
tion, on its journey northward in search of Mon- 
terey Bay, had halted in the San Gabriel valley 
near where the Mission Vieja was afterwards lo- 
cated, to reconnoiter the country and "above 
all," as Father Crespi observes, "for the purpose 
of celebrating the jubilee of Our Lady of the 
Angels of Porciuncula." Next day, August 2, 
after traveling about three leagues (nine miles), 
Father Crespi, in his diary, says: "We came to 
a ratlier wide Canada having a great many Cot- 
tonwood and alder trees. Through it ran a 
beautiful river toward the north-northeast and 
curving around the point of a cliff it takes a di- 
rection to the south. Toward the north-north- 
east we saw another river bed which nuist have 
been a great overflow, but we found it dry. This 
arm unites with the river and its great floods 
during the rainy season are clearly demon- 
strated by the many uprooted trees scattered 
along the banks." (This dry river is the Arroyo 
Seco.) "We stopped not very far from the river, 
to which we gave the name of Porciuncula." 
Porciuncula is the name of a hamlet in Italy 
near which was located the little church of Our 
Lady of the Angels, in which St. Francis of As- 
sisi was praying when the jubilee was granted 
him. Father Crespi, speaking of the plain 
through which the river flows, says: "This is 
the best locality of all those we have yet seen 
for a mission, besides having all the resources 
required for a large town." Padre Crespi was 
evidently somewhat of a prophet. 

The fact that this locality had for a number 
of years borne the name of "Our Lady of the 
.\ngels of Porciuncula" may have influenced 
Governor de Neve to locate his pueblo here. 
The full name of the town, El Pueblo de Nuestra 
Sehora La Reyna de Los Angeles, was seldom 
used. It was too long for everyday use. In the 
earlier years of the town's history it seems to 
have had a variety of names. It appears in the 
records as El Pueblo de Nuestra Sefiora de Los 



Angeles, as El Pueblo de La Reyna de Los An- 
geles and as El Pueblo de Santa Maria dc Los 
Angeles. Sometimes it was abbreviated to 
Santa Maria, but it was most conunonly spoken 
of as El Pueblo, the town. .\t what time the 
name of Rio Porciuncula was changed to Rio 
Los Angeles is uncertain. The change no doubt 
was gradual. 

The site selected for the pueblo of Los An- 
geles was picturesque and romantic. From 
where .\lameda street now is to the eastern 
bank of the river the land was covered with a 
dense growth of willows, cottonwoods and al- 
ders; while here and there, rising above the 
swampy copse, towered a giant aliso (sycamore 1. 
Wild grapevines festooned the branches of the 
trees and wild roses bloomed in profusion. Be- 
hind the narrow shelf of mesa land where the 
pueblo was located rose the brown hills, and in 
the distance towered the lofty Sierra Madre 
mountains. 

The last pueblo founded in California under 
Spanish domination was Villa de Branciforte, 
located on the opposite side of the river from 
the Mission of Santa Cruz. It was named after 
the \'iceroy Branciforte. It was designed as a 
coast defense and a place to colonize discharged 
soldiers. The scheme was discussed for a con- 
siderable time before anything was done. Gov- 
ernor Borica recommended "that an adobe 
house be built for each settler so that the prev- 
alent state of things in San Jose and Los An- 
geles, where the settlers still live in tule huts, be- 
ing unable to build better dwellings without 
neglecting their fields, may be prevented, the 
houses to cost not over two hundred dollars."* 

The first detachment of the colonists arrived 
May 12, 1797, on the Concepcion in a destitute 
condition. Lieutenant Moraga was sent to su- 
perintend the construction of houses for the 
colonists. He was instructed to build temporary 
huts for himself and the guard, then to build 
some larger buildings to accommodate fifteen or 
twenty families each. These were to be tem- 
porary. Only nine families came and they were 
of a vagabond class that had a constitutional 
antipathy to work. The settlers received the 



♦Bancroft's History of C.ilifornia. Vol. I. 



78 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



same amount of supplies and allowance of 
money as the colonists of San Jose and Los 
Angeles. Although the colonists were called 
Spaniards and assumed to be of a superior race 
to the first settlers of the other pueblos, they 
made less progress and were more unruly than 
the mixed and mongrel inhabitants of the older 
pueblos. 

Although at the close of the century three 
decades had passed since the first settlement was 
made in California, the colonists had made but 
little progress. Three pueblos of gente de razon 
had been founded and a few ranchos granted to 
ex-soldiers. Exclusive of the soldiers, the white 
population in the year 1800 did not exceed six 
hundred. The people lived in the most primi- 
tive manner. There was no commerce and no 
manufacturing except a little at the missions. 
Their houses were adobe huts roofed with tule 
thatch. The floor was the beaten earth and the 



scant furniture home-made. There was a scarcity 
of cloth for clothing. Padre Salazar relates that 
when he was at San Gabriel Mission in 1795 a 
man who had a thousand horses and cattle in 
proportion came there to beg cloth for a shirt, 
for none could be had at the pueblo of Los An- 
geles nor at the presidio of Santa Barbara. 

Hermanagildo Sal, the comandante of San 
Francisco, writing to a friend in 1799, says, "I 
send you, by the wife of the pensioner Jose 
Barbo, one piece of cotton goods and an ounce 
of sewing silk. There are no combs and I have 
no hope of receiving any for three years." Think 
of waiting three years for a comb! 

Eighteen missions had been founded at the 
close of the century. Except at a few of the 
older missions, the buildings were temporary 
structures. The neophytes for the most part 
were living in wigwams constructed like those 
they had occupied in their wild state. 



CHAPTER Vlll. 



THE PASSING OF SPAIN'S DOMINATION. 



THE Spaniards were not a commercial peo- 
ple. Their great desire was to be let alone 
in their American possessions. Phihp II. 
once promulgated a decree pronouncing death 
upon any foreigner who entered the Gulf of 
Mexico. It was easy to promulgate a decree or 
to pass restrictive laws against foreign trade, but 
C|uite another thing to enforce them. 

After the first settlement of California seven- 
teen years passed before a foreign vessel entered 
any of its ports. The first to arrive were the 
two vessels of the French explorer, La Perouse, 
who anchored in the harbor of Monterey, Sep- 
tember 15, 1786. Being of the same faith, and 
France having been an ally of Spain in former 
limes, he was well received. During his brief 
stay he made a study of the mission system and 
his observations on it are plainly given. He 
found a similarity in it to the slave plantations 
of Santo Domingo. November 14, 1792, the 
English navigator, Capt. George Vancouver, in 
the ship Discovery, entered the Bay of San 



Francisco. He was cordially received by the 
comandante of the port, Hermanagildo Sal, and 
the friars of the mission. On the 20th of the 
month, with several of his officers, he visited the 
Ivlission of Santa Clara, where he was kindly 
treated. He also visited the Mission of San 
Carlos de Monterey. He wrote an interesting 
account of his visit and his observations on the 
country. Vancouver was surprised at the back- 
wardness of the country and the antiquated cus- 
toms of the people. He says: "Instead of find- 
ing a country tolerably well inhabited, and far 
advanced in cultivation, if we except its natural 
pastures, flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, 
there is not an object to indicate the most re- 
mote connection with any European or other 
civilized nation." On a subsequent visit. Cap- 
tain \'ancouver met a chilly reception from the 
acting governor, Arrillaga. The Spaniards sus- 
pected him of spying out the weakness of their 
defenses. Through the English, the Spaniards 
became acquainted with the impoTtance and 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



79 



value of the fur trade. The bays and lagoons of 
California abounded in sea otter. Their skins 
were worth in China all the way from $30 to 
$100 each. The trade was made a government 
monopoly. The skins were to be collected from 
the natives, soldiers and others by the mission- 
aries, at prices ranging from $2.50 to $10 each, 
and turned over to the government officials ap- 
pointed to receive them. All trade by private 
persons was prohibited. The government was 
sole trader. But the government failed to make 
the trade profitable. In the closing years of 
the century the American smugglers began to 
haunt the coast. The restrictions against trade 
with foreigners were prescriptive and the penal- 
ties for evasion severe, but men will trade under 
the most adverse circumstances. Spain was a 
long way ofT, and smuggling was not a very 
venal sin in the eyes of layman or churchman. 
Fast sailing vessels were fitted out in Boston 
for illicit trade on the California coast. Watch- 
ing their opportunities, these vessels slipped 
into the bays and inlets along the coast. There 
was a rapid exchange of Yankee notions for sea 
otter skins, the most valued peltry of California, 
and the vessels were out to sea before the rev- 
enue officers could intercept them. If success- 
ful in escaping capture, the profits of a smug- 
gling voyage were enormous, ranging from 500 
to 1,000 per cent above cost on the goods ex- 
changed; but the risks were great. The smug- 
gler had no protection; he was an outlaw. He 
was the legitimate prey of the padres, the peo- 
ple and the revenue officers. The Yankee smug- 
gler usually came out ahead. His vessel was 
heavily armed, and when speed or stratagem 
failed he was ready to fight his way out of a 
scrape. 

Each year two ships were sent from San 
Bias with the memorias — ^mission and presidio 
supplies. These took back a small cargo of the 
products of the territory, wheat being the prin- 
cipal. This was all the legitimate commerce 
allowed California. 

The fear of Russian aggression had been one 
of the causes that had forced Spain to attempt 
the colonization of California. Bering, in 1741. 
had discovered the strait that bears his name 
and had taken possession, for the Russian gov- 



ernment, of the northwestern coast of .\merica. 
Four years later, the first permanent Russi.m 
settlement, Sitka, had been made on one of the 
coast islands. Rumors of the Russian explora- 
tions and settlements had reached Madrid and 
in 1774 Captain Perez, in the San Antonia, v.;a5 
sent up the coast to find out what the Russians 
were doing. 

Had Russian America contained arable land 
where grain and vegetables could have been 
grown, it is probable that the Russians and 
Spaniards in .\merica would not have come in 
contact; for another nation, the United States 
had taken possession of the intervening coun- 
Iry, bordering the Columbia river. 

The supplies of breadstuflfs for the Sitka col- 
onists had to be sent overland across Siberia 
or shipped around Cape Horn. Failure of sup- 
jilies sometimes reduced the colonists to sore 
straits. In 1806, famine and diseases incident 
to starvation threatened the extinction of the 
Russian colony. Count Rezanoff, a high officer 
of the Russian government, had arrived at the 
Sitka settlement in September, 1805. The des- 
titution prevailing there induced him to visit 
California with the hope of obtaining relief for 
the starving colonists. In the ship Juno (pur- 
chased from an American trader), with a scurvy 
afflicted crew, he made a perilous voyage down 
the stormy coast and on the 5th of April, 1806, 
anchored safely in the Bay of San Francisco. 
He had brought with him a cargo of goods for 
exchange but the restrictive commercial regula- 
tions of Spain prohibited trade with foreigners. 
Although the friars and the people needed the 
jroods the governor could not allow the ex- 
change. Count RezanofT would be permitted to 
purchase grain for cash, but the Russian's ex- 
chequer was not plethoric and his ship was al- 
ready loaded with goods. Love that laughs at 
locksmiths eventually unlocked " the shackles 
that hampered commerce. Rezanoff fell in love 
with Dona Concepcion, the beautiful daughter 
of Don Jose Arguello. the comandante of San 
Francisco, and an old time friend of the gov- 
ernor, Arrillaga. The attraction was mutual. 
Through the influence of Dona Concepcion. the 
friars and Arguello. the governor was induced 
to sanction a plan by which cash was the sup- 



80 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



posed medium of exchange on both sides, but 
grain on the one side and goods on the other 
were the real currency. 

The romance of Rezanofif and Dona Concep- 
cion had a sad ending. On his journey through 
Siberia to St. Petersburg to obtain the consent 
of the emperor to his marriage he was killed 
by a fall from his horse. It >vas several years 
before the news of his death reached his af- 
fianced bride. Faithful to his memory, she never 
married, but dedicated her life to deeds of char- 
ity. After RezanofY's visit the Russians came 
frequently to California, partly to trade, but 
more often to hunt otter. While on these fur 
hunting expeditions they examined the coast 
north of San Francisco with the design of plant- 
ing an agricultural colony where they could 
raise grain to supply the settlements in the far 
north. In 1812 they founded a town and built 
a fort on the coast north of Bodega Bay, which 
they named Ross. The fort mounted ten guns. 
They maintained a fort at Bodega Bay and also 
a small settlement on Russian river. The Span- 
iards protested against this aggression and 
threatened to drive the Russians out of the ter- 
ritory, but nothing came of their protests and 
they were powerless to enforce their demands. 
The Russian ships came to California for sup- 
plies and were welcomed by the people and the 
friars if not by the government officials. The 
Russian colony at Ross was not a success. The 
ignorant soldiers and the Aluets who formed 
the bulk of its three or four hundred inhab- 
itants, knew little or nothing about farming and 
were too stupid to learn, .\fter the decline of 
fur hunting the settlement became unprofitable. 
In 1841 the buildings and the stock" were sold 
by the Russian governor to Capt. John A. Sut- 
ter for $30,000. The settlement was abandoned 
and the fort and the town are in ruins. 

On the 15th of September, 18 10, the patriot 
priest, Miguel Hidalgo, struck the first blow 
for Mexican independence. The revolution 
which began in the province of Guanajuato was 
at first regarded by the authorities as a mere 
riot of ignorant Indians that would be speedily 
suppressed. But the insurrection spread rap- 
idly. Long years of oppression and cruelty had 
instilled into the hearts of the people an undy- 



ing hatred for their Spanish oppressors. Hidalgo 
soon found himself at the head of a motley 
army, poorly armed and undisciplined, but its 
mmibers swept away opposition. Unfortunately 
through over-confidence reverses came and in 
March, 181 1, the patriots met an overwhelming 
defeat at the bridge of Calderon. Hidalgo was 
betrayed, captured and shot. Though sup- 
pressed for a time, the cause of independence 
was not lost. For eleven years a fratricidal war 
was waged — cruel, bloody and devastating. Al- 
lende, Mina. Moreles, Alama, Rayon and other 
patriot leaders met death on the field of battle 
or were captured and shot as rebels, but "Free- 
dom's battle" becjueathed from bleeding sire to 
son was won at last. 

Of the political upheavals that shook Spain 
in the first decades of the century only the faint- 
est rumblings reached far distant California. 
Notwithstanding the many changes of rulers 
that political revolutions and Napoleonic wars 
gave the mother country, the people of Califor- 
nia remained loyal to the Spanish crown, al- 
though at times they must have been in doubt 
who wore the crown. 

Arrillaga was governor of California when 
the war of Mexican independence began. Al- 
though born in Mexico he was of pure Spanish 
parentage and was thoroughly in sympathy with 
Spain in the contest. He did not live to see the 
end of the war. Pie died in 1814 and was suc- 
ceeded by Pablo Vicente de Sola. Sola was 
Spanish born and was bitterly opposed to the 
revolution, even going so far as to threaten 
death to any one who should speak in favor of 
it. He had received his appointment from 
\'iceroy Calleja, the butcher of Guanajuato, the 
crudest and most bloodthirsty of the vice regal 
governors of new Spain. The friars were to a 
man loyal to Spain. The success of the repub- 
lic meant the downfall of their domination. 
They hated republican ideas and regarded 
their dissemination as a crime. They were the 
ruling power in California. The governors 
and the people were subservient to their 
wishes. 

The decade between 1810 and 1820 was 
marked bv two important events, the year of the 
earthquakes and the year of the insurgents. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



81 



The year 1812 was the Ano de los Temblores. 
The seismic disturbance that for forty years or 
more had shaken California seemed to concen- 
trate in power that year and expend its force 
on the mission churches. The massive church 
of San Juan Capistrano, tlie pride of mission 
architecture, was thrown down and forty per- 
sons killed. The walls of San Gabriel Mission 
were cracked and some of the saints shaken out 
of their niches. At San Buenaventura there 
were three heavy shocks which injured the 
church so that the tower and much of the facade 
had to be rebuilt. The whole mission site 
seemed to settle and the inhabitants, fearful 
that they might be engulfed by the sea, moved 
up the valley about two miles, where they re- 
mained three months. At Santa Barbara both 
church and the presidio were damaged and at 
Santa Inez the church was shaken down. The 
quakes continued for several months and the 
people were so terrified that they abandoned 
their houses and lived in the open air. 

The other important epoch of the decade was 
EI Alio de los Insurgentes, the year of the in- 
surgents. In November, 1818, Bouchard, a 
Frenchman in the service of Buenos Ayres and 
provided with letters of marque by San Mar- 
tain, the president of that republic, to prey upon 
Spanish commerce, appeared in the port of 
Monterey with two ships carrying sixty-six 
guns and three hundred and fifty men. He at- 
tacked Monterey and after an obstinate re- 
sistance by the Californians, it was taken by the 
insurgents and burned. Bouchard next pillaged 
Ortega's rancho and burned the buildings. 
Then sailing down the coast he scared the Santa 
Barbarahos; then keeping on down he looked 
into San Pedro, but finding nothing there to 
tempt him he kept on to San Juan Capistrano. 
There he landed, robbed the mission of a few 
articles and drank the padres' wine. Then he 
sailed away and disappeared. He left six of his 
men in California, among them Joseph Chap- 
man of Boston, the first American resident of 
California. 

In the early part of the last century there 
was a limited commerce with Lima. That 



being a Spanish dependency, trade with it was 
not prohibited. Gilroy, who arrived in Califor- 
nia in 1814, says, in his reminiscences:"" 

"The only article of export then was tallow, 
of which one cargo was sent annually to Callao 
in a Spanish ship. This tallow sold for $1.50 
per hundred weight in silver or $2.00 in trade 
or goods. Hides, except those used for tallow 
bags, were thrown away. Wheat, barley and 
beans had no market. Nearly everything con- 
sumed by the people was produced at home. 
There was no foreign trade." 

As the revolution in Mexico progressed 
times grew harder in California. The mission 
memorias ceased to come. No tallow ships from 
Callao arrived. The soldiers' pay was years in 
arrears and their uniforms in rags. What little 
wealth there was in the country was in the 
hands of the padres. They were supreme. "The 
friars," says Gilroy, "had everything their own 
way. The governor and the military were ex- 
pected to do whatever the friars requested. The 
missions contained all the wealth of the coun- 
try." The friars supported the government and 
supplied the troops with food from the products 
of the neophytes' labor. The crude manufac- 
turers of the missions supplied the people with 
cloth for clothing and some other necessities. 
The needs of the common people were easily 
satisfied. They w'erc not used to luxuries nor 
were they accustomed to what we would now 
consider necessities. Gilroy, in the reminis- 
cences heretofore referred to, states that at the 
time of his arrival (1814) "There was not a saw- 
mill, whip saw or spoked wheel in California. 
Such lumber as was used was cut with an axe. 
Chairs, tables and wood floors were not to be 
found except in the governor's house. Plates 
were rare unless that name could be applied to 
the tiles used instead. Money was a rarity. 
There were no stores and no merchandise to 
sell. There w-as no employment for a laborer. 
The neophytes did all the work and all the busi- 
ness of the country was in the hands of the 
friars." 



*AIta California, June 25, 1865. 



82 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



CHAPTER IX. 



FROM EMPIRE TO REPUBLIC. 



THE condition of affairs in California stead- 
ily grew worse as the revolution in Mex- 
ico progressed. Sola had made strenuous 
ettorts to arouse the Spanish authorities of New 
Spain to take some action towards benefiting the 
territory. After the affair with the insurgent 
Bouchard he had appealed to the viceroy for re- 
inforcements. In answer to his urgent entreaties 
a force of one hundred men was sent from Ma- 
zatlan to garrison San Diego and an equal force 
from San Bias for Monterey. They reached Cal- 
ifornia in August, 1819, and Sola was greatly 
rejoiced, but his joy was turned to deep disgust 
when he discovered the true character of the re- 
inforcement and arms sent him. The only equip- 
ments of the soldiers were a few hundred old 
worn-out • sabers that Sola declared were unfit 
for sickles. He ordered them returned to the 
comandante of San Bias, who had sent them. 
The troops were a worse lot than the arms sent. 
They had been taken out of the prisons or con- 
scripted from the lowest class of the population 
of the cities. They were thieves, drunkards and 
vagabonds, who, as soon as landed, resorted to 
robberies, brawls and assassinations. Sola wrote 
to the viceroy that the outcasts called troops 
sent him from the jails of Tepic and San Bias 
by their vices caused continual disorders; their 
evil example had debauched the minds of the 
Indians and that the cost incurred in their col- 
lection and transportation had been worse than 
thrown away. He could not get rid of them, 
so he had to control them as best he could. 
Governor Sola labored faithfully to benefit the 
country over which he had been placed and to 
arouse the Spanish authorities in Mexico to do 
something for the advancement of California; 
but the government did nothing. Indeed it was 
in no condition to do anything. The revolution 
would not down. No sooner was one revolution- 
ary leader suppressed and the rebellion ap- 
parently crushed than there was an uprising in 



some other part of the country under a new 
leader. 

Ten years of intermittent warfare had been 
waged — one army of patriots after another had 
been defeated and the leaders shot; the strug- 
gle for independence was almost ended and the 
royalists were congratulating themselves on the 
triumph of the Spanish crown, when a sudden 
change came and the vice regal government 
that for three hundred years had swayed the 
destinies of New Spain went down forever. 
Agustin Iturbide, a colonel in the royal army, 
who in February, 1821, had been sent with a 
corps of five thousand men from the capital to 
the Sierras near Acapulco to suppress Guerrero, 
the last of the patriot chiefs, suddenly changed 
his allegiance, raised the banner of the revolu- 
tion and declared for the independence of Mex- 
ico under the plan of Iguala, so named for the 
town where it was first proclaimed. The central 
ideas of the plan were "Union, civil and re- 
ligious liberty." 

There was a general uprising in all parts of 
the country and men rallied to the support of the 
Army of the Three Guarantees, religion, union, 
independence. Guerrero joined forces with 
Iturbide and September 21, 1821, at the head 
of sixteen thousand men, amid the rejoicing of 
the people, they entered the capital. The viceroy 
was compelled to recognize the independence of 
Mexico. A provisional government under a 
regency was appointed at first, but a few months 
later Iturbide was crowned emperor, taking the 
title of his most serene majesty, Agustin I., by 
divine providence and by the congress of the 
nation, first constitutional emperor of Mexico. 

Sola had heard rumors of the turn affairs 
were taking in Mexico, but he had kept the re- 
ports a secret and still hoped and prayed for 
the success of the Spanish arms. At length a 
vessel appeared in the harbor of Monterey float- 
ing an unknown flag, and cast anchor beyond 



PIISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



83 



the reach of the guns of the castillo. The sol- 
diers were called to arms. A boat from the ship 
put off for shore and landed an officer, who de- 
clared himself the bearer of dispatches to Don 
Pablo Vicente de Sola, tiie governor of the 
province. "I demand," said he, "to be con- 
ducted to his presence in the name of my sov- 
ereign, the liberator of Mexico, General Agustin 
de Iturbide." There was a murmur of applause 
from the soldiers, greatly to the surprise of their 
officers, who were all loyalists. Governor Sola 
was bitterly disappointed. Only a few days be- 
fore he had harangued the soldiers in the square 
of the presidio and threatened "to shoot down 
any one high or low without the formality of a 
trial who dared to say a word in favor of the 
traitor Iturbide." 

For half a century the banner of Spain had 
floated from the flag staff of the presidio of 
Monterey. Sadly Sola ordered it lowered and 
in its place was hoisted the imperial flag of the 
Mexican Empire. A few months pass, Iturbide 
is forced to abdicate the throne of empire and 
is banished from Mexico. The imperial stand- 
ard is supplanted by the tricolor of the republic. 
Thus the Californians, in little more than one 
year, have passed under three different forms 
of government, that of a kingdom, an empire 
and a republic, and Sola from the most 
loyal of Spanish governors in the kingdom 
of Spain has been transformed in a Mexican 
republican. 

The friars, if possible, were more bitterly dis- 
appointed than the governor. They saw in the 
success of the republic the doom of their estab- 
lishments. Republican ideas were repulsive to 
them. Liberty meant license to men to think 
for themselves. The shackles of creed and the 
fetters of priestcraft would be loosened by the 
growth of liberal ideas. It was not strange, 
viewing the question from their standpoint, that 
they refused to take the oath of allegiance to 
the republic. Nearly all of them were Spanish 
born. Spain had aided them to plant their mis- 
sions, had fostered their establishments and had 
made them supreme in the territory. Their al- 
legiance was due to the Spanish crown. They 
would not transfer it to a republic and they did 
not; to the last they were loyal to Spain in 



heart, even if they did acquiesce in the ob- 
servance of the rule of the republic. 

Sola had long desired to be relieved of the 
governorship. He was growing old and was in 
poor health. The condition of the country wor- 
ried him. lie had frequently asked to be re- 
lieved and allowed to retire from military duty. 
His requests were unheeded; the vice regal 
government of New Spain had weightier mat- 
ters to attend to than requests or the complaints 
of the governor of a distant and unimportant 
province. The inauguration of the empire 
brought him the desired relief. 

Under the empire .\lta California was allowed 
a diputado or delegate in the imperial congress. 
Sola was elected delegate and took his de- 
parture for Mexico in the autumn of 1822. Luis 
Antonio Arguello, president of the provincial 
diputacion, an institution that had come into ex- 
istence after the inauguration of the empire, be- 
came governor by virtue of his position as 
president. He was the first hijo del pais or na- 
tive of the country to hold the office of gov- 
ernor. He was born at San Francisco in 1784, 
while his father, an ensign at the presidio, was 
in command there. Plis opportunities for ob- 
taining an education were extremely meager, 
but he made the best use of what he had. He 
entered the army at sixteen and was, at the time 
he became temporary governor, comandante at 
San Francisco. 

The inauguration of a new form of govern- 
ment had brought no relief to California. The 
two Spanish ships that had annually brought 
los memorias del rey (the remembrances of the 
king) had long since ceased to come with their 
supplies of money and goods for the soldiers. 
The California ports were closed to foreign com- 
merce. There was no sale for the products of 
the country. So the missions had to throw open 
their warehouses and relieve the necessities of 
the government. 

The change in the form of government had 
made no change in the dislike of foreigners, 
that was a characteristic of the Spaniard. Dur- 
ing the Spanish era very few foreigners had 
been allowed to remain in California. Run- 
away sailors and shipwrecked mariners, notwith- 
standing they might wish to remain in the coun- 



84 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



try and become Catholics, were shipped to 
. Mexico and returned to their own country. 
John Gilroy, whose real name was said to be 
John Cameron, was the first permanent English 
speaking resident of California. When a boy 
of eighteen he was left by the captain of a Hud- 
son Bay company's ship at Monterey in 1814. 
He was sick with the scurvy and not expected 
to live. Nursing and a vegetable diet brought 
him out all right, but he could not get away. 
He did not like the country and every day for 
several years he went down to the beach and 
scanned the ocean for a foreign sail. When one 
did come he had gotten over his home-sickness, 
had learned the language, fallen in love, turned 
Catholic and married. 

In 1822 William E. P. Hartnell, an English- 
man, connected with a Lima business house, 
visited California and entered into a contract 
with Padre Payeras, the prefect of the missions, 
for the purchase of hides and tallow. Hartnell 
a few years later married a California lady and 
became a permanent resident of the territory. 
Other foreigners who came about the same time 
as Hartnell and who became prominent in Cal- 
ifornia were William A. Richardson, an Eng- 
lishman; Capt. John R. Cooper of Boston and 
William A. Gale, also of Boston. Gale had first 
visited California in 18 10 as a fur trader. He 
returned in 1822 on the ship Sachem, the pioneer 
Boston hide drogher. The hide drogher was 
in a certain sense the pioneer emigrant ship 
of California. It brought to the coast a 
number of Americans who became permanent 
residents of the territory. California, on ac- 
count of its long distance from the world's 
marts of trade, had but few products for ex- 
change that would bear the cost of shipment. 
Its chief commodities for barter during the 
Mexican era were hides and tallow. The vast 
range of country adapted to cattle raising made 
that its most profitable industry. Cattle in- 
creased rapidly and required but little care or 
attention from their owners. As the native Cal- 
ifornians were averse to hard labor cattle rais- 
ing became almost the sole industry of the 
country. 

After the inauguration of a republican form 
of government in Mexico some of the most 



burdensome restrictions on foreign commerce 
were removed. The Mexican Congress of 1824 
enacted a colonization law, which was quite 
liberal. Under it foreigners could obtain land 
from the public domain. The Roman CathoUc 
religion was the state religion and a foreigner, 
before he could become a permanent resident of 
the country, acquire property or marry, was 
required to be baptized and embrace the doc- 
trines of that church. After the Mexican Con- 
gress repealed the restrictive laws against for- 
eign commerce a profitable trade grew up 
between the New England ship owners and the 
Californians. 

Vessels called hide droghers were fitted out 
in Boston with assorted cargoes suitable for the 
California trade. Making the voyage by way of 
Cape Horn they reached California. Stopping 
at the various ports along the coast they ex- 
changed their stocks of goods and Yankee 
notions for hides and tallow. It took from two 
to three years to make a voyage to California 
and return to Boston, but the profits on the 
goods sold and on the hides received in ex- 
change were so large that these veiitures paid 
handsomely. The arrival of a hide drogher 
with its department store cargo was heralded 
up and down the coast. It broke the monotony 
of existence, gave the people something new 
to talk about and stirred them up as nothing 
else could do unless possibly a revolution. 

"On the arrival of a new vessel from the 
United States," says Robinson in his "Life in 
California," "every man, woman, boy and girl 
took a proportionate share of interest as to the 
qualities of her cargo. If the first inquired for 
rice, sugar or tobacco, the latter asked for prints, 
silks and satins; and if the boy wanted a Wil- 
son's jack knife, the girl hoped that there might 
be some satin ribbons for her. Thus the whole 
population hailed with eagerness an arrival. Even 
the Indian in his unsophisticated style asked for 
Panas Colorados and Abalaris — red handker- 
chiefs and beads. 

"After the arrival of our trading vessel (at San 
Pedro) our friends came in the morning flock- 
ing on board from all quarters; and soon a busy 
scene commenced afloat and ashore. Boats 
were passing to the beach, and men, women 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and children partaking in the general excite- 
ment. On shore all was confusion, cattle and 
carts laden with hides and tallow, gente de razon 
and Indians busily employed in the delivery of 
their produce and receiving in return its value 
in goods. Groups of individuals seated around 
little bonfires upon the ground, and horsemen 
racing over the plains in every direction. Thus 
the day passed, some arriving, some departing, 
till long after sunset, the low white road, lead- 
ing across the plains to the town (Los Angeles), 
appeared a living panorama." 

The commerce of California during the Mex- 
ican era was principally carried on by the hide 
droghers. The few stores at the pueblos and 
presidios obtained their supplies from them 
and retailed their goods to customers in the in- 
tervals between the arrivals of the department 
store droghers. 

The year 1824 was marked by a serious out- 
break among the Indians of several missions. 
.Mthough in the older missionary establish- 
ments many of the neophytes had spent half a 
century under the Christianizing influence of 
the padres and in these, too, a younger genera- 
tion had grown from childhood to manhood 
under mission tutelage, yet their Christian train- 
ing had not eliminated all the aboriginal sav- 
agery from their natures. The California Indians 
were divided into numerous small tribes, each 
speaking a difTerent dialect. They had never 
learned, like the eastern Indians did, the ad- 
vantages of uniting against a common enemy. 
When these numerous small tribes were gath- 
ered into the missions they were kept as far as 
it was possible separate and it is said the padres 
encouraged their feuds and tribal animosities to 
prevent their uniting against the missionaries. 
Their long residence in the missions had de- 
stroyed their tribal distinctions and merged 
them into one body. It had taught them, too, 
the value of combination. 

How long the Indians had been plotting no 
one knew. The conspiracy began among the 
neophytes of Santa Ynez and La Purisima. but 
it spread to the missions of San Luis Obispo, 
Santa Barbara, San Buenaventura, San Fer- 
nando and San Gabriel. Their plan was to mas- 
sacre the padres and the mission guard and 



leaving obtained arms to kill all the genU 
razon and thus free themselves from mission 
thralldom and regain their old time freedom. 
The plotting had been carried on with great 
secrecy. Rumors had passed from mission to 
mission arranging the details of the uprising 
without the whites suspecting anything. Sunday, 
February 22, 1824, was the day set for begin- 
ning the slaughter. At the hour of celebrating 
mass, when the soldiers and the padres were 
within the church, the bloody work was to be- 
gin. The plot might have succeeded had not 
the Indians at Santa Ynez began their work 
prematurely. One account (Ilittell's History of 
California) says that on Saturday afternoon be- 
fore the appointed Sunday they determined to 
begin the work by the murder of Padre Fran- 
cisco Xavier Una, who was sleeping in a cham- 
ber next the mission church. He was w'arned 
by a faithful page. Springing from his couch 
and rushing to a window he saw the Indians ap- 
proaching. Seizing a musket from several that 
were in the room he shot the first Indian that 
reached the threshold dead. He seized a sec- 
ond musket and laid another Indian low. The 
soldiers now rallied to his assistance and the 
Indians were driven back; they set fire to the 
mission church, but a small body of troops un- 
der Sergeant Carrillo, sent from Santa Barbara 
to reinforce the mission guard, coming up at 
this time, the Indians fled to Purisima. The 
fire was extinguished before the church was 
consumed. At Purisima the Indians were more 
successful. The mission was defended by Cor- 
]ioral Tapia and five soldiers. The Indians de- 
manded that Tapia surrender, but the corporal 
refused. The fight began and continued all 
night. The Indians set fire to the building, but 
all they could burn was the rafters. Tapia, by a 
strategic movement, succeeded in collecting all 
the soldiers and the women and children inside 
the walls of one of the largest buildings from 
which the roof had been burnt. From this the 
Indians could not dislodge him. The fight was 
kept up till morning, when one of the Indians, 
who had been a mission alcade. made a prop- 
osition to the corporal to surrender. Tapia re- 
fused to consider it. but Father Bias Ordaz in- 
terfered and insisted on a compromise, .\fter 



86 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



much contention Tapia found himself overruled. 
The Indians agreed to spare the lives of all on 
condition that the whites laid down their arms. 
The soldiers laid down their arms and sur- 
rendered two small cannon belonging to the 
church. The soldiers, the women and the chil- 
dren were then allowed to march to Santa Ynez. 
While the fight was going on the Indians killed 
^ four white men, two of them, Dolores Sepulveda 
and Ramon Satelo, were on their way to Los 
Angeles and came to the mission not suspecting 
any danger. .Seven Indians were killed in the 
fight and a number wounded. 

The Indians at Santa Barbara began hostilities 
according to their prearranged plot. They made 
an attack upon the mission. Captain de la 
Guerra, who was in command at the presidio, 
marched to the mission and a fight of several 
hours ensued. The Indians sheltered them- 
selves behind the pillars of the corridor and 
fought with guns and arrows. After losing sev- 
eral of their number they fled to the hills. Four 
soldiers were wounded. The report of the up- 
rising reached Monterey and measures were 
taken at once to subdue the rebellious 
neophytes. A force of one hundred men was 
sent under Lieut. Jose Estrada to co-operate 
with Captain de la Guerra against the rebels. 
On the 1 6th of March the soldiers surroujided 
the Indians who had taken ]iossession of the 
mission church at Purisima and opened fire 
upon them. The Indians replied with their cap- 
lured cannon, muskets and arrows. Estrada's 
artillery battered down the walls of the church. 
The Indians, unused to arms, did little execu- 
tion. Driven out of the wrecked building, they 
attempted to make their escape by flight, but 
were intercepted by the cavalry which had been 
deployed for that purpose. Finding themselves 



hennned in on all sides the neophytes sur- 
rendered. They had lost sixteen killed and a 
large number of wounded. Seven of the prison- 
ers were shot for complicity in the murder of 
Sepulveda and the three other travelers. The 
four leaders in the revolt, Mariano Pacomio, 
Benito and Bernabe, were sentenced to ten 
years hard labor at the presidio and eight oth- 
ers to lesser terms. There were four hundred 
Indians engaged in the battle. 

The Indians of the Santa Barbara missions 
anil escapes from Santa Ynez and Purisima 
made their way over the mountains to the 
Tulares. A force of eighty men under com- 
mand of a lieutenant was sent against these. 
The troops had two engagements with the reb- 
els, w'hom they found at Buenavista Lake and 
San Emigdio. Finding his force insufficient to 
subdue them the lieutenant retreated to Santa 
Barbara. Another force of one hundred and 
thirty men under Captain Portilla and Lieuten- 
ant \'alle was sent after the rebels. Father 
Ripoll had induced the governor to offer a gen- 
eral pardon. The padre claimed that the In- 
dians had not harmed the friars nor committed 
sacrilege in the church and from his narrow 
view these were about the only venal sins they 
could commit. The troops found the fugitive 
neophytes encamped at San Emigdio. They 
now professed repentance for their misdeeds and 
were willing to return to mission life if they 
could escape punishment. Padres Ripoll and 
.Sarria, who had accompanied the expedition, 
entered into negotiations with the Indians; par- 
don was promised them for their offenses. They 
then surrendered and marched back with the 
soldiers to their respective missions. Tliis was 
the last atteiupt of the Indians to escape from 
mission rule. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



87 



CHAPTER X 



FIRST DECADE OF MEXICAN RULE. 



JOSE MARIA ECHEAXDIA, a lieutenant 
colonel of the Mexican army, was ap- 
pointed governor of the two Californias, 
February i, 1825. With his staff officers and 
a few soldiers he landed at Loreto June 
22. After a delay of a few months at Lo- 
reto he marched overland to San Diego, 
where he arrived about the middle of October. 
He summoned Arguello to meet him there, 
which he did and turned over the government, 
October 31, 1825. Echeandia established his 
capital at San Diego, that town being about the 
center of his jurisdiction. This did not suit the 
people of Monterey, who become prejudiced 
against the new governor. Shortly after his 
inauguration he began an investigation of the 
attitude of the mission friars towards the re- 
public of Mexico. He called padres Sanches, 
Zalvidea, Peyri and Martin, representatives of 
the four southern missions, to San Diego and 
demanded of them whether they would take the 
oath of allegiance to the supreme government. 
They expressed their willingness and were ac- 
cordingly sworn to support the constitution of 
1824. Many of the friars of the northern mis- 
sions remained contumacious. Among the 
most stubborn of these was Padre Mcente 
Francisco de Sarria, former president of the 
missions. He had resigned the presidency to 
escape taking the oath of allegiance and still 
continued his opposition. He was put under ar- 
rest and an order issued for his expulsion by 
the supreme government, but the execution of 
the order was delayed for fear that if he were 
banished others of the disloyal padres woiUd 
abandon their missions and secretly leave the 
country. The government was not ready yet to 
take possession of the missions. The friars 
could keep the neophytes in subjection and 
make them work. The business of the country 
was in the hands of the friars and any radical 
change would have been disastrous. 



The national government in 1827 iiad issued 
a decree for the expulsion of Spaniards from 
Mexican territory. There were certain classes 
of those born in Spain who were exempt from 
banishment, but the friars were not among the 
exempts. The decree of expulsion reached Cal- 
ifornia in 1828; but it was not enforced for the 
reason that all of the mission padres except 
three were Spaniards. To have sent these out 
of the country would have demoralized the mis- 
sions. The Spanish friars were expelled from 
Mexico; but those in California, although some 
of them had boldly proclaimed their willingness 
to die for their king and their religion and de- 
manded their passports to leave the country, 
were allowed to remain in the country. Their 
passports were not given them for reasons 
above stated. Padres Rii)olI and Altimira made 
their escape without passports. They secretly 
took passage on an American brig lying at 
Santa Barbara. Orders were issued to seize the 
vessel should she put into any other harbor on 
the coast, but the captain, who no doubt had 
been liberally paid, took no chance of capture 
and the padres eventually reached Spain in 
safety. There was a suspicion that the two 
friars had taken with them a large amount of 
money from the mission funds, but nothing was 
jiroved. It was certain that they carried away 
something more than the bag and staff, the only 
property allowed them by the rules of their 
order. 

The most bitter opponent of the new govern- 
ment was Father Luis Antonio Martinez of San 
Luis Obispo. Before tlie clandestine departure 
of Ripoll and .\Uimira there were rumors that 
he meditated a secret departure from the coun- 
try. The mysterious shipment of $6,000 in gold 
belonging to the mission on a vessel called the 
Santa Apolonia gave credence to the report of 
his intended flight. He had been given a pass- 
port but still remained in the territory. His 



88 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



outspoken disloyalty and his well known suc- 
cess in evading the revenue laws and smuggling 
goods into the country had made him particu- 
larly obnoxious to the authorities. Governor 
Echeandia determined to make an example of 
him. He was arrested in February, 1830, and 
confined in a room at Santa Barbara. In his 
trial before a council of war an attempt was 
made to connect him with complicity in the Solis 
revolution, but the evidence against him was 
weak. By a vote of five to one it was decided 
to send him out of the country. He was put 
on board an English vessel bound for Callao and 
there transferred to a vessel bound for Europe; 
he finally arrived safely at Madrid. 

Under the empire a diputacion or provincial 
legislature had been established in California. 
Arguello in 1825 had suppressed this while he 
was governor. Echeandia, shortly after his ar- 
rival, ordered an election for a new diputacion. 
The diputacion made the general laws of the 
territory. It consisted of seven members called 
vocals. These were chosen by an electoral 
junta, the members of which were elected by 
the people. The diputacion chose a diputado or 
delegate to the Mexican Congress. As it was a 
long distance for some of the members to travel 
to the territorial capital a suplente or substitute 
was chosen for each member, so as to assure a 
quorum. The diputacion called by Echeandia 
met at Monterey, June 14, 1828. The sessions, 
of which there were two each week, were held in 
the governor's palacio. This diputacion passed 
a rather peculiar revenue law. It taxed domestic 
aguardiente (grape brandy) $5 a barrel and 
wine half that amount in the jurisdictions of 
Monterey and San Francisco; but in the juris- 
dictions of Santa Barbara and San Diego the 
rates were doubled, brandy was taxed $10 
a barrel and wine $5. San Diego, Los An- 
geles and Santa Barbara were wine producing 
districts, while Monterey and San Francisco 
were not. As there was a larger consumption of 
the product in the wine producing districts than 
in the others the lavi' was enacted for revenue 
and not for prevention of drinking. 

Another peculiar freak of legislation perpe- 
trated by this diputacion was the attempt to 
change the name of the territory. The supreme 



government was memorialized to change the 
name of Alta California to that of Montezuma 
and also that of the Pueblo de Nuestra Sefiora 
de los Angeles to that of Villa Victoria de la 
Reyna de los Angeles and make it the capital 
of the territory. A coat of arms was adopted 
for the territory. It consisted of an oval with 
the figure of an oak tree on one side, an olive 
tree on the other and a plumed Indian in the 
center with his bow and quiver, just in the 
act of stepping across the mythical straits 
of Anian. The memorial was sent to Mexico, 
but the supreme government paid no attention 
to it. 

The political upheavals, revolutions and coun- 
ter revolutions that followed the inauguration 
of a republican form of government in Mexico 
demoralized the people and produced a prolific 
crop of criminals. The jails were always full 
and it became a serious question what to do 
with them. It was proposed to make California 
a penal colony, similar to England's Botany 
Bay. Orders were issued to send criminals to 
California as a means of reforming their mor- 
als. The Californians protested against the 
sending of these undesirable immigrants, but in 
vain. In February, 1830, the brig Maria Ester 
brought eighty convicts from Acapuico to San 
Diego. They were not allowed to land there 
and were taken to Santa Barbara. What to 
do with them was a serious question with the 
Santa Barbara authorities. The jail would not 
hold a tenth part of the shipment and to turn 
them loose in the sparsely settled country was 
dangerous to the peace of the community. Fin- 
ally, about thirty or forty of the worst of the 
bad lot were shipped over to the island of Santa 
Cruz. They were given a supply of cattle, some 
fishhooks and a few tools and turned loose on 
the island to shift for themselves. They staid 
on the island until they had slaughtered and 
eaten the cattle, then they built a raft and 
drifted back to Santa Barbara, where they 
quartered themselves on the padres of the mis- 
sion. Fifty more were sent from Mexico a few 
months later. These shipments of prison exiles 
were distributed around among the settlements. 
Some served out their time and returned to their 
native land, a few escaped over the border, 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



sa 



others remained in the territory after their time 
was up and became fairly good citizens. 

The colonization law passed by tlie Mexican 
Congress August i8, 1824, was the first break 
in the proscriptive regulations that had pre- 
vailed in Spanish-American countries since their 
settlement. Any foreigner of good character 
who should locate in the country and become a 
Roman Catholic could obtain a grant of public 
land, not exceeding eleven leagues; but no for- 
eigner was allowed to obtain a grant within 
twenty leagues of the boundary of a foreign 
country nor within ten leagues of the sea coast. 
The law of April 14, 1828, allowed foreigners 
to become naturalized citizens. The applicant 
was required to have resided at least two years 
in the country, to be or to become a Roman 
Catholic, to renounce allegiance to his former 
country and to swear to support the constitution 
and laws of the Mexican republic. Quite a 
number of foreigners who had been residing 
a number of years in California took advantage 
of this law and became Mexican citizens by nat- 
uralization. The colonization law of Novem- 
ber 18, 1828, prescribed a series of rules and 
regulations for the making of grants of land. 
Colonists were required to settle on and culti- 
vate the land granted within a specified time or 
forfeit their grants. Any one residing outside 
of the republic could not retain possession of 
his land. The minimum size of a grant as de- 
fined by this law was two hundred varas square 
of irrigable land, eight hundred varas scjuare 
of arable land (depending on the seasons) and 
twelve hundred varas square grazing land. The 
size of a house lot was one hundred varas 
square. 

The Californians had grown accustomed to 
foreigners coming to the country by sea, but 
they were not prepared to have them come over- 
land. The mountains and deserts that inter- 
vened between the United States and California 
were supposed to be an insurmountable barrier 
to foreign immigration by land. It was no doubt 
with feelings of dismay, mingled with anger, 
that Governor Echeandia received the advance 
guard of maldito estranjcros, who came across 
the continent. Echeandia hated foreigners and 
particularly Americans. The pioneer of over- 



land travel from the United States to California 
was Capt. Jedediah S. Smith. Smith was born 
in Connecticut and when quite young came 
with his father to Ohio and located in Ashtabula 
county, where he grew to manhood amid the 
rude surroundings of pioneer life in the west. 
i!y some means he obtained a fairly good educa- 
tion. VVe have no record of when he began the 
life of a trapper. We first hear of him as an 
employe of General Ashley in 1822. He had 
command of a band of trappers on the waters of 
the Snake river in 1824. Afterwards he became 
a partner of Ashley under the firm name of 
Ashley & Smith and subsequently one of the 
members of the Rocky Mountain Inir Company. 
The latter company had about 1825 established 
a post and fort near Great Salt Lake. From 
this, August 22, 1826, Captain Smith with a 
band of fifteen hunters and trappers started on 
his first expedition to California. His object 
was to find some new coimtry that had not been 
occupied by a fur company. Traveling in a south- 
westerly direction he discovered a river which 
he named Adams (after President John Quincy 
Adams) now known as the Rio \irgin. This 
stream he followed down to its junction with 
the Colorado. Traveling down the latter river 
he arrived at the Mojave villages, where he 
rested fifteen days. Here he found two wander- 
ing neophytes, who guided his party across the 
desert to the San Gabriel mission, where he and 
his men arrived safely early in December, 1826. 
The arrival of a party of armed Americans 
from across the mountains and deserts alarmed 
the padres and couriers were hastily dispatched 
to Governor Echeandia at San Diego. The 
Americans were placed under arrest and com- 
pelled to give up their arms. Smith was taken 
to San Diego to give an account of himself. He 
claimed that he had been compelled to enter 
the territory on account of the loss of horses 
and a scarcity of jjrovisions. He was finally re- 
leased from prison upon the endorsement of 
several American ship captains and supercar- 
goes who were then at San Diego. He was al- 
lowed to return to San Gabriel, where he pur- 
chased horses and supplies. He moved his camp 
to San Bernardino, where he remained until 
February. The authorities had grown uneasy 



90 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



at his continued presence in the country and 
orders were sent to arrest him, but before this 
could be done he left for the Tulare country by 
way of Cajon Pass. He trapped on the tribu- 
taries of the San Joaquin. By the ist of ]May 
he and his party had reached a fork of the Sac- 
ramento (near where the town of Folsom now 
stands). Here lie established a summer camp 
and the river ever since has been known as the 
American fork from that circumstance. 

Here again the presence of the Americans 
worried the Mexican authorities. Smith wrote 
a conciliatory letter to Padre Duran, president 
of the missions, informing him that he had 
"made several efforts to pass over the moun- 
tains, but the snow being so deep I could not 
succeed in getting over. I returned to this 
place, it being the only point to kill meat, to 
wait a few weeks until the snow melts so that I 
can go on." "On ]\lay 20, 1827," Smith writes, 
"with two men, seven horses and two mules, I 
started from the valley. In eight days we 
crossed Mount Joseph, losing two horses and 
one mule. After a march of twenty days east- 
ward from Mount Joseph (the Sierra Nevadas) 
I reached the southwesterly corner of the Great 
Salt Lake. The country separating it from the 
mountains is arid and without game. Often we 
had no water for two days at a time. When 
we reached Salt Lake we had left only one horse 
and one mule, so exhausted that they could 
hardly carry our slight baggage. We had been 
forced to eat the horses that had succumbed." 

Smith's route over the Sierras to Salt Lake 
was substantially the same as that followed by the 
overland emigration of later years. He discov- 
ered the Humboldt, which he named the Mary 
river, a name it bore until changed by Fremont 
in 1845. He was the first white man to cross 
the Sierra Nevadas. Smith left his party of 
trappers except the two who accompanied him 
in the Sacramento valley. He returned next 
year with reinforcements and was ordered out 
of the country by the governor. He traveled up 
the coast towards Oregon. On the Umpqua 
river he was attacked by the Indians. All his 
party except himself and two others were mas- 
sacred. He lost all of his horses and furs. He 
reached Fort Vancouver, his clothing torn to 



rags and almost starved to death. In 1831 he 
started with a train of wagons to Santa Fe on a 
trading expedition. While alone searching for 
water near the Cimarron river he was set upon 
by a party of Indians and killed. Thus perished 
by the hands of cowardly savages in the wilds of 
New Mexico a man who, through almost in- 
credible dangers and sufferings, had explored 
an unknown region as vast in extent as that 
which gave fame and immortality to the African 
explorer, Stanley; and who marked out trails 
over mountains and across deserts that Fre- 
mont following years afterwards won the title 
of "Pathfinder of the Great West." Smith led 
the advance guard of the fur trappers to Cali- 
fornia. Notwithstanding the fact that they were 
unwelcome visitors these adventurers continued 
to come at intervals up to 1845. They trapped 
on the tributaries of the San Joaquin, Sacramento 
and the rivers in the northern part of the terri- 
tory. A few of them remained in the country 
and became permanent residents, but most of 
them sooner or later met death by the savages. 

Capt. Jedediah S. Smith marked out two of 
the great immigrant trails by which the overland 
travel, after the discovery of gold, entered Cal- 
ifornia, one by way of the Humboldt river over 
tlie Sierra Nevadas, the other southerly from 
Salt Lake, L'tah Lake, the Rio Virgin, across 
the Colorado desert, through the Cajon Pass to 
Los Angeles. A third immigrant route was 
blazed by the Pattie party. This route led from 
Santa Fe, across New Mexico, down the Gila 
to the Colorado and from thence across the 
desert through the San Gorgonio Pass to Los 
.\ngeles. 

This party consisted of Sylvester Pattie, 
James Ohio Pattie, his son, Nathaniel M. 
Pryor, Richard Laughlin, Jesse Furguson, Isaac 
Slover, William Pope and James Puter. The 
Patties left Kentucky in 1824 and followed trap 
ping in New Mexico and Arizona until 1827; 
the elder Pattie for a time managing the cop- 
per mines of Santa Rita. In May, 1827, Pattie 
the elder, in command of a party of thirty trap- 
pers and hunters, set out to trap the tributaries 
of the Colorado. Losses by Indian hostilities, 
by dissensions and desertions reduced the party 
to eight persons. December ist, 1827, while 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.A.PHICAL RECORD. 



91 



these were encamped on the Colorado near the 
mouth of the Gila, the Yuma Indians stole all 
their horses. They constructed rafts and floated 
down the Colorado, expecting to find Spanish 
settlements on its banks, where they hoped to 
procure horses to take them back to Santa Fe. 
They floated down the river until they encoun- 
tered the flood tide from the gulf. Finding it 
impossible to go ahead on account of the tide 
or back on account of the river current, they 
landed, cached their furs and traps and with 
two days' supply of beaver meat struck out 
westerly across the desert. After traveling for 
twenty-four days and suffering almost incredible 
hardships they reached the old Mission of Santa 
Catalina near the head of the Gulf of California. 
Here they were detained until news of their ar- 
rival could be sent to Governor Echeandia at 
San Diego. A guard of sixteen soldiers was sent 
for them and they were conducted to San Diego, 
where they arrived February 27, 1828. Their 
arms were taken from them and they were put 
in prison. The elder Pattie died during their 
imprisonment. In September all the party ex- 
cept young Pattie, who was retained as a host- 
age, were released and permitted to go after 
their buried furs. They found their furs had been 
ruined by the overflow of the river. Tw'o of the 
party, Slover and Pope, made their way back 
to Santa Fe; the others returned, bringing with 
them their beaver traps. They w'ere again im- 
prisoned by Governor Echeandia, but were fin- 
ally released. 

Three of the party, Nathaniel M. Pryor, 
Richard Laughlin and Jesse Furguson, became 
permanent residents of California. Young Pat- 
tie returned to the United States by way of 
Mexico. After his return, with the assistance 
of the Rev. Timothy Flint, he wrote an account 
of his adventures, which was published in Cin- 
cinnati in 1833, under the title of "Pattie's Nar- 
rative." Young Pattie was inclined to exaggera- 
tion. In his narrative he claims that with vac- 
cine matter brought by his father from the 
Santa Rita mines he vaccinated twenty-two 
thousand people in California. In Los .\ngeles 
alone, he vaccinated twenty-five hundred, 
which was more than double the population of 
the town in 1828. He took a contract from the 



president of the missions to vaccinate all the 
neophytes in the territory. When his job was 
finished the president offered him in pay five 
hundred cattle and five hundred mules 
with land to pasture his stock on condition 
he would become a Roman Catholic and 
a citizen of Mexico. Pattie scorned the of- 
fer and roundly upbraided the padre for taking 
advantage of him. Fie had previously given 
Governor Eacheandia a tongue lashing and had 
threatened to shoot him on sight. From his 
narrative he seems to have put in most of his 
time in California blustering and threatening to 
shoot somebody. 

Another famous trapper of this period was 
"Peg Leg" Smith. His real name-was Thomas 
L. Smith. It is said that in a fight with the 
Indians his leg below the knee was shattered by 
a bullet. He coolly amputated his leg at the 
knee with no other instrument than his hunting 
knife. He wore a wooden leg and from this 
came his nickname. He first came to California 
in 1829. He was ordered out of the country. 
Fle and his party took their departure, but with 
them went three or four hundred California 
horses. He died in a San Francisco hospital in 
1866. 

Ewing Young, a famous captain of trappers, 
made several visits to California from 1830 to 
1837. In 1831 he led a party of thirty hunters 
and trappers, among those of his party who 
remained in California was Col. J. J. Warner, 
who became prominent in the territory and 
state. In 1837 Ewing Young with a party of 
sixteen men came down from Oregon, w-here 
he finally located, to purchase cattle for the new 
settlements on the Willamette river. They 
Ijought seven hundred cattle at $3 per head from 
the government and drove them overland to 
Oregon, reaching there after a toilsome journey 
of four months with six hundred. Young died 
in Oregon in 1841. 

From the downfall of Spanish domination in 
1822, to the close of that decade there had been 
but few political disturbances in California. The 
only one of any consequence was Solis' and 
llcrrera's attempt to revolutionize the territory 
and seize the government. Jose Maria Herrera 
had come to California as a connnissioner of 



92 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



the commissary department, but after a short 
term of service had been removed from ofifice 
for fraud. Joaquin SoHs was a convict who was 
serving- a ten years sentence of banishment from 
Mexico. The ex-of^icial and the exile with oth- 
ers of damaged character combined to overturn 
the government. 

On the night of November 12, 1829, SoHs, 
with a band of soldiers that he had induced to 
join his standard, seized the principal govern- 
ment officials at Monterey and put them in 
prison. At Solis' solicitation Herrera drew up 
a pronunciamento. It followed the usual line 
of such documents. It began by deploring the 
evils that had come upon the territory through 
Echeandia's misgovernment and closed with 
promises of reformation if the revolutionists 
should obtain control of the government. To 
obtain the sinews of war the rebels seized 
$3,000 of the public funds. This was dis- 
tributed among the soldiers and proved a great 
attraction to the rebel cause. Solis with twen- 
ty men went to San Francisco and the sol- 
diers there joined his standard. Next he 
marched against Santa Barbara with an army 
of one hundred and fifty men. Echeandia on 
hearing of the revolt had marched northward 
with all the soldiers he could enlist. Tlie two 
armies met at Santa Ynez. Solis opened fire on 
the governor's army. The fire was returned. 
Solis' men began to break away and soon the 
army and its valiant leader were in rapid flight. 
Pacheco's cavalry captured the leaders of the 
revolt. Herrara. Solis and thirteen others were 
shipped to Mexico under arrest to be tried for 
their crimes. The Mexican authorities, always 
lenient to California revolutionists, probably 
from a fellow feeling, turned them all loose 
and Herrera was sent back to fill his former 
office. 

Near the close of his term Governor 
Echeandia formulated a plan for converting the 
mission into pueblos. To ascertain the fitness 
of the neophytes for citizenship he made an in- 
vestigation to find out how many could read and 
write. He found so very few that he ordered 
schools opened at the missions. A pretense was 
made of establishing schools, but very little was 
accomplished. The padres were opposed to edu- 



cating the natives for the same reason that the 
southern slave-holders were opposed to educat- 
ing the negro, namely, that an ignorant people 
were more easily kept in subjection. Echeandia's 
plan of secularization was quite elaborate and 
dealt fairly with the neophytes. It received the 
sanction of the diputacion when that body met 
in July, 1830, but before anything could be done 
towards enforcing it another governor was ap- 
pointed. Echeandia was thoroughly hated by 
the mission friars and their adherents. Robin- 
son in his "Life in California" calls him a man 
of vice and makes a number of damaging asser- 
tions about his character and conduct, which 
are not in accordance with the facts. It was dur- 
ing Echeandia's term as governor that the motto 
of Mexico, Dios y Libertad (God and Liberty), 
^vas adopted. It became immensely popular 
and was used on all public documents and often 
in private correspondence. 

A romantic episode that has furnished a 
theme for fiction writers occurred in the last 
year of Echeandia's rule. It was the elopement 
of Henry D. Fitch with Doiia Josefa, daughter 
of Joaquin Carrillo of San Diego. Fitch was a 
native of New Bedford, Mass. He came to Cal- 
ifornia in 1826 as master of the Maria Ester. 
He fell in love with Doiia Josefa. There were 
legal obstructions to their marriage. Fitch was 
a foreigner and a Protestant. The latter objec- 
tion was easily removed by Fitch becoming a 
Catholic. The Dominican friar who was to per- 
form the marriage service, fearful that he might 
incur the wrath of the authorities, civil and cler- 
ical, refused to perform the ceremony, but sug- 
gested that there were other countries where 
the laws were less strict andofifered to go beyond 
the limits of California and marry them. It is 
said that at this point Dofia Josefa said: "Why 
don't you carry me ofif, Don Enrique?" The 
suggestion was quickly acted upon. The next 
night the lady, mounted on a steed with her 
cousin, Pio Pico, as an escort, was secretly 
taken to a point on the bay shore where a boat 
was waiting for her. The boat put off to the 
\'ulture, where Captain Fitch received her on 
board and the vessel sailed for Valparaiso, 
where the couple were married. A year later 
Captain Fitch returned to California with his 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



93 



wife and infant son. At Monterey Fitch was 
arrested on an order of Padre Sanchez of San 
Gabriel and put in prison. His wife was also 
placed under arrest at the house of Captain 
Cooper. Fitch was taken to San Gabriel for trial, 
"his oflfenses being most heinous." At her in- 
tercession, Governor Echeandia released Mrs. 
Fitch and allowed her to go to San Gabriel, 
where her husband was imprisoned in one of the 
rooms of the mission. This act of clemency 
greatly enraged the friar and his fiscal, Pa- 
lomares, and they seriously considered the ques- 
tion of arresting the governor. The trial 
dragged along for nearly a month. Many wit- 
nesses were examined and many learned points 
of clerical law discussed. Vicar Sanchez finally 
gave his decision that the marriage at Val- 
paraiso, though not legitimate, was not null and 
void, but valid. The couple were condemned 



to do penance by "presenting themselves in 
church with lighted candles in their hands to 
hear high mass for three feast days and recite 
together for thirty days one-third of the rosary 
of the holy virgin."* In addition to these joint 
penances the vicar inflicted an additional pen- 
alty on Fitch in these words: "Yet considering 
the great scandal which Don Enrique has 
caused in this province I condemn him to give 
as penance and reparation a bell of at least fifty 
pounds in weight for the church at Los An- 
geles, which barely has a borrowed one." Fitch 
and his wife no doubt performed the joint pen- 
ance imposed upon them, but the church at Los 
Angeles had to get along with its borrowed I?ell. 
Don Enrique never gave it one of fifty pounds 
or anv other weight. 



♦Bancroft's History of California, Vol. III-144. 



CHAPTER XI. 

REVOLUTIONS— THE HIJAR COLONISTS. 



M 



A.XUEL VICTORIA was appointed 
governor in March, 1830, but did not 
reach California until the last month 
of the year. Mctoria very soon became un- 
popular. He undertook to overturn the civil 
authority and substitute military rule. He 
recommended the abolition of the ayunta- 
mientos and refused to call together the ter- 
ritorial diputacion. He e.xiled Don Abel 
Stearns and Jose Antonio Carrillo; and at dif- 
ferent times, on trumped-up charges, had half 
a hundred of the leading citizens of Los An- 
geles incarcerated in the pueblo jail. Alcalde 
Vicente Sanchez was the petty despot of the 
pueblo, who carried out the tyrannical decrees 
of his master, Victoria. Among others who 
were imprisoned in the cuartel was Jose Maria 
Avila. Avila was proud, haughty and over- 
bearing. He had incurred the hatred of both 
Victoria and Sanchez. Sanchez, under orders 
from Victoria, placed Avila in prison, and to 
humiliate him put him in irons. Avila brooded 
over the indignities inflicted upon him and 
vowed to be revenged. 



\'ictoria's persecutions became so unbearable 
that I'io Pico, Juan I'.andini and Jose Antonio 
Carrillo raised the standard of revolt at San 
Diego and issued a pronunciamento, in which 
they set forth the reasons why they felt them- 
selves obliged to rise against the tyrant, Vic- 
toria. Pablo de Portilla, comandante of the 
presidio of San Diego, and his officers, with a 
force of fifty soldiers, joined the revolutionists 
and marched to Los .\ngeles. Sanchez's pris- 
oners were released and he was chained up in 
the pueblo jail. Here Portilla's force was re- 
cruited to two hundred men. Avila and a num- 
ber of the other released prisoners joined the 
revolutionists, and all marched forth to meet 
\'ictoria, who was moving southward with an 
armed force to suppress the insurrection. The 
two forces met on the plains of Cahuenga, west 
of the pueblo, at a place known as the Lomitas 
de la Canada de P.reita. The sight of his per- 
secutor so infuriated Avila that alone he rushed 
upon him to run him through with his lance. 
Captain Pacheco, of Victoria's staff, parried the 
lance thrust. Avila shot him dead with one of 



94 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



his pistols and again attacked the governor and 
succeeded in wounding him, when he himself 
received a pistol ball that unhorsed him. After 
a desperate struggle (in which he seized \ ic- 
toria by the foot and dragged him from his 
horse) he was shot by one of Victoria's soldiers. 
Portilla's army fell back in a panic to Los An- 
geles and \'ictoria's men carried the wounded 
governor to the Mission San Gabriel, where 
his wounds were dressed by Joseph Chapman, 
who, to his many other accomplishments, added 
that of amateur surgeon. Some citizens who 
had taken no part in the fight brought the 
bodies of Avila and Pacheco to the town. 
"They were taken to the same house, the same 
hands rendered them the last sad rites, and 
they were laid side by side. Side by side knelt 
their widows and mingled their tears, while 
sympathizing countrymen chanted the solemn 
prayers of the church for the repose of the 
souls of these untimely dead. Side by side be- 
neath the orange and the olive in the little 
churchyard upon the plaza sleep the slayer and 
the slain."* 

Next day, \ictoria, supposing himself mor- 
tally wounded, abdicated and turned over the 
governorship of the territory to Echeandia. He 
resigned the office December 9, 1831, having 
been governor a little over ten months. When 
\'ictoria was able to travel he was sent to San 
Diego, from where he was deported to Mexico, 
San Diego borrowing $125 from the ayunta- 
miento of Los Angeles to pay the expense of 
shipping him out of the country. Several years 
afterwards the money had not been repaid, and 
the town council began proceedings to recover 
it, but there is no record in the archives to show 
that it was ever paid. .\nd thus it was that 
California got rid of a bad governor and Los 
Angeles incurred a bad debt. 

January 10, 1832, the territorial legislature 
met at Los Angeles to choose a "gefe politico," 
or governor, for the territory. Echeandia w.ts 
invited to preside but replied from San Juan 
Capistrano that he was busy getting \^ictoria 
out of the country. The diputacion, after wait- 
ing some time and receiving no satisfaction 



*Stephen C. Foster. 



from Echeandia whether he wanted the office 
or not, declared Pio Pico, by virtue of his office 
of senior vocal, "gefe politico." 

No sooner had Pico been sworn into office 
than Echeandia discovered that he wanted the 
office and wanted it badly. He protested against 
the action of the diputacion and intrigued 
against Pico. Another revolution was threat- 
ened. Los Angeles favored Echeandia, al- 
though all the other towns in the territory had 
accepted Pico. (Pico at that time was a resi- 
dent of San Diego.) A mass meeting was called 
on February 12, 1832, at Los Angeles, to dis- 
cuss the question whether it should be Pico or 
Echeandia. I give the report of the meeting in 
the quaint language of the pueblo archives: 

"The town, acting in accord with the Most 
Illustrious Ayuntamiento, answered in a loud 
voice, saying they would not admit Citizen Pio 
Pico as 'gefe politico,' but desired that Lieut. - 
Col. Citizen Jose Maria Echeandia be retained 
in office until the supreme government appoint. 
Then the president of the meeting, seeing the 
determination of the people, asked the motive or 
reason of refusing Citizen Pio Pico, who was 
of unblemished character. To this the people 
responded that while it was true that Citizen 
Pio Pico was to some extent qualified, yet they 
preferred Lieut. -Col. Citizen Jose M. Echean- 
dia. The president of the meeting then asked 
the people whether they had been bribed, or 
was it merely insubordination that they op- 
posed the resolution of the Most Excellent Di- 
putacion? Whereupon the people answered 
that they had not been bribed, nor were they 
insubordinate, but that they opposed the pro- 
posed 'gefe politico' because he had not been 
named by the supreme government." 

At a public meeting February 19 the matter 
was again brought up. Again the people cried 
out "they would not recognize or obey any 
other gefe politico than Echeandia." The Most 
Illustrious Ayuntamiento opposed Pio Pico for 
two reasons: "First, because his name appeared 
first on the plan to oust Gefe Politico Citizen 
Manuel \'ictoria," and "Second, because he, 
Pico, had not sufficient capacity to fulfil the 
duties of the office." Then Jose Perez and Jose 
Antonio Carrillo withdrew from the meeting. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



95 



saying they would not recognize Echeandia as 
"gefe politico." Pico, after holding the office 
for twenty days, resigned for the sake of peace. 
And this was the length of Pico's first term as 
governor. 

Echeandia, by obstinacy and intrigue, had ob- 
tained the coveted office, "gefe politico," but he 
did not long enjoy it in peace. News came 
from )ilonterey that Capt. Agustin V. Zamo- 
rano had declared himself governor and was 
gathering a force to invade the south and en- 
force his authority. Echeandia began at once 
marshaling his forces to oppose him. Ybarra, 
Zamarano's military chief, with a force of one 
hundred men, by a forced march, reached Paso 
de Bartolo, on the San Gabriel river, where, 
fifteen years later, Stockton fought the Mexican 
troops under Flores. Here Ybarra found Cap- 
tain Borroso posted with a piece of artillery and 
fourteen men. He did not dare to attack him. 
Echeandia and Borroso gathered a force of a 
thousand neophytes at Paso de Bartolo, where 
they drilled them in military evolutions. Ybar- 
ra's troops had fallen back to Santa Barbara, 
where he was joined by Zamorano with rein- 
forcements. Ybarra's force was largely made up 
of ex-convicts and other undesirable characters, 
who took what they needed, asking no questions 
of the owners. The Angelenos, fearing those 
marauders, gave their adhesion to Zamorano's 
plan and recognized him as military chief of the 
territory. Captain Borroso, Echeandia's faith- 
ful adherent, disgusted with the fickleness of 
the Angelenos, at the head of a thousand 
mounted Indians, threatened to invade the re- 
calcitrant pueblo, but at the intercession of the 
frightened inhabitants this modern Coriolanus 
turned aside and regaled his neophyte retainers 
on the fat bullocks of the Mission San Gabriel, 
much to the disgust of the padres. The neo- 
phyte warriors were disbanded and sent to their 
respective missions. 

A peace was patched up betwen Zamorano 
and Echeandia. Alta California was divided 
into two territories. Echeandia was given juris- 
diction over all south of San Gabriel and Zamo- 
rano all north of San Fernando. This division 
apparently loft a neutral district, or "no man's 
land," between. Whether Los Angeles was in 



this neutral territory the records do not show. 
If it was, it is probable that neither of the gov- 
ernors wanted the job of governing the rebel- 
lious pueblo. 

In January, 1833, Governor Figueroa arrived 
in California. Echeandia and Zamorano each 
surrendered his half of the divided territory to 
the newly appointed governor, and California 
was united and at peace. Figueroa proved to 
be the right man for the times. He conciliated 
the factions and brought order out of chaos. 
The two most important events in Figueroa's 
term of office were the arrival of the Hijar Col- 
ony in California and the secularization of the 
missions. These events were most potent fac- 
tors in the evolution of the territory. 

In 1833 the first California colonization 
scheme was inaugurated in Mexico. At the 
liead of this was Jose Maria Hijar, a Mexican 
gentleman of wealth and influence. He was 
assisted in its promulgation by Jose M. Padres, 
an adventurer, who had been banished from 
California by Governor Victoria. Padres, like 
some of our modern real estate boomers, pic- 
tured the country as an earthly paradise — an 
improved and enlarged Garden of Eden. 
Among other inducements held out to the colo- 
nists, it is said, was the promise of a division 
among them of the mission property and a dis- 
tribution of the neophytes for servants. 

Heatkjuarters were established at the city 
of Mexico and two hundred and fifty colonists 
enlisted. Each family received a bonus of 
$10, and all were to receive free transporta- 
tion to California and rations while on the jour- 
ney. Each head of a family was promised a 
farm from the public domain, live stock and 
farming implements; these advances to be paid 
for on the installment plan. The orignal plan was 
to found a colony somewhere north of San 
Francisco bay, but this was not carried out 
Two vessels were dispatched with the colonists 
— the Morelos and the Natalia. The latter was 
compelled to put into San Diego on account of 
sickness on board. She reached that port Sep- 
tember I, 1834. A part of the colonists on 
ftoard her were sent to San Pedro and from 
there they were taken to Los Angeles and San 
(iabriel. The Morelos reached Monterey Sep- 



S)G 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



tember 25. Hijar had been appointed governor 
of California by President Farias, but after the 
saihng of the expedition, Santa Ana, who had 
succeeded Farias, dispatched a courier over- 
land with a countermanding order. By one of 
the famous rides of history, Amador, the courier, 
made the journey from the city of Mexico to 
Monterey in forty days and delivered his mes- 
sage to Governor Figueroa. When Hijar ar- 
rived he found to his dismay that he was only 
a private citizen of the territory instead of its 
governor. The colonization scheme was aban- 
doned and the immigrants distributed them- 
selves throughout the territory. Generally they 
were a good class of citizens, and many of them 
became prominent in California afifairs. 

That storm center of political disturbances, 
Los Angeles, produced but one small revolution 
during Figueroa's term as governor. A party 
of fifty or sixty Sonorans, some of whom were 
Hijar colonists who were living either in the 
town or its immediate neighborhood, assembled 
at Los Nietos on the night of March 7, 1835. 
They formulated a pronunciamiento against 
Don Jose T'lgueroa, in which they first vigor- 
ously arraigned him for sins of omission and 
conmiission and then laid down their plan of 
government of the territory. Armed with this 
formidable document and a few muskets and 
lances, these patriots, headed by Juan Gallado, 
a cobbler, and Felipe Castillo, a cigarmaker, in 
the gray light of the morning, rode into the 
pueblo, took possession of the town hall and 
the big cannon and the ammunition that had 



been stored there when the Indians of San Luis 
Rey had threatened hostilities. The slumbering 
inhabitants were aroused from their dreams of 
peace by the drum beat of war. The terrified 
citizens rallied to the juzgado, the ayuntamiento 
met, the cobbler statesman, Gallado, presented 
his plan; it was discussed and rejected. The 
revolutionists, after holding possession of the 
pueblo throughout the day, tired, hungry and 
disappointed in not receiving their pay for sav- 
ing the country, surrendered to the legal author- 
ities the real leaders of the revolution and 
disbanded. The leaders proved to be Torres, 
a clerk, and Apalategui, a doctor, both supposed 
to be emissaries of Hijar. They were imprisoned 
at San Gabriel. When news of the revolt 
reached Figueroa he had Hijar and Padres ar- 
rested for complicity in the outbreak. Hijar, 
with half a dozen of his adherents, was shipped 
back to Mexico. And thus the man who the 
year before had landed in California with a 
commission as governor and authority to take 
possession of all the property belonging to the 
missions returned to his native land an exile. 
His grand colonization scheme and his "Com- 
pania Cosmopolitana" that was to revolutionize 
California commerce were both disastrous fail- 
ures. 

Governor Jose Figueroa died at Monterey 
on the 29th of September, 1835. He is generally 
regarded as the best of the Mexican governors 
sent to California. He was of Aztec extraction 
and took a great deal of pride in his Indian 
blood. 



CHAPTER Xll. 



THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE MISSIONS. 



THE Franciscan Missions of Alta Califor- 
nia have of late been a prolific theme 
for a certain class of writers and espe- 
cially have they dwelt upon the secularization 
of these establishments. Their productions 
have added little or nothing to our previous 
knowledge of these institutions. Carried away 
by sentiment these writers draw pictures of mis- 
sion life that are unreal, that are purely imag- 



inary, and aroused to indignation at the injus- 
tice they fancy was done to their ideal institu- 
tions they deal out denunciations against the 
authorities that brought about secularization as 
unjust as they are undeserved. Such expres- 
sions as "the robber hand of secularization," and 
"the brutal and thievish disestablishment of the 
missions," emanate from writers who seem to 
be ignorant of the purpose for which the mis- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



97 



sioiis were founded, and who ignore, or wlio 
do not know, the caitses which brought about 
their secularization. 

It is an historical fact know-n to all acquainted 
with California history that these establishments 
were not intended by the Crown of Spain to 
become permanent institutions. The purpose 
for which the Spanish government fostered and 
protected them was to Christianize the Indians 
afid make of them self-supporting citizens. Very 
early in its history Governor Borica, Fages and 
other intelligent Spanish officers in California 
discovered the weakness of the mission system. 
Governor Borica, writing in 1796, said: "Ac- 
cording to the laws the natives are to be free 
from tutelage at the end of ten years, the mis- 
sions then becoming doctrinairs, but those of 
New California, at the rate they are advancing, 
will not reach the goal in ten centuries; the rea- 
son God knows, and men, too, know something 
about it." 

The tenure by which the mission friars held 
their lands is admirably set forth in William 
Carey Jones' "Report on Land Titles in Cali- 
fornia," made in 1850. He says, "It had been 
supposed that the lands they (the missions) oc- 
cupied were grants held as the property of the 
church or of the misson establishments as cor- 
porations. Such, however, was not the case; 
all the missions in Upper California were estab- 
lished under the direction and mainly at the 
expense of the government, and the missionaries 
there had never any other right than to the 
occupation and use of the lands for the purpose 
of the missions and at the pleasure of the gov- 
ernment. This is shown by the history and 
principles of their foundation, by the laws in 
relation to them, by the constant practice of 
the government toward them and, in fact, by the 
rules of the Franciscan order, which forbid its 
members to possess property." 

With the downfall of Spanish domination in 
Mexico came the beginning of the end of mis- 
sionary rule in California. The majority of the 
mission padres were Spanish born. In the war 
of Mexican independence their sympathies were 
with their mother country, Spain. After Mex- 
ico attained her independence, some of them 
refused to acknowledge allegiance to the repub- 

7 



lie. The Mexican authorities feared and dis- 
trusted them. In this, in part, they found a pre- 
text for the disestablishment of the missions and 
the confiscation of the mission estates. There 
was another cause or reason for secularization 
more potent than the loyalty of the padres to 
Spain. Few forms of land monopoly have ever 
exceeded that in vogue under the mission system 
of California. From San Diego to San I'ran- 
cisco bay the twenty missions established under 
Spanish rule monopolized the greater part of the 
fertile land between the coast range and the sea. 
The limits of one mission were said to cover 
the intervening space to the limits of the next. 
There was but little left for other settlers. A 
settler could not obtain a grant of land if the 
padres of the nearest mission objected. 

The twenty-four ranches owned by the Mis- 
sion San Gabriel contained about a million and 
a half acres and extended from the sea to the 
San Bernardino mountains. The greatest 
neophyte population of San Gabriel was in 1817, 
when it reached 1,701. Its yearly average for 
the first three decades of the present century 
did not exceed 1,500. It took a thousand acres 
of fertile land under the mission system to sup- 
port an Indian, even the smallest papoose of the 
mission flock. It is not strange that the people 
clamored for a subdivision of the mission estates; 
and secularization became a public necessity. 
The most enthusiastic admirer of the missions 
to-day, had he lived in California seventy years 
ago, would no doubt have been among the loud- 
est in his wail against the mission system. 

The abuse heaped upon the Mexican authori- 
ties for their secularization of these institutions 
is as unjust as it is unmerited. The act of the 
Mexican Congress of August 17, 1833, w^as 
not the initiative movement towards their dis- 
establishment. Indeed in their foundation their 
secularization, their subdivision into pueblos, 
was provided for and the local authorities were 
never w'ithout lawful authority over them. In 
the verj- beginning of missionary work in Alta 
California the process of secularizing the mis- 
sion establishments was mapped out in the fol- 
lowing "Instructions given by Viceroy Bucarili 
August 17, 1773, to the comandante of the new 
establishments of San Diego and Monterey. 



98 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Article 15, when it shall happen that a mission 
is to be formed into a pueblo or village the 
comandante will proceed to reduce it to the civil 
and economical government, which, according 
to the laws, is observed by other villages of this 
kingdom; their giving it a name and declaring 
for its patron the saint under whose memory 
and protection the mission was founded." 

The purpose for which the mission was 
founded was to aid in the settlement of the 
country, and to convert the natives to Christian- 
ity. "These objects accomplished the mission- 
ary's labor was considered fulfilled and the es- 
tablishment subject to dissolution. This view 
of their purpose and destiny fully appears in 
the tenor of the decree of the Spanish Cortes 
of September 13, 1813. It was passed in conse- 
quence of a complaint by the Bishop of Guiana 
of the evils that affected that province on ac- 
count of the Indian settlements in charge of 
missions not being delivered to the ecclesiastical 
ordinary, although thirty, forty and fifty years 
had passed since the reduction and conversion 
of the Indians."* 

The Cortes decreed 1st, that all the new 
reduciones y doctrinairs (settlements of newly 
converted Indians) not yet formed into parishes 
of the province beyond the sea which were in 
charge of missionary monks and had been ten 
years subjected should be delivered immediately 
to the respective ecclesiastical ordinaries (bish- 
ops) without resort to any excuse or pretext 
conformably to the laws and cedulas in that 
respect. Section 2nd, provided that the secular 
clergy should attend to the spiritual wants of 
these curacies. Section 3rd, the missionary 
monks relieved from the converted settlements 
shall proceed to the conversion of other 
heathen." 

The decree of the Mexican Congress, passed 
November 20, 1833, for the secularization of the 
missions of Upper and Lower California, was 
very similar in its provisions to the decree of the 
Spanish Cortes of September, 1813. The Mex- 
ican government simply followed tl^s example 
of Spain and in the conversion oi tne missions 
into pueblos was attempting to enforce a prin- 



*\Viniani Carey Jones' Report. 



ciple inherent in the foundation of the mission- 
ary establishments. That secularization resulted 
disastrously to the Indians was not the fault 
of the Me.xican government so much as it was 
the defect in the industrial and intellectual 
training of the neophytes. E.xcept in the case 
of those who were trained for choir services in 
the churches there was no attempt made to 
teach the Indians to read or write. The padres 
generally entertained a poor opinion of the 
neophytes' intellectual ability. The reglamento 
governing the secularization of the missions, 
published by Governor Echeandia in 1830, but 
not enforced, and that formulated by the diputa- 
cion under Governor Figueroa in 1834, approved 
by the Me.xican Congress and finally enforced 
in 1834-5-6, were humane measures. These reg- 
ulations provided for the colonization of the 
neophytes into pueblos or villages. A portion of 
the personal property and a part of the lands 
held by the missions were to be distributed 
among the Indians as follows : 

"Article 5 — To each head of a family and all 
who are more than twenty years old, although 
without families, will be given from the lands 
of the mission, whether temporal (lands depend- 
ent on the seasons) or watered, a lot of ground 
not to contain more than four hundred varas 
(yards) in length, and as many in breadth not 
less than one hundred. Sufficient land for water- 
ing the cattle will be given in common. The 
outlets or roads shall be marked out by each vil- 
lage, and at the proper time the corporation 
lands shall be designated." This colonization 
of the neophytes into pueblos would have 
throw-n large bodies of the land held by the mis- 
sions open to settlement by white settlers. The 
personal property of missionary establishments 
was to have been divided among their neophyte 
retainers thus: "Article 6. Among the said in- 
dividuals will be distributed, ratably and justly, 
according to the discretion of the political chief, 
the half of the movable property, taking as a 
basis the last inventory which the missionaries 
have presented of all descriptions of cattle. Arti- 
cle 7. One-half or less of the implements and 
seeds indispensable for agriculture shall be al- 
lotted to them." 

The political government of the Indian pu- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



99 



eblos was to be organized in accordance with 
existing laws of the territory governing other 
towns. The neophyte could not sell, mortgage 
or dispose of the land granted him; nor could 
he sell his cattle. The regulations provided that 
"Religious missionaries shall be relieved from 
the administration of temporalities and shall 
only exercise the duties of their ministry so far 
as they relate to spiritual matters." The nunner- 
ies or the houses where the Indian girls were 
kept under the charge of a duena until they 
were of marriageable age were to be abolished 
and the children restored to their parents. Rule 
7 provided that "What is called the 'priest- 
hood' shall immediately cease, female children 
whom they have in charge being handed over 
to their fathers, explaining to them the care 
they should take of them, and pointing out their 
obligations as parents. The same shall be done 
with the male children." 

Commissioners were to be appointed to take 
charge of the mission property and superintend 
its subdivision among the neophytes. The con- 
version of ten of the missionary establishments 
into pueblos was to begin in August, 1835. That 
of the others was to follow as soon as possible. 
San Gabriel, San Fernando and San Juan Capis- 
trano were among the ten that were to be 
secularized first. For years secularization had 
threatened the missions, but hitherto something 
had occurred at the critical time to avert it. 
The missionaries had used their influence 
against it, had urged that the neophytes were 
unfitted for self-support, had argued that the 
emancipation of the natives from mission rule 
would result in disaster to them. Through all 
the agitation of the question in previous years 
the padres had labored on in the preservation 
and upbuilding of their establishments; but with 
the issuing of the secularization decree by the 
Mexican Congress, August 17, 1833, the or- 
ganization of the Hijar Colony in Mexico and 
the instructions of acting president Farias to 
Hijar to occupy all the property of the missions 
and subdivide it among the colonists on their 
arrival in California, convinced the missionaries 
that the blow could no longer be averted. The 
revocation of Hijar's appointment as governor 
and the controversy which followed between 



him and Governor Figucroa and the diputacion 
for a time delayed the enforcement of the de- 
cree. 

In the meantime, with the energy born of de- 
spair, eager at any cost to outwit those who 
sought to profit by their ruin, the mission fath- 
ers hastened to destroy that which through 
more than half a century thousands of human 
beings had spent their lives to accumulate. The 
wealth of the missions lay in their herds of cat- 
tle. The only marketable products of these were 
the hides and tallow. Heretofore a certain num- 
ber of cattle had been slaughtered each week 
to feed the neophytes and sometimes when the 
ranges were in danger of becoming over- 
stocked cattle were killed for their hides and 
tallow, and the meat left to the coyotes and the 
carrion crows. The mission fathers knew that 
if they allowed the possession of their herds to 
pass to other hands neither they nor the 
neophytes would obtain any reward for years of 
labor. The blow was liable to fall at any time. 
Haste was required. The mission butchers could 
not slaughter the animals fast enough. Con- 
tracts were made with the rancheros to kill 
on shares. The work of destruction began at 
the missions. The country became a mighty 
shambles. The matansas were no longer used. 
An animal was lassoed on the plain, thrown, its 
throat cut and while yet writhing in death agony, 
its hide was stripped and pegged upon the 
ground to dry. There were no vessels to con- 
tain the tallow and this was run into pits in the 
ground to be taken out when there was more 
time to spare and less cattle to be killed. The 
work of destruction went on as long as there 
were cattle to kill. So great was the stench 
from rotting carcasses of the cattle on the plains 
that a pestilence was threatened. The ayunta- 
miento of Los Angeles, November 15, 1833, 
passed an ordinance compelling all persons 
slaughtering cattle for the hides and tallow to 
cremate the carcasses. Some of the rancheros 
laid the foundations of their future wealth by ap- 
propriating herds of young cattle from the mis- 
sion ranges. 

Hugo Reid, in the letters previously referred 
to in this volume, says of this period at San 
Gabriel, "These facts(the decree of secularization 



100 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and the distribution of the mission property) 
being known to Padre Tomas (Estenaga), he, 
in all probabilit}-, by order of his superior, com- 
menced a work of destruction. The back build- 
ings were unroofed and the timber converted 
into fire wood. Cattle were killed on the halves 
by people who took a lion's share. Utensils 
were disposed of and goods and other articles 
distributed in profusion among the neophytes. 
The vineyards were ordered to be cut down, 
which, however, the Indians refused to do." 
After the mission was placed in charge of an 
administrator, Padre Tomas remained as min- 
ister of the church at a stipend of $1,500 per 
annum, derived from the pious fund. 

Hugo Reid says of him, "As a wrong im- 
pression of his character may be produced from 
the preceding remarks, in justice to his memory, 
be it stated that he was a truly good man, a sin- 
cere Christian and a despiser of hypocrisy. He 
had a kind, unsophisticated heart, so that he be- 
lieved every word told him. There has never 
been a purer priest in California. Reduced in 
circumstances, annoyed on many occasions by 
the petulancy of administrators, he fulfilled his 
duties according to his conscience, with be- 
nevolence and good humor. The nuns, who, 
when the secular movement came into opera- 
tion, had been set free, were again gathered to- 
gether under his supervision and maintained at 
his expense, as were also a number of old men 
and women." 

The experiment of colonizing the Indians in 
pueblos was a failure and they were gathered 
back into the mission, or as many of them as 
could be got back, and placed in charge of ad- 
ministrators. "The Indians," says Reid, "were 
made happy at this time in being permitted to 
enjoy once more the luxury of a tule dwelling, 
from which the greater part had been debarred 
for so long; they could now breathe freely 
again." (The close adobe buildings in which 
they had been housed in mission days were no 
doubt one of the causes of the great mortality 
among them.) 

"Administrator followed administrator until 
the mission could support no more, when 
the system was broken up." * * * "The 
Indians during this period were continually run- 



ning ofif. Scantily clothed and still more scant- 
ily supplied with food, it was not to be wondered 
at. Nearly all the Gabrielinos went north, while 
those of San Diego, San Luis and San Juan 
overrun this country, filling the Angeles and 
surrounding ranches with more servants than 
were required. Labor, in consequence, was 
very cheap. The different missions, however, 
had alcaldes continually on the move, hunting 
them up and carr)ang them back, but to no pur- 
pose; it was labor in vain." 

"Even under the dominion of the church in 
mission days," Reid says, "the neophytes were 
addicted both to drinking and gaming, with 
an inclination to steal;" but after their emanci- 
pation they went from bad to worse. Those at- 
tached to the ranchos and those located in the 
town were virtually slaves. They had bosses 
or owners and when they ran away were cap- 
tured and returned to their master. The account 
book for 1840 of the sindico of Los Angeles 
contains this item, "For the delivery of two 
Indians to their boss $I2." 

In all the large towns there was an Indian 
village known as the pueblito or little town. 
These were the sink holes of crime and the 
favorite resorts of dissolute characters, both 
white and red. The Indian village at Los An- 
geles between what is now Aliso and First street 
became such an intolerable nuisance that on 
petition of the citizens it was removed across 
the river to tlv: "Spring of the Abilas," but its 
removal did not improve its morals. \'iccnte 
Guerrero, the sindico, discussing the Indian 
question before the ayuntamiento said, "The In- 
dians are so utterly depraved that no matter 
where they may settle down their conduct would 
be the same, since they look upon death even 
with indifference, provided they can indulge in 
their pleasures and vices." This was their con- 
dition in less than a decade after they were freed 
from mission control. 

What did six decades of mission rule accom- 
plish for the Indian? In all the older missions 
between their founding and their secularization 
three generations of adults had come under the 
influence of mission life and training — first, the 
adult converts made soon after the founding; 
second, their children born at the missions, and 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



101 



third, the children of these who liad grown to 
manhood before the fall of the missions. How 
great an improvement had the neophytes of the 
third generation made over those of the first? 
They had to a great e.xtent lost their original 
language and had acquired a speaking knowl- 
edge of Spanish. They had abandoned or 
forgotten their primitive religious belief, but 
their new religion exercised but little influence 
on their lives. After their emancipation they 
went from bad to worse. Some of the more 
daring escaped to the mountains and joining 
the wild tribes there became the leaders in 
frequent predatory excursions on the horses and 
cattle of the settlers in the valleys. They were 
hunted down and shot like wild beasts. 

What became of the mission estates? As the 
cattle were killed off the dift'ercnt ranchos of 
llic mission domains, settlers petitioned the 
ayuntamiento for grants. If upon investigation 
it was found that the land asked for was vacant 
the petition was referred to the governor for his 
approval. In this way the vast mission domains 
passed into private hands. The country im- 
proved more in wealth and population between 
1836 and 1846 than in the previous fifty years. 
Secularization was destruction to the mission 



and death to the Indian, but it w-as beneficial 
to the country at large. The decline of the mis- 
sions and the passing of the neophyte had be- 
gun long before the decrees of secularization 
were enforced. Nearly all the missions passed 
their zenith in population during the second 
decade of the century. Even had the mission- 
ary establishments not been secularized they 
would eventually have been depopulated. At no 
time during the mission rule were the number 
of births equal to the number of deaths. When 
recruits could no longer be obtained from the 
Gentiles or wild Indians the decline became 
more rapid. The mission annals show- that from 
1769 to 1834, when secularization was enforced 
— an interval of sixty-five years — 79,000 con- 
verts were baptized and 62,000 deaths recorded. 
The death rate among the neophytes was about 
twice that of the negro in this country and 
four times that of the white race. The extinc- 
tion of the neophyte or mission Indian was 
due to the enforcement of that inexorable law 
or decree of nature, the Survival of the Fittest. 
Where a stronger race comes in contact with 
a weaker, there can be but one termination 
of the contest — the extermination of the 
weaker. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE FREE AND SOVEREIGN STATE OF ALTA CALIFORNIA. 



GO\'ERNOR FIGUEROA on his death- 
bed turned over the civil command of 
the territory to Jose Castro, who there- 
in became "gefe politico ad interem." The 
military command was given to Lieut.-Col. 
Nicolas Gutierrez with the rank of comandante 
general. The separation of the two commands 
was in accordance with the national law of May 
6, 1822. 

Castro was a member of the diputacion, but 
was not senior vocal or president. Jose An- 
tonio Carrillo, who held that i)Osition, was 
diputado or delegate to congress and was at 
that time in the city of Mexico. It was he who 
secured the decree from the Mexican Congress 
Mav 23, 1835, making Los Angeles the caiiital 



of California, and elevating it to the rank of a 
city. The second vocal, Jose Antonio Estudillo, 
was sick at his home in San Diego. Jose Cas- 
tro ranked third. He was the only one of the 
diputacion at the capital and at the previou.- 
meeting of the diputacion he had acted as pre- 
siding officer. Gutierrez, who w-as at San Ga- 
briel w-hen appointed to the military command, 
hastened to Monterey, but did not reach there 
until after the death of Figueroa. Castro, on 
assuming command, sent a notification of his 
appointment to the civil authorities of the dif- 
ferent jurisdictions. All responded favorably 
except San Diego and Los .\ngeles. San Diego 
claimed the office for Estudillo, second vocal, 
and Los .Angeles declared against Castro be- 



102 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



cause he was only third vocal and demanded that 
the diputacion should meet at the legal capital 
(Los Angeles) of the territory. This was the 
beginning of the capital war that lasted ten years 
and increased in bitterness as it increased in 
age. The diputacion met at Monterey. It de- 
cided in favor of Castro and against removing 
the capital to Los Angeles. 

Castro executed the civil functions of gefe 
politico four months and then, in accordance 
with orders from the supreme government, he 
turned over his part of the governorship to 
Comandante General Gutierrez and again the 
two commands were united i in one person. 
Gutierrez filled the office of "gobernador in- 
terno" from January 2, 1836, to the arrival of his 
successor, Mariano Chico. Chico had been ap- 
pointed governor by President Barragan, Decem- 
ber 16, 1835, but did not arrive in California 
until April, 1836. Thus California had four 
governors within nine months. They changed 
so rapidly there was not time to foment a rev- 
olution. Chico began his administration by a 
series of petty tyrannies. Just before his ar- 
rival in California a vigilance committee at Los 
Angeles shot to death Gervacio Alispaz and his 
paramour, Maria del Rosaria Villa, for the mur- 
der of the woman's husband, Domingo Feliz. 
Alispaz was a countryman of Chico. Chico had 
the leaders arrested and came down to Los 
Angeles with the avowed purpose of executing 
Prudon, Arzaga and Aranjo, the president, sec- 
retary and military commander, respectively, of 
the Defenders of Public Security, as the vigi- 
lantes called themselves. He announced his 
intention of arresting and punishing every man 
who had taken part in the banishment of Gov- 
ernor Victoria. He summoned Don Abel 
Stearns to Monterey and threatened to have him 
shot for some imaginary offense. He fulminated 
a fierce pronunciamento against foreigners, that 
incurred their wrath, and made himself so odious 
that he was hated by all, native or foreigner. 
He was a centralist and opposed to popular 
rights. Exasperated beyond endurance by his 
scandalous conduct and unseemly exhibitions of 
temper the people of Monterey rose en masse 
against him, and so terrified him that he took 
passage on board a brig that was lying in the 



harbor and sailed for Mexico with the threat 
that he would return with an armed force to 
punish the rebellious Californians. but he never 
came back again. 

With the enforced departure of Chico, the 
civil command of the territory devolved upon 
Nicolas Gutierrez, who still held the military 
command. He was of Spanish birth and a cen- 
tralist or anti-federalist in politics. Although a 
mild mannered man he seemed to be impressed 
with the idea that he must carry out the arbi- 
trary measures of his predecessor. Centralism 
was his nemesis. Like Chico, he was opposed 
to popular rights and at one time gave orders 
to disperse the diputacion by force. He was 
not long in making himself unpopular by at- 
tempting to enforce the centralist decrees of the 
Mexican Congress. 

He quarreled with Juan Bautista Alvarado, 
the ablest of the native Californians. Alvarado 
and Jose Castro raised the standard of revolt. 
They gathered together a small army of ranch- 
eros and an au.xiliary force of twenty-five Amer- 
ican hunters and trappers under Graham, a 
backwoodsman from Tennessee. By a strategic 
movement they captured the castillo or fort 
which commanded the presidio, where Gutierrez 
and the Mexican army officials were stationed. 
The patriots demanded the surrender of the 
presidio and the arms. The governor refused. 
The revolutionists had been able to find but 
a single cannon ball in the castillo, but this was 
sufficient to do the business. A well-directed 
shot tore through the roof of the governor's 
house, covering him and his stafT with the debris 
of broken tiles; that and the desertion of most 
of his soldiers to the patriots brought him to 
terms. On the 5th of November, 1836, he sur- 
rendered the presidio and resigned his authority 
as governor. He and about seventy of his ad- 
herents were sent aboard a vessel lying in the 
harbor and shipped out of the country. 

With the Mexican governor and his officers 
out of the country, the next move of Castro and 
Alvarado was to call a meeting of the diputa- 
cion or territorial congress. A plan for the 
independence of California was adopted. This, 
w'hich was known afterwards as the Monterey 
plan, consisted of six sections, the most im- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ion 



portant of which were as follows: "First, Alta 
California hereby declares itself independent 
from Mexico until the Federal System of 1824 
is restored. Second, the same California is 
hereby declared a free and sovereign state; es- 
tablishing a congress to enact the special laws 
of the country and the other necessary supreme 
powers. Third, the Roman Apostolic Catholic 
religion shall prevail; no other creed shall be 
allowed, but the government shall not molest 
anyone on account of his private opinions." 
The diputacion issued a declaration of independ- 
ence that arraigned the mother country, Mexico, 
and her officials very much in the style that our 
own Declaration gives it to King George III. 
and England. 

Castro issued a pronunciamiento, ending with 
Viva La Federacion! Viva La Libertad! Viva 
el Estado Libre y Soberano de Alta California! 
Thus amid vivas and proclamations, with the 
beating of drums and the booming of cannon, 
El Estado Libre de Alta California (The Free 
State of Alta California) was launched on the 
political sea. But it was rough sailing for the 
little craft. Her ship of state struck a rock and 
for a time shipwreck was threatened. 

For years there had been a growing jealousy 
between Northern and Southern California. 
Los Angeles, as has been stated before, had by a 
decree of the Mexican congress been made the 
capital of the territory. Alonterey had per- 
sistently refused to give up the governor and 
the archives. In the movement to make Alta 
California a free and independent state, the An- 
gelenos recognized an attempt on the part of 
the people of the north to deprive them of the 
capital. Although as bitterly opposed to Mex- 
ican governors, and as active in fomenting revo- 
lutions against them as the people of Monterey, 
the Angelenos chose to profess loyalty to the 
mother country. They opposed the plan of 
government adopted by the congress at Mon- 
terey and promulgated a plan of their own, in 
which they declared California was not free; 
that the "Roman Catholic Apostolic religion 
shall prevail in this jurisdiction, and any person 
publicly professing any other shall be pros- 
ecuted by law as heretofore." A mass meeting 
was called to take measures "to prevent the 



sjjreading of the Monterey revolution, so that 
the progress of the nation may not be 
paralyzed," and to appoint a person to take mil- 
itary conmiand of the department. 

San Diego and San Luis Rey took the part 
of Los Angeles in the quarrel, Sonoma and San 
Jose joined Monterey, while Santa Barbara, al- 
ways conservative, was undecided, but finally 
issued a plan of her own. Alvarado and Castro 
determined to suppress the revolutionary An- 
gelenos. They collected a force of one hun- 
dred men, made up of natives, with Graham's 
contingent of twenty-five American riflemen. 
With this army they prepared to move against 
the recalcitrant surenos. 

The ayuntamiento of Los Angeles began 
preparations to resist the invaders. An army of 
two hundred and seventy men was enrolled, a 
part of which was made up of neophytes. To se- 
cure the sinews of war Jose Sepulveda, second al- 
calde, was sent to the Alission San Fernando 
to secure what money there w'as in the hands of 
the major domo. He returned with two pack- 
ages, which, when counted, were found to con- 
tain $2,000. 

Scouts patrolled the Santa Barbara road as 
far as San Buenaventura to give warning of the 
approach of the enemy, and pickets guarded the 
Pass of Cahuenga and the Rodeo de Las Aguas 
to prevent northern spies from entering and 
southern traitors from getting out of the pueblo. 
The southern army was stationed at San Fer- 
nando under the command of Alferez (Lieut.) 
Rocha. Alvarado and Castro, pushing down the 
coast, reached Santa Barbara, where they were 
kindly received and their force recruited to one 
hundred and twenty men with two pieces of 
artillery. Jose Sepulveda at San Fernando sent 
to Los Angeles for the cannon at the town 
house and $200 of the mission money to pay his 
men. 1 

On the i6th of January, 1837, Alvarado from 
San Buenaventura dispatched a communication 
to the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles and the 
citizens, telling their vhat military resources 
he had, which he would use against them if it 
became necessary, but he was willing to confer 
upon a plan of settlement. Sepulveda and An- 
tonio M. Osio were appointed commissioners 



104 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.A.PHICAL RECORD. 



and sent to confer with the governor, armed 
with several propositions, the substance of 
which was tliat CaHfornia shall not be free and 
the Catholic religion must prevail with the 
privilege to prosecute any other religion, "ac- 
cording to law as heretofore." The commission- 
ers met Alvarado on "neutral ground," between 
San Fernando and San Buenaventura. A long 
discussion followed without either coming to the 
point. Alvarado, by a coup d'etat, brought it 
to an end. In the language of the commission- 
ers' report to the ayuntamiento: "While we 
were a certain distance from our own forces with 
only four unarmed men and were on the point of 
coming to an agreement with Juan B. Alvarado, 
we saw the Monterey division advancing upon 
us and we were forced to deliver up the instruc- 
tions of this illustrious body through fear of 
being attacked." They delivered up not only 
the instructions, but the Mission San Fer- 
nando. The southern army was compelled to 
surrender it and fall back on the pueblo, Rocha 
swearing worse than "our army in Flanders" 
because he was not allowed to fight. The south- 
ern soldiers had a wholesome dread of Gra- 
ham's riflemen. These fellows, armed with long 
Kentucky rifles, shot to kill, and a battle once 
begun somebody would have died for his coun- 
try and it woula not have been Alvarado's rifle- 
men. 

The day after the surrender of the mission, 
January 21, 1837, the ayuntamiento held a ses- 
sion and the members were as obdurate and 
belligerent as ever. They resolved that it was 
only in the interests of humanity that the mis- 
sion had been surrendered and their army 
forced to retire. "This ayuntamiento, consider- 
ing the commissioners were forced to' comply, 
annuls all action of the commissioners and does 
not recognize this territory as a free and sov- 
ereign state nor Juan B. Alvarado as its gov- 
ernor, and declares itself in favor of the Supreme 
Government of Mexico." A few days later Al- 
varado entered the city without opposition, the 
Angelenian soldiers retiring to San Gabriel and 
from there scattering to their homes. 

On the 26th of January an extraordinary 
session of the most illustrious ayuntamiento was 
held. Alvarado was present and made a lengthy 



speech, in which he said, "The native sons were 
subjected to ridicule by the Mexican mandarins 
sent here, and knowing our rights we ought to 
shake off the ominous yoke of bondage." Then 
he produced and read the six articles of the 
Monterey plan, the council also produced a plan 
and a treaty of amity was effected. Alvarado 
was recognized as governor pro tem. and peace 
reigned. The belligerent surehos vied with each 
other in expressing their admiration for the new 
order of things. Pio Pico wished to ex- 
press the pleasure it gave him to see a "hijo 
del pais" in office. And Antonio Osio, 
the most belligerent of the surehos, declared 
"that sooner than again submit to a Mexican 
dictator as governor, he would flee to the forest 
and be devoured by wild beasts." The ayunta- 
miento was asked to provide a building for the 
government, "this being the capital of the state." 
The hatchet apparently was buried. Peace 
reigned in El Estado Libre. At the meeting of 
tlie town council, on the 30th of January, Al- 
varado made another speech, but it was neither 
conciliatory nor complimentary. He arraigned 
the "traitors who were working against the 
peace of the country" and urged the members to 
take measures "to liberate the city from the 
hidden hands that will tangle them m their own 
ruin." The pay of his troops who w'cre ordered 
here for the welfare of California is due "and 
it is an honorable and preferred debt, therefore 
the ayuntamiento will deliver to the government 
the San Fernando money," said he. With a 
wry face, very much such as a boy wears when 
he is told that he has been spanked for his own 
good, the alcalde turned over the balance of 
the mission money to Juan Bautista, and the 
governor took his departure for IMonterey, 
leaving, however. Col. Jose Castro with part of 
his army stationed at Mission San Gabriel, os- 
tensibly "to support the city's authority," but in 
reality to keep a close watch on the city author- 
ities. 

Los Angeles was subjugated, peace reigned 
and El Estado Libre de Alta California took her 
place among the nations of the earth. But 
peace's reign was brief. At the meeting of the 
ayuntamiento May 27, 1838, Juan Bandini and 
Santiago E. Arguello of San Diego, appeared 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



105 



with a pronunciamiento and a plan, San 
Diego's plan of government. Monterey, Santa 
Barbara and Los Angeles had each formulated 
a plan of government for the territory, and now 
It was San Diego's turn. Agustin V. Zamorano, 
who had been exiled with Governor Gutierrez, 
had crossed the frontier and was made cqmand- 
ante-general and territorial political chief ad 
interim by the San Diego revolutionists. The 
plan restored California to obedience to the 
supreme government; all acts of the diputa- 
cion and the Monterey plan were annulled and 
the northern rebels were to be arraigned and 
tried for their part in the revolution; and so on 
through twenty articles. 

On the plea of an Indian outbreak near San 
Diego, in which the redmen, it was said, "were 
to make an end of the white race," the big can- 
non and a number of men were secured at Los 
Angeles to assist in suppressing the Indians, 
but in reality to reinforce the army of the San 
Diego revolutionists. With a force of one hun- 
dred and twenty-five men under Zamorano and 
Portilla, "the army of the supreme government" 
moved against Castro at Los Angeles. Castro 
retreated to Santa Barbara and Portilla's army 
took position at San Fernando. 

The civil and military officials of Los Angeles 
took the oath to support the Mexican consti- 
tution of 1836 and, in their opinion, this 
absolved them from all allegiance to Juan Bau- 
tista and his Monterey plan. Alvarado hurried 
reinforcements to Castro at Santa Barbara, and 
Portilla called loudly for "men, arms and 
horses," to march against the northern rebels. 
But neither military chieftain advanced, and the 
summer wore away without a battle. There 
were rumors that Mexico was preparing to send 
an army of one thousand men to subjugate the 
rebellious Californians. In October came the 
news that Jose Antonio Carrillo, the Machiavelli 
of California politics, had persuaded President 
Bustamente to appoint Carlos Carrillo, Jose's 
brother, governor of Alta California. 

Then consternation seized the arribehos (up- 
pers) of the north and the abajefios (lowers) of 
Los Angeles went wild with Joy. It was not 
that they loved Carlos Carrillo, for he was a 
Santa Barbara man and had opposed them in 



the late unpleasantness, but they saw in his ap- 
pointment an opportunity to get revenge on 
Juan Bautista for the way he had humiliated 
them. They sent congratulatory messages to 
Carrillo and invited him to make Los Angeles 
the seat of his government. Carrillo was flat- 
tered by their attentions and consented. The 
6th of December, 1837, was set for his inaugura- 
tion, and great preparations were made for the 
event. The big cannon was brought over from 
San Gabriel to fire salutes and the city was 
ordered illunlinated on the nights of the 6th, 
/th and 8th of December. Cards of invitation 
were issued and the people from the city and 
country were invited to attend the inauguration 
ceremonies, "dressed as decent as possible," so 
read the invitations. 

The widow Josefa Alvarado's house, the fin- 
est in the city, was secured for the governor's 
])alacio (palace). The largest hall in the city 
was secured for the services and decorated as 
well as it was possible. The city treasury, being 
in its usual state of collapse, a subscription for 
defraying the expenses was opened and horses, 
hides and tallow, the current coin of the pueblo, 
were liberally contributed. 

On the appointed day, "the most illustrious 
ayuntamiento and the citizens of the neighbor- 
hood (so the old archives read) met his excellency, 
the governor, Don Carlos Carrillo, who made 
I'.is appearance with a magnificent accompani- 
ment." The secretary, Narciso Botello, "read in 
a loud, clear and intelligible voice, the oath, and 
the governor repeated it after him." At the 
moment the oath was completed, the artillery 
thundered forth a salute and the bells rang out 
a merry peal. The governor made a speech, 
when all adjourned to the church, where a mass 
was said and a solemn Te Deum sung; after 
which all repaired to the house of his excellency, 
where the southern patriots drank his health in 
bumpers of wine and shouted themselves hoarse 
in vivas to the new government. An inaugura- 
tion ball was held — the "beauty and the chivalry 
of the south were gathered there." Outside the 
tallow^ dips flared and flickered from the porticos 
of the house, bonfires blazed in the streets and 
cannon boomed salvos from the old plaza. Los 
Angeles was the capital at last and had a gov- 



106 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ernor all to herself, for Santa Barbara refused 
to recognize Carrillo, although he belonged 
within its jurisdiction. 

The Angelefios determined to subjugate the 
Barbarehos. An army of two hundred men, 
under Castenada, was sent to capture the city. 
After a few futile demonstrations, Castenada's 
forces fell back to San Buenaventura. 

Then Alvarado determined to subjugate the 
Angelenos. He and Castro, gathering together 
an army of two hundred men, by forced marches 
reached San Buenaventura, and by a strategic 
movement captured all of Castenada's horses 
and drove his army into the mission church. 
For two days the battle raged and, "cannon to 
the right of them," and "cannon in front of them 
volleyed and thundered." One man was killed 
on the northern side and the blood of several 
mustangs watered the soil of their native land — • 
died for their country. The southerners slipped 
out of the church at night and fled up the val- 
ley on foot. Castro's caballeros captured about 
seventy prisoners. Pio Pico, with reinforce- 
ments, met the remnant of Castenada's army at 
the Santa Clara river, and together all fell back 
to Los Angeles. Then there was wailing in the 
old pueblo, where so lately there had been re- 
joicing. Gov. Carlos Carrillo gathered to- 
gether what men he could get to go with him 
and retreated to San Diego. Alvarado's army 
took possession of the southern capital and 
some of the leading conspirators were sent as 
prisoners to the Castillo at Sonoma. 

Carrillo, at San Diego, received a small re- 
inforcement from Mexico, under a Captain 
Tobar. Tobar was made general and given 
command of the southern army. Carrillo, hav- 
ing recovered from his fright, sent an order to 
the northern rebels to surrender wathin fifteen 
days under penalty of being shot as traitors if 
they refused. In the meantime Los Angeles 
was held by the enemy. The second alcalde 
(the first, Louis Aranas, was a prisoner) called 
a meeting to devise some means "to have his 
excellency, Don Carlos Carrillo, return to this 
capital, as his presence is very much desired by 
the citizens to protect their lives and property." 
A committee was appointed to locate Don 
Carlos. 



Instead of surrendering, Castro and Alvarado, 
with a force of two hundred men, advanced 
against Carrillo. The two armies met at Campo 
de Las Flores. General Tobar had fortified a 
cattle corral with rawhides, carretas and Cot- 
tonwood poles. A few shots from Alvarado's 
artillery scattered Tobar's rawhide fortifications. 
Carrillo surrendered. Tobar and a few of the 
leaders escaped to Mexico. Alvarado ordered 
the misguided Angelehian soldiers to go home 
and behave themselves. He brought the captive 
governor back with him and left him with his 
(Carrillo's) wife at Santa Barbara, who became 
surety for the deposed ruler. Not content with 
his unfortunate attempts to rule, he again 
claimed the governorship on the plea that he 
had been appointed by the supreme government. 
But the Angelefios had had enough of him. 
Disgusted with his incompetency, Juan Gallardo, 
at the session of May 14, 1838, presented a pe- 
tition praying that this ayuntamiento do not rec- 
ognize Carlos Carrillo as governor, and setting 
forth the reasons why we, the petitioners, 
"should declare ourselves subject to the north- 
ern governor" and why they opposed Car- 
rillo. 

"First. In having compromised the people 
from San Buenaventura south into a declara- 
tion of war, the incalculable calamities of which 
will never be forgotten, not even by the most 
ignorant. 

"Second. Not satisfied with the unfortunate 
event of San Buenaventura, he repeated the 
same at Campo de Las Flores, which, only 
through a divine dispensation, California is not 
to-day in mourning." Seventy citizens signed 
the petition, but the city attorney, who had done 
time in \'allejo's castillo, decided the petition il- 
legal because it was written on common paper 
when paper with the proper seal could be ob- 
tained. 

Next day Gallardo returned with his petition 
on legal paper. Tlie ayuntamiento decided to 
sound the "public alarm" and call the people to- 
gether to give them "public speech." The pub- 
lic alarm was sounded. The people assembled 
at the city hall; speeches were made on both 
sides; and when the vote was taken twenty-two 
were in favor of the northern governor, five 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



107 



in favor of whatever the ayiintamiento decides, 
and Serbulo Vareles alone voted for Don Carlos 
Carrillo. So the council decided to recognize 
Don Juan Bautisla Alvarado as governor and 
leave the supreme government to settle the con- 
test between him and Carrillo. 

Notwithstanding this apparent burying of the 
hatchet, there were rumors of plots and in- 
trigues in Los Angeles and San Diego against 
Alvarado. At length, aggravated beyond en- 
durance, the governor sent word to the sureiios 
that if they did not behave themselves he would 
shoot ten of the leading men of the south. As 
he had about that number locked up in the 
Castillo at Sonoma, his was no idle threat. One 
by one Alvarado's prisoners of state were re- 
leased from Vallejo's bastile at Sonoma and re- 
turned to Los Angeles, sadder if not wiser men. 
At the session of the ayuntamiento October 20, 
1838, the president announced that Senior 
Regidor Jose Palomares had returned from 
Sonoma, where he had been compelled to go 
by reason of "political differences," and that he 
should be allowed his seat in the council. The 
request was granted unanimously. 

At the next meeting Narciso Botello, its for- 
mer secretary, after five and a half months' im- 
prisonment at Sonoma, put in an appearance and 
claimed his office and his pay. Although others 
had filled the office in the interim the illustrious 
ayuntamiento, "ignoring for what ofTense he was 
incarcerated, could not suspend his salary." 
But his salary was suspended. The treasury 
was empty. The last horse and the last hide had 
been paid out to defray the expense of the in- 
auguration festivities of Carlos, the Pretender, 
and the civil war that followed. Indeed there 
was a treasury deficit of whole caballadas of 
horses, and bales of hides. Narciso's back pay 



was a preferred claim that outlasted El Estado 
Libre. 

The sureiios of Los Angeles and San Diego, 
finding that in Alvarado they had a man of cour- 
age and determination to deal with, ceased from 
troubling him and submitted to the inevitable. 
At the meeting of the ayuntamiento, October 5, 
1839, ^ notification was received, staling that the 
supreme government of Mexico had appointed 
Juan Bautista Alvarado governor of the depart- 
ment. There was no grumbling or dissent. On 
the contrary, the records say, "This illustrious 
body acknowledges receipt of the communica- 
tion and congratulated his excellency. It will 
announce the same to the citizens to-morrow 
(Sunday), will raise the national colors, salute 
the same with the required number of volleys, 
and will invite the people to illuminate their 
houses for a better display in rejoicing at such 
a happy appointment." With his appointment 
by the supreme government the "free and sov- 
ereign state of Alta California" became a dream 
of the past — a dead nation. Indeed, months be- 
fore Alvarado had abandoned his idea of found- 
ing an independent state and had taken the oath 
of allegiance to the constitution of 1836. The 
loyal surenos received no thanks from the su- 
preme government for all their professions of 
loyalty, whilst the rebellious arribenos of the 
north obtained all the rewards — the governor, 
the capital and the offices. The supreme gov- 
ernment gave the deposed governor, Carlos 
Carrillo, a grant of the island of Santa Rosa, 
in the Santa Barbara Channel, but whether it 
was given him as a salve to his wounded dignity 
or as an Elba or St. Helena, where, in the event 
of his stirring up another revolution, he might- 
be banished a la Napoleon, the records do no.t 
inform us. 



108 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DECLINE AND FALL OF MEXICAN DOMINATION. 



WHILE the revolution begun by Al- 
varado and Castro had not established 
Cahfornia's independence, it had effect- 
ually rid the territory of Mexican dictators. 
A native son was governor of the depart- 
ment of the Californians (by the constitu- 
tion of 1836 Upper and Lower California had 
been united into a department); another native 
son was comandante of its military forces. The 
membership of the departmental junta, which 
had taken the place of the diputacion, was 
largely made up of sons of the soil, and natives 
filled the minor offices. In their zeal to rid 
themselves of Mexican office-holders they had 
invoked the assistance of another element that 
was ultimately to be their undoing. 

During the revolutionary era just passed the 
foreign population had largely increased. Not 
only had the foreigners come by sea, but they 
had come by land. Capt. Jedediah S. Smith, a 
New England-born trapper and hunter, was the 
first man to enter California by the overland 
route. A number of trappers and hunters came 
in the early '30s from New Mexico by way of 
the old Spanish trail. This immigration was 
largely American, and was made up of a bold, 
adventurous class of men, some of them not 
the most desirable immigrants. Of this latter 
class were some of Graham's followers. 

By invoking Graham's aid to put him in 
power, xMvarado had fastened upon his shoul- 
ders an old jMan of the Sea. It was easy enough 
to enlist the services of Graham's riflemen, but 
altogether another matter to get rid of them. 
Now that he was firmly established in power, 
.Mvarado would, no doubt, have been glad to be 
rid entirely of his recent allies, but Graham and 
his adherents were not backward in giving him 
to understand that he owed his position to them, 
and they wert inclined to put themselves on an 
equality with him. This did not comport with 
his ideas of the dignitv of his office. To be 



hailed by some rough buckskin-clad trapper 
with "Ho! Bautista; come here, 1 want to speak 
with you," was an affront to his pride that the 
governor of the two Californias could not 
quietly pass over, and, besides, like all of his 
countrymen, he disliked foreigners. 

There were rumors of another revolution, and 
it was not difficult to persuade Alvarado that 
the foreigners were plottingto revolutionize Cal- 
ifornia. ^Mexico had recently lost Te.xas, and 
the same class of "malditos extranjeros" (wicked 
strangers) were invading California, and would 
ultimately possess themselves of the country. Ac- 
cordingly, secret orders were sent throughout 
the department to arrest and imprison all for- 
eigners. Over one hundred men of different 
nationalities were arrested, principally Amer- 
icans and English. Of these forty-seven were 
shipped to San Bias, and from there marched 
overland to Tepic, where they were imprisoned 
for several months. Through the efforts of the 
British consul, Barron, they were released. 
Castro, who had accompanied the prisoners to 
Mexico to prefer charges against them, was 
placed under arrest and afterwards tried by 
court-martial, but was acquitted. He had been 
acting under orders from his superiors. After 
an absence of over a year twenty of the exiles 
landed at Monterey on their return from Mex- 
ico. Robinson, who saw them land, says: 
"They returned neatly dressed, armed with rifles 
and swords, and looking in much better condi- 
tion than when they were sent away, or probably 
than they had ever looked in their lives before." 
The Mexican government had been compelled 
to pay them damages for their arrest and im- 
prisonment and to return them to California. 
Graham, the reputed leader of the foreigners, 
was the owner of a distillery near Santa Cruz, 
and had gathered a number of liard characters 
around him. It would have been no loss had he 
never returned. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



loy 



The only other event of importance during 
Alvarado's term as governor was the capture of 
Monterey by Commodore Ap Catesby Jones, of 
the United States navy. This event happened 
after Alvarado's successor, MicheUorena, had 
landed in California, but before the government 
had been formally turned over to him. 

The following extract from the diary of a 
pioneer, who was an eye-witness of the affair, 
gives a good description of the capture: 

"Monterey, Oct. 19, 1842. — At 2 p. m. the 
United States man-of-war United States, Com- 
modore Ap Catesby Jones, came to anchor close 
alongside and in-shore of all the ships in port. 
About 3 p. m. Capt. Armstrong came ashore, 
accompanied by an interpreter, and went direct 
to the governor's house, where he had a private 
conversation with him, which proved to be a 
demand for the surrender of the entire coast of 
California, upper and lower, to the United 
States government. When he was about to go 
on board he gave three or four copies of a 
proclamation to the inhabitants of the two Cali- 
fornias, assuring them of the protection of their 
lives, persons and property. In his notice to the 
governor (Alvarado) he gave him only until the 
following morning at 9 a. m. to decide. If he 
received no answer, then he would fire upon the 
town." 

"I remained on shore that night and went 
down to the governor's with Mr. Larkin and 
Mr. Eagle. The governor had had some idea 
of running away and leaving Monterey to its 
fate, but was told by Mr. Spence that he should 
not go, and finally he resolved to await the re- 
sult. At 12 at night some persons were sent 
on board the United States who had been ap- 
pointed by the governor to meet the commodore 
and arrange the terms of the surrender. Next 
morning at half-past ten o'clock about one hun- 
dred sailors and fifty marines disembarked. The 
sailors marched up from the shore and took pos- 
session of the fort. The American colors were 
hoisted. The United States fired a salute of thir- 
teen guns ; it was returned by the fort, which fired 
twenty-six guns. The marines in the meantime 
had marched up to the government house. The 
ofificers and soldiers of the California govern- 
ment were discharged and their guns and other 



arms taken possession of and carried to the fort. 
The stars and stripes now wave over us. Long 
may they wave here in California!" 

"Oct. 21, 4 p. m. — Flags were again changed, 
the vessels were released, and all was quiet again. 
The commodore had received later news bv 
some Mexican newspapers." 

Commodore Jones had been stationed at Cal- 
lao with a squadron of four vessels. An English 
fleet was also there, and a French fleet was 
cruising in the Pacific. P)Oth these were sup- 
posed to have designs on California. Jones 
learned that the English admiral had received 
orders to sail ne.xt day. Surmising that his des- 
tination might be California, he slipped out of 
the harbor the niglit before and crowded all sail 
to reach California before the English admiral. 
The loss of Texas, and the constant influx of im- 
migrants and adventurers from the United 
States into California, had embittered the Mex- 
ican government more and more against 
foreigners. .Manuel MicheUorena, who had 
served under Santa Anna in the Texas war, 
was appointed January 19, 1842, comandante- 
general inspector and gobernador propietario of 
the Californias. 

Santa Anna was president of the Mexican re- 
public. His experience with Americans in 
Te.xas during the Texan war of independence, 
in 1836-37, had determined him to use every 
effort to prevent California from sharing the fate 
of Texas. 

Micheltorena, the newly-appointed governor, 
was instructed to take with him sufficient force 
to check the ingress of Americans. He recruited 
a force of three hundred and fifty men, prin- 
cipally convicts enlisted from the prisons of 
Mexico. His army of thieves and ragamuffins 
landed at San Diego in August, 1842. 

Robinson, who was at San Diego when one 
of the vessels conveying Micheltorena's cholos 
(convicts) landed, thus describes them: "Five 
days afterward the brig Chato arrived with 
ninety soldiers and their families. I saw them 
land, and to me they presented a state of 
wretchedness and misery unequaled. Not one 
individual among them possessed a jacket or 
pantaloons, but, naked, and like the savage In- 
dians, they concealed their nudity with dirty, 



110 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



miserable blankets. The females were not much 
better off, for the scantiness of their mean ap- 
parel was too apparent for modest observers. 
They appeared like convicts, and, indeed, the 
greater portion of them had been charged with 
crime, either of murder or theft." 

Micheltorena drilled his Falstafifian army at 
San Diego for several weeks and then began his 
march northward; Los Angeles made great 
preparations to receive the new governor. Seven 
years had passed since she had been decreed the 
capital of the territory, and in all these years 
she had been denied her rights by Monterey. 
A favorable impression on the new governor 
might induce him to make the ciudad his capital. 
The national fiesta of September i6 was post- 
poned until the arrival of the governor. The 
best house in the town was secured for him 
and his staff. A grand ball was projected 
and the city illuminated the night of his arrival. 
A camp was established down by the river and 
the cholos, who in the meantime had been given 
white linen uniforms, were put through the drill 
and the manual of arms. They were incorrigible 
thieves, and stole for the very pleasure of steal- 
ing. They robbed the hen roosts, the orchards, 
the vineyards and the vegetable gardens of the 
citizens. To the Angelenos the glory of their 
city as the capital of the territory faded in the 
presence of their empty chicken coops and 
plundered orchards. They longed to speed the 
departure of their now unwelcome guests. After 
a stay of a month in the city Micheltorena and 
his army took up their line of march northward. 
He reached a point about twenty miles north 
of San Fernando, when, on the night of the 
24th of October, a messenger aroused him from 
his slumbers with the news that the capital had 
been captured by the Americans. Micheltorena 
seized the occasion to make political capital for 
himself with the home government. He spent 
the remainder of the night in fulminating proc- 
lamations against the invaders fiercer than the 
thunderbolts of Jove, copies of which were dis- 
patched post haste to Mexico. He even wished 
himself a thunderbolt "that he might fly over 
intervening space and annihilate the invaders." 
Then, with his own courage and doubtless that 
of his brave cholos aroused to the hicchest 



pitch, instead of rushing on the invaders, he and 
his army fled back to San Fernando, where, 
afraid to advance or retreat, he halted until news 
reached him that Commodore Jones had re- 
stored Monterey to the Californians. Then his 
valor reached the boiling point. He boldly 
marched to Los Angeles, established his head- 
quarters in the city and awaited the coming 
of Commodore Jones and his officers from Mon- 
terey. 

On the 19th of January, 1843, Commodore 
Jones and his staff came to Los Angeles to meet 
the governor. At the famous conference in 
the Palacio de Don Abel, Micheltorena pre- 
sented his articles of convention. Among other 
ridiculous demands were the following: "Ar- 
ticle VL Thomas Ap C. Jones will deliver fif- 
teen hundred complete infantry uniforms to re- 
place those of nearly one-half of the Mexican 
force, which have been ruined in the violent 
march and the continued rains while they were 
on their way to recover the port thus invaded." 
"Article VH. Jones to pay $15,000 into the 
national treasury for expenses incurred from the 
general alarm; also a complete set of musical 
instruments in place of those ruined on this 
occasion."* Judging from Robinson's descrip- 
tion of the dress of Micheltorena's cholos it is 
doubtful whether there was an entire uniform 
among them. 

"The commodore's first impulse," writes a 
member of his staff, "was to return the papers 
without comment and to refuse further com- 
munication with a man who could have the ef- 
frontery to trump up such charges as those for 
which indemnification was claimed." The com- 
modore on reflection put aside his personal feel- 
ings, and met the governor at the grand ball in 
Sanchez hall, held in honor of the occasion. 
The ball was a brilliant affair, "the dancing 
ceased only with the rising of the sun ne.xt 
morning." The commodore returned the articles 
without his signature. The governor did not 
again refer to his demands. Next morning, 
January 21, 1843, Jones and his officers took 
their departure from the city "amidst the beat- 
ing of drums, the firing of cannon and the ring- 



*Bancroft's History of California, Vol. IV. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Ill 



ing of bells, saluted by the general and his wife 
from the door of their quarters. On the 31st 
of December Micheltorena had taken the oath 
of office in Sanchez' hall, which stood on the 
east side of the plaza. Salutes were fired, the 
bells were rung and the city was illuminated 
for three evenings. For the second time a gov- 
ernor had been inaugurated in Los Angeles. 

Micheltorena and his cholo army remained in 
Los Angeles about eight months. The An- 
gelefios had all the capital they cared for. They 
were perfectly willing to have the governor and 
his army take up their residence in Monterey. 
The cholos had devoured the country like an 
army of chapulcs (locusts) and were willing to 
move on. Monterey would no doubt have gladly 
transferred what right she had to the capital 
if at the same time she could have transferred 
to her old rival, Los Angeles, ^licheltorena's 
cholos. Their pilfering was largely enforced 
by their necessities. They received little or no 
pay, and they often had to steal or starve. The 
leading native Californians still entertained their 
old dislike to "Mexican dictators'' and the ret- 
inue of three hundred chicken thieves accom- 
panying the last dictator intensified their hatred. 

Micheltorena, while not a model governor, 
had many good qualities and was generally liked 
by the better class of foreign residents. He 
made an earnest effort to establish a system of 
public education in the territory. Schools were 
established in all the principal towns, and ter- 
ritorial aid from the public funds to the amount 
of $500 each was given them. The school at 
Los Angeles had over one hundred pupils in 
attendance. His worst fault was a disposition 
to meddle in local afTairs. He was unreliable 
and not careful to keep his agreements. He 
might have succeeded in giving California a 
stable government had it not been for the antip- 
athy to his soldiers and the old feud between 
the "hijos del pais" and the Mexican dictators. 
These proved his undoing. The native sons 
under Alvarado and Castro rose in rebellion. 
In November, 1844, a revolution was inaugu- . 
rated at Santa Clara. The governor marched 
with an army of one hundred and fifty men 
against the rebel forces, numbering about two 
hundred. They met at a place called the La- 



guna de iVlvires. A treaty was signed in which 
Micheltorena agreed to ship his cholos back to 
Mexico. 

This treaty the governor deliberately broke. 
He then intrigued with Capt. John .-K. Sutter of 
New Helvetia and Isaac Graham to obtain as- 
sistance to crush the rebels. January y, 1845, 
Micheltorena and Sutter formed a junction of 
their forces at Salinas — their united commands 
numbering about five hundred men. They 
marched against the rebels to crush them. But 
the rebels did not wait to be crushed. Alvarado 
and Castro, with about ninety men, started for 
Los Angeles, and those left behind scattered 
to their homes. Alvarado and his men reached 
Los Angeles on the night of January 20, 1845. 
The garrison stationed at the curate's house 
was surprised and captured. One man was 
killed and several wounded. Lieutenant Me- 
dina, of Micheltorena's army, was the com- 
mander of the pueblo troops. Alvarado's army 
encamped on the plaza and he and Castro set 
to work to revolutionize the old pueblo. The 
leading Angelenos had no great love for Juan 
Bautista, and did not readily fall into his 
schemes. They had not forgotten their en- 
forced detention in Vallejo's bastile during the 
Civil war. An extraordinary session of the 
ayuntamiento was called January 21. Alvarado 
and Castro were present and made eloquent ap- 
peals. The records say: "The ayuntamiento 
listened, and after a short interval of silence and 
meditation decided to notify the senior member 
of the department assembly of Don Alvarado 
and Castros' wishes." 

They were more successful with the Pico 
brothers. Pio Pico was senior vocal, and in 
case Micheltorena was disposed he, by virtue of 
his office, would become governor. Through 
the influence of the Picos the revolution gained 
ground. The most potent influence in spread- 
ing the revolt was the fear of Micheltorena's 
army of chicken thieves. Should the town be 
captured by them it certainly would be looted. 
The department assembly was called together. 
.\ peace commission w-as sent to meet Michel- 
torena, who w-as leisurely marching southward, 
and intercede with him to give up his proposed 
invasion of the south. ITc refused. Then the 



112 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



assembly pronounced him a traitor, deposed 
him by vote and appointed Pio Pico governor. 
Recruiting went on rapidly. Hundreds of sad- 
dle horses were contributed, "old rusty guns 
were repaired, hacked swords sharpened, rude 
lances manufactured" and cartridges made for 
the cannon. Some fifty foreigners of the south 
joined Alvarado's army; not that they had 
much interest in the revolution, but to protect 
their property against the rapacious invaders — 
the cholos — and Sutter's Indians,* who were as 
much dreaded as the cholos. On the 19th of 
February, Micheltorena reached the Encinos, 
and the Angelenian army marched out through 
Cahuenga Pass to meet him. On the 20th the 
two armies met on the southern edge of the 
San Fernando valley, about fifteen miles from 
Los Angeles. Each army numbered about four 
hundred men. Micheltorena had three pieces 
of artillery and Castro tw'o. They opened on 
each other at long range and seem to have 
fought the battle throughout at very long range. 
A mustang or a mule (authorities differ) was 
killed. 

Wilson, Workman and McKinley of Castro's 
army decided to induce the Americans on the 
other side, many of whom were their personal 
friends, to abandon Micheltorena. Passing up 
a ravine, they succeeded in attracting the atten- 
tion of some of them by means of a white flag. 
Gantt, Hensley and Eidwell joined them in the 
ravine. The situation was discussed and the 
Americans of Micheltorena's army agreed to' 
desert him if Pico would protect them in their 
land grants. Wilson, in his account of the bat- 
tle, saysif "I knew, and so did Pico, that these 
land questions were the point with those young 
Americans. Before I started on my journey or 
embassy, Pico was sent for; on his arrival 
among us I, in a few words, explained to him 
what the party had advanced. 'Gentlemen,' said 
he, 'are any of you citizens of Mexico?' They 
answered 'No.' 'Then your title deeds given 
you by Micheltorena are not worth the paper 



*Sutter had under liis camiiiand a company of In- 
dians. He had drilled these in the use o£ firearms. 
The employing of these savages by Micheltorena was 
bitterly resented by the Californians. 

tPub. Historical Society of Southern California, 
Vol. III. 



they are written on, and he knew it well when 
he gave them to you; but if you will abandon 
his cause I will give you my word of honor as 
a gentleman, and Don Benito Wilson and Don 
Juan Workman to carry out what I promise, 
that [ will protect each one of you in the land 
that you now hold, and when you become citi- 
zens of ^lexico I will issue you the proper ti- 
tles.' They said that was all they asked, and 
promised not to fire a gun against us. They also 
asked not to be required to fight on our side, 
which was agreed to. 

"Micheltorena discovered (how, I do notknow) 
that his Americans had abandoned him. About 
an hour afterwards he raised his camp and 
flanked us by going further into the valley to- 
wards San Fernando, then marching as though 
he intended to come around the bend of the 
river to the city. The Californians and we for- 
eigners at once broke up our camp and came 
back through the Cahuenga Pass, marched 
through the gap into the Feliz ranch, on the 
Los Angeles River, till we came into close 
proximity to Micheltorena's camp. It was now 
night, as it was dark when w^e broke up our 
camp. Here we waited for daylight, and some 
of our men commenced maneuvering for a fight 
with the enemy. A few cannon shots were 
fired, when a white flag was discovered flying 
from Micheltorena's front. The whole matter 
then went into the hands of negotiators ap- 
pointed by both parties and the terms of sur- 
render w'ere agreed upon, one of which was that 
IMicheltorena and his obnoxious ofificers and 
men were to march back up the river to the 
Cahuenga Pass, "then down on the plain to the 
west of Los Angeles, the most direct line to 
San Pedro, and embark at that point on a vessel 
then anchored there to carry them back to Mex- 
ico." Sutter was taken prisoner, and his Indians, 
after being corralled for a time, were sent back 
to the Sacramento. 

The roar of the battle of Cahuenga, or the 
Alamo, as it is sometimes called, could be dis- 
tinctly heard in Los Angeles, and the people 
remaining in the city were greatly alarmed. 
William Heath Davis, in his Sixty Years in Cal- 
ifornia, thus describes the alarm in the town; 
"Directly to the north of the town was a high 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



113 



hill" (now known as Mt. Lookout). "As soon 
as firing was heard all the people remaining in 
the town, men, women and children, ran to the 
top of this hill. As the wind was blowing from 
the north, the firing was distinctly heard, five 
leagues away, on the battle-field throughout the 
day. All business places in town were closed. 
The scene on the hill was a remarkable one, 
women and children, with crosses in their hands, 
kneeling and praying to the saints for the safety 
of their fathers, brothers, sons, husbands, lovers, 
cousins, that they might not be killed in the bat- 
tle; indifferent to their personal appearance, 
tears streaming from their eyes, and their hair 
blown about by the wind, which had increased 
to quite a breeze. Don Abel Stearns, myself and 
others tried to calm and pacify them, assuring 
them that there was probably no danger; some- 
what against our convictions, it is true, judg- 
ing from what we heard of the firing and from 
our knowledge of jMicheltorena's disciplined 
force, his battery, and the riflemen he had with 
him. During the day the scene on the hill con- 
tinued. The night that followed was a gloomy 
one, caused by the lamentations of the women 
and children." 

Davis, who was supercargo on the Don 
Qui.xote, the vessel on which Micheltorena and 
his soldiers were shipped to Mexico, claims that 
the general "had ordered his command not to 
injure the Californians in the force opposed to 
him, but to fire over their heads, as he had no 
desire to kill them." 

Another Mexican-born governor had been 
deposed and deported, gone to join his fellows, 
Victoria, Chico and Gutierrez. In accordance 
with the treaty of Cahuenga and by virtue of 
his rank as senior member of the departmental 
assembly, Pio Pico became governor. The hijos 
del pais were once more in the ascendency. 
Jose Castro was made comandante-general. Al- 
varado was given charge of the custom house at 
Monterey, and Jose Antonio Carrillo was ap- 
pointed commander of the military district of 
the south. Los Angeles was made the capital, 
although the archives and the treasury remained 
in Monterey. The revolution apparently had 
been a success. In the proceedings of the Los 
Angeles ayuntamiento, March i, 1845, appears 

8 



this record: "The agreements entered into at 
Cahuenga between Gen. Emanuel Michel- 
torena and Lieut.-Col. Jose Castro were then 
read, and as they contain a happy termination of 
affairs in favor of the government, this Illustri- 
ous Body listened with satisfaction and so an- 
swered the communication." 

The people joined with the ayuntamiento in 
expressing their "satisfaction" that a "happy 
termination" had been reached of the political 
disturbances which had distracted the country. 
But the end was not yet. Pico did his best to 
conciliate the conflicting elements, but the old 
sectional jealousies that had divided the people 
of the territory would crop out. Jose Antonio 
Carrillo, the Machiaveli of the south, hated Cas- 
tro and Alvarado and was jealous of Pico's good 
fortune, lie was the superior of any of them 
in ability, but made himself unpopular by his 
intrigues and his sarcastic speech. When Cas- 
tro and Alvarado came south to raise the stand- 
ard of revolt they tried to win him over. He 
did assist them. He was willing enough to plot 
against Micheltorena, but after the overthrow 
of the Mexican he was equally ready to plot 
against Pico and Castro. In the summer of 
1845 'is ^^'^s implicated in a plot to depose Pico, 
who, by the way, was his brother-in-law. Pico 
placed him and two of his fellow conspirators, 
Serbulo and Hilario Varela, under arrest. Car- 
rillo and Ililario Varela were shipped to Mazat- 
lan to be tried for their misdeed. Serbulo \'a- 
rela made his escape from prison. The two 
exiles returned early in 1846 unpunished and 
ready for new plots. 

Pico was appointed gobernador proprietario, 
or constitutional governor of California. Sep- 
tember 3, 1845, by President Herrcra. The su- 
preme government of Mexico never seemed to 
take offense or harbor resentment against the 
Californians for deposing and sending home a 
governor. As the officials of the supreme gov- 
ernment usually obtained office bv revolution, 
they no doubt had a fellow feeling for the revolt- 
ing Californians. When Micheltorena returned 
to Mexico he was coldly received and a com- 
missioner was sent to Pico with dispatches vir- 
tually approving all that had been done. 

Castro, too, gave Pico a great deal of uneasi- 



114 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ness. He ignored the governor and managed 
the mihtary affairs of the territory to suit him- 
self. His headquarters were at Monterey and 
doubtless he had the sympathy if not the en- 
couragement of the people of the north in his 
course. But the cause of the greatest uneasi- 
ness was the increasing immigration from the 
United States. A stream of emigrants from the 
western states, increasing each year, poured 
down the Sierra Nevadas and spread over the 
rich valleys of California. The Californians rec- 
ognized that through the advent of these ''for- 
eign adventurers, "as they called them, the "man- 
ifest destiny"of California was to be absorbed by 
the United States. Alvarado had appealed to 
Mexico for men and arms and had been an- 
swered by the arrival of Micheltorena and his 
cholos. Pico appealed and for a time the Cali- 
fornians were cheered by the prospect of aid. 



In the summer of 1845 '^ force of six hundred 
veteran soldiers, under command of Colonel 
Iniestra, reached Acapulco, where ships were ly- 
ing to take them to California, but a revolution 
broke out in Mexico and the troops destined for 
the defense of California were used to overthrow 
President Herrera and to seat Paredes. Cali- 
fornia was left to work out her own destiny 
unaided or drift with the tide — and she drifted. 
In the early months of 1846 there was a rapid 
succession of important events in her history, 
each in passing bearing her near and nearer to 
a manifest destiny — the downfall of Mexican 
domination in California. These will be pre- 
sented fully in the chapter on the Acquisition of 
California by the United States. But before 
taking up these we will turn aside to review life 
in California in the olden time under Spanish 
and Mexican rule. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT— HOMES AND HOME-LIFE OF 

THE CALIFORNIANS. 



UNDER Spain the government of Califor- 
nia was semi-military and semi-clerical. 
The governors were military officers and 
had command of the troops in the territory, and 
looked after affairs at the pueblos; the friars 
were supreme at the missions. The municipal 
government of the pueblos was vested in ayun- 
tamientos. The decree of the Spanish Cortes 
passed May 23, 1812, regulated the membership 
of the ayuntamiento according to the popula- 
tion of the town — "there shall be one alcalde 
(mayor), two regidores (councilmen), and one 
procurador-syndico (treasurer) in all towns 
which do not have more than two hundred in- 
habitants; one alcalde, four regidores and one 
syndico in those the population of which ex- 
ceeds two hundred, but does not exceed five 
hundred." When the population of a town ex- 
ceeded one thousand it was allowed two al- 
caldes, eight regidores and two syndicos. Over 
the members of the ayuntamiento in the early 
years of Spanish rule was a quasi-military offi- 



cer called a comisionado, a sort of petty dictator 
or military despot, who, when occasion required 
or inclination moved him, embodied within him- 
self all three departments of government, judi- 
ciary, legislative and executive. .A.fter ^Mexico 
became a republic the office of comisionado was 
abolished. The alcalde acted as president of 
the ayuntamiento, as mayor and as judge of 
the court of first instance. The second alcalde 
took his place when that officer was ill or ab- 
sent. The syndico was a general utility man. 
He acted as city or town attorney, tax collector 
and treasurer. The secretary was an important 
officer; he kept the records, acted as clerk of 
the alcalde's court and was the only municipal 
officer who received pay, except the syndico, 
who received a commission on his collections. 

In 1837 the Mexican Congress passed a decree 
abolishing ayuntamientos in capitals of depart- 
ments having a population of less than four 
thousand and in interior towns of less than 
eight thousand. In 1839 Governor Alvarado 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.ArHICAL RECORD. 



115 



reported to the Dcpartniciital Assembly that no 
town in CaHfornia had the requisite population. 
The ayuntamientos all closed January i, 1840. 
They were re-established in 1844. During their 
abolition the towns were governed by prefects 
and justices of the peace, and the special laws 
or ordinances were enacted by the departmental 
assembly. 

The jurisdiction of the ayuntamiento often 
extended over a large area of country beyond 
the town limits. That of Los Angeles, after the 
secularization of the missions, extended over a 
country as large as the state of Massachusetts. 
The authority of the ayuntamiento w'as as ex- 
tensive as its jurisdiction. It granted town lots 
and recommended to the governor grants of 
land from the public domain. In addition to 
passing ordinances its members sometimes 
acted as executive ofificers to enforce them. It 
exercised the powers of a board of health, a 
board of education, a poHce commission and a 
street department. During the civil war be- 
tween Northern and Southern California, in 
1837-38, the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles 
raised and equipped an army and assumed the 
right to govern the southern half of the terri- 
tory. 

The ayuntamiento was spoken of as Muy 
Ilustre (Most Illustrious), in the same sense 
that we speak of the honorable city council, but 
it was a much more dignified body than a city 
council. The members were required to attend 
their public functions "attired in black apparel, 
so as to add solemnity to the meetings." They 
served without pay, but if a member was absent 
from a meeting without a good excuse he was 
liable to a fine. As there was no pay in the office 
and its duties were numerous and onerous, there 
was not a large crop of aspirants for council- 
men in those days, and the office usually sought 
the man. It might be added that when it caught 
the right man it was loath to let go of him. 

The misfortunes that beset Francisco Pantoja 
aptly illustrate the difficulty of resigning in the 
days when office sought the man, not man the 
office. Pantoja was elected fourth regidor of 
the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles in 1837. In 
those days wild horses were very numerous. 
When the pasture in the foothills was exhausted 



they came down mto the valleys and ate up 
the feed needed for the cattle. Un this account, 
and because most of these wild horses were 
worthless, the rancheros slaughtered them. A 
corral was built with wings extending out on 
the right and left from the main entrance. When 
the corral was completed a day was set for a 
wild horse drive. The bands were rounded up 
and driven into the corral. The pick of the 
caballados were lassoed and taken out to be 
broken to the saddle and the refuse of the drive 
killed. The Vejars had obtained permission 
from the ayuntamiento to build a corral between 
the Ceritos and the Salinas for the purpose of 
corralling wild horses. Pantoja, being some- 
thing of a sport, petitioned his fellow regidores 
for a twenty days' leave of absence to join in 
the wild horse chase. A wild horse chase was 
wild sport and dangerous, too. Somebody was 
sure to get hurt, and Pantoja in this one was 
one of the unfortunates. When his twenty days' 
leave of absence was up he did not return to 
his duties of regidor, but instead sent his res- 
ignation on plea of illness. His resignation was 
not accepted and the president of the ayunta- 
miento appointed a committee to investigate 
his physical condition. There were no physi- 
cians in Los Angeles in those days, so the com- 
mittee took along Santiago McKinley, a canny 
Scotch merchant, who was reputed to have some 
knowledge of surgery. The committee and the 
improvised surgeon held an ante-mortem in- 
quest on what remained of Pantoja. The com- 
mittee reported to the council that he was a 
physical wreck; that he could not mount a 
horse nor ride one when mounted. A native 
Californian. w-ho had reached such a state of 
physical dilapidation that he could not mount 
a horse might w-ell be excused from official du- 
ties. To excuse him might establish a danger- 
ous precedent. The ayuntamiento heard the 
report, pondered over it and then sent it and 
the resignation to the governor. The governor 
took them under advisement. In the meantime 
a revolution broke out and before peace was re- 
stored and the governor had time to j^ass upon 
the case Pantoja's term had expired by limita- 
tion. 

That modern fad of reform legislation, the 



116 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



referendum, was in full force and efTect in Cali- 
fornia three-quarters of a century ago. When 
some question of great importance to the com- 
munity was before the ayuntamiento and the 
regidores were divided in opinion, the alarma 
publica or public alarm was sounded by the 
beating of the long roll on the drum and all the 
citizens were summoned to the hall of sessions. 
Any one hearing the alarm and not heed- 
ing it was fined $3. When the citizens were con- 
vened the president of the ayuntamiento, speak- 
ing in a loud voice, stated the question and the 
people were given "public speech." The ques- 
tion was debated by all who wished to speak. 
When all had had their say it was decided by a 
show of hands. 

The ayuntamientos regulated the social func- 
tions of the pueblos as well as the civic. Ordi- 
nance 5, ayuntamiento proceedings of Los 
Angeles, reads: "All individuals serenading pro- 
miscuously around the street of the city at night 
without first having obtained permission from 
the alcalde will be fined $1.50 for the first of- 
fense, $3 for the second offense, and for the 
third punished according to law." Ordinance 4, 
adopted by the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles, 
January 28, 1838, reads: "Every person not 
having any apparent occupation in this city or 
its jurisdiction is hereby ordered to look for 
work within three days, counting from the day 
this ordinance is published; if not complied 
with, he will be fined $2 for the first offense, $4 
for the second offense, and will be given com- 
pulsory work for the third." From the reading 
of the ordinance it would seem if the tramp 
kept looking for work, but was careful not to 
find it, there could be no offense and conse- 
quently no fines or compulsory work. 

Some of the enactments of the old regidores 
would fade the azure out of the blue laws of 
Connecticut in severity. In the plan of gov- 
ernment adopted by the surefios in the rebellion 
of 1837 appears this article: "Article 3. The 
Roman Catholic Apostolic religion shall pre- 
vail throughout this jurisdiction; and any per- 
son professing publicly any other religion shall 
be prosecuted." 

Here is a blue law of Monterey, enacted 
March 23, 1816: ".Ml persons must attend mass 



and respond in a loud voice, and if any persons 
should fail to do so without good cause they 
will be put in the stocks for three hours." 

The architecture of the Spanish and Mexican 
eras of California was homely almost to ugliness. 
There was no external ornamentation to the 
dwellings and no internal conveniences. There 
was but little attempt at variety and the houses 
were mostly of one style, square walled, tile cov- 
ered, or flat roofed with pitch, and usually but 
one story high. Some of the mission churches 
were massive, grand and ornamental, while 
others were devoid of beauty and travesties on 
the rules of architecture. Every man was his 
own architect and master builder. He had no 
choice of material, or, rather, with his ease- 
loving disposition, he chose to use that which 
was most convenient, and that was adobe clay, 
made into sun-dried brick. The Indian was the 
brickmaker, and he toiled for his taskmasters, 
like the Hebrew of old for the Egyptian, making 
bricks without straw and without pay. There 
were no labor strikes in the building trades then. 
The Indian was the builder, and he did not 
know how to strike for higher wages, because 
he received no wages, high or low. The adobe 
bricks were moulded into form and set up to 
dry. Through the long summer days they 
baked in the hot sun, first on one side, then on 
the other; and when dried through they were 
laid in the wall with mud mortar. Then the 
walls had to dry and dry perhaps through an- 
other summer before the house was habitable. 
Time was the essense of building contracts then. 

There was but little wood used in house con- 
struction then. It was only the aristocrats who 
could indulge in the luxury of wooden floors. 
Most of the houses had floors of the beaten 
earth. Such floors were cheap and durable. 
Gilroy says, when he came to Monterey in 1814, 
only the governor's house had a wooden floor. 
A door of rawhide shut out intruders and 
wooden-barred windows admitted sunshine and 
air. 

The legendry of the hearthstone and the fire- 
side which fills so large a place in the home life 
and literature of the Anglo-Saxon had no part 
in the domestic system of the old-time Califor- 
nian. He had no hearthstone and no fireside. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ir 



nor could that pleasing fiction of Santa Clans 
coming down the chimney with toys on Christ- 
mas eve that so delights the children of to-day 
have been understood by the youthful Califor- 
nian of long ago. There were no chimneys in 
California. The only means of warming the 
houses by artificial heat was a pan (or brasero) 
of coals set on the floor. The people lived out 
of doors in the open air and invigorating sun- 
shine; and they were healthy and long-lived. 
Their houses were places to sleep in or shelters 
from rain. 

The furniture was meager and mostly home- 
made. A few benches or rawhide-bottomed 
chairs to sit on; a rough table; a chest or two 
to keep the family finery in; a few cheap prints 
of saints on the walls — these formed the furnish- 
ings and the decorations of the living rooms of 
the common people. The bed was the pride and 
the ambition of the housewife. Even in humble 
dwellings, sometimes, a snowy counterpane and 
lace-trimmed pillows decorated a couch whose 
base was a dried bullock's hide stretched on a 
rough frame of wood. A shrine dedicated to the 
patron saint of the household was a very essen- 
tial part of a well-regulated home. 

Fashions in dress did not change with the sea- 
sons. A man could wear his grandfather's hat 
and his coat, too, and not be out of the fashion. 
Robinson, writing of California in 1829, says: 
"The people were still adhering to the costumes 
of the past century." It was not until after 1834, 
when the Hijar colonists brought the latest fash- 
ions from the City of Mexico, that the style of 
dress for men and women began to change. The 
next change took place after the American con- 
quest. Only two changes in half a century, a 
garment had to be very durable to become un- 
fashionable. 

The few wealthy people in the territory 
dressed well, even extravagantly. Robinson de- 
scribes the dress of Tomas Yorba, a wealthy 
ranchero of the Upper Santa Ana, as he saw 
him in 1829: "Upon his head he wore a black 
silk handkerchief, the four corners of which 
hung down his neck behind. An embroidered 
shirt; a cravat of white jaconet, tastefully tied; 
a blue damask vest; short clothes of crimson 
velvet; a bright green cloth jacket, with large 



silver buttons, and shoes of embroidered deer- 
skin composed his dress. I was afterwards in- 
formed by Don Manuel (Dominguez) that on 
some occasions, such as some particular feast 
day or festival, his entire display often exceeded 
in value a thousand dollars." 

"The dress worn by the middle class of fe- 
males is a chemise, with short embroidered 
sleeves, richly trimmed with lace; a muslin pet- 
ticoat, flounced with scarlet and secured at the 
waist by a silk band of the same color; shoes of 
velvet or blue satin; a cotton reboso or scarf; 
pearl necklace and earrings; with hair falling in 
broad plaits down the back."* After 1834 the 
men generally adopted calzoneras instead of the 
knee breeches or short clothes of the last cen- 
tury. 

"The calzoneras were pantaloons with the ex- 
terior seam open throughout its length. On the 
upper edge was a strip of cloth, red, blue or 
black, in which were buttonholes. On the other 
edge were eyelet holes for buttons. In some 
cases the calzonera was sewn from hip to the 
middle of the thigh ; in others, buttoned. From 
the middle of the thigh downward the leg was 
covered by the bota or leggins, used by every 
one, whatever his dress." The short jacket, 
with silver or bronze buttons, and the silken 
sash that served as a connecting link between 
the calzoneras and the jacket, and also supplied 
the place of what the Californians did not wear, 
suspenders, this constituted a picturesque cos- 
tume, that continued in vogue until the con- 
quest, and with many of the natives for years 
after. "After 1834 the fashionable women of Cal- 
ifornia exchanged their narrow for more flowing 
• garments and abandoned the braided hair for 
the coil and the large combs till then in use for 
smaller combs. "f 

For outer wraps the serapa for men and the 
rebosa for women were universally worn. The 
texture of these marked the social standing of 
the wearer. It ranged from cheap cotton and 
coarse serge to the costliest silk and the finest 
French broadcloth. The costume of the neo- 
phvte changed but once in centuries, and that 



♦Robinson, Life in California. 
tBancroft's Pastoral California. 



118 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



was when he divested himself of his coat of 
mud and smear of paint and put on the mission 
shirt and breech clout. Shoes he did not wear 
and in time his feet became as hard as the hoofs 
of an animal. The dress of the mission women 
consisted of a chemise and a skirt; the dress of 
the children was a shirt and sometimes even this 
was dispensed. 

Filial obedience and respect for parental au- 
thority were early impressed upon the minds of 
the children. The commandment, "Honor thy 
father and mother," was observed with an ori- 
ental devotion. A child was never too old or too 
large to be exempt from punishment. Stephen 
C. Foster used to relate an amusing story of a 
case of parental disciplining he once saw at Los 
Angeles. An old lady, a grandmother, was be- 
laboring, with a barrel stave, her son, a man 
thirty years of age. The son had done some- 
thing of which the mother did not approve. She 
sent for him to come over to the maternal home 
to receive his punishment. He came. She took 
him out to the metaphorical woodshed, which, 
in this case, was the portico of her house, where 
she stood him up and proceeded to administer 
corporal punishment. With the resounding 
thwacks of the stave, she would exclaim, "I'll 
teach you to behave yourself." "I'll mend your 
manners, sir." "Now you'll be good, won't 
you?" The big man took his punishment with- 
out a thought of resisting or rebelling. In fact, 
he seemed to enjoy it. It brought back feel- 
ingly and forcibly a memory of 'nis boyhood 
days. 

In the earlier years of the republic, before 
revolutionary ideas had perverted the usages of 
the Californians, great respect was shown to- 
those in authority, and the authorities were 
strict in requiring deference from their constit- 
uents. In the Los Angeles archives of 1828 are 
the records of an impeachment trial of Don 
Antonio Maria Lugo, held to depose him from 
the office of judge of the plains. The principal 
duty of such a judge was to decide cases of dis- 
puted ownership of horses and cattle. Lugo 
seems to have had an exalted idea of the dignity 
of his office. Among the complaints presented 
at the trial was one from young Pedro Sanchez, 
in which he testified that Lugo had tried to ride 



his horse over him in the street because he, 
Sanchez, would not take ofif his hat to the juez 
del campo and remain standing uncovered wh'le 
the judge rode past. Another complainant at the 
same trial related how at a rodeo Lugo ad- 
judged a neighbor's boy guilty of contempt of 
court because the boy gave him an impertinent 
answer, and then he proceeded to give the boy 
an unmerciful whipping. So heinous was the 
offense in the estimation of the judge that the 
complainant said, "had not Lugo fallen over a 
chair he would have been beating the boy yet." 

Under Mexican domination in California 
there was no tax levied on land and improve- 
ments. The municipal funds of the pueblos were 
obtained from revenue on wine and brandy; 
from the licenses of saloons and other business 
houses; from the tariff on imports; from per- 
mits to give balls or dances; from the fines of 
transgressors, and from the tax on bull rings 
and cock pits. Then men's pleasures and vices 
paid the cost of governing. In the early '40s 
the city of Los Angeles claimed a population of 
two thousand, yet the municipal revenues rarely 
exceeded $1,000 a year. With this small amount 
the authorities ran a city government and kept 
out of debt. It did not cost much to run a city 
government then. There was no army of high- 
salaried officials with a horde of political heelers 
quartered on the municipality and fed from the 
public crib at the expense of the taxpayer. Poli- 
ticians may have been no more honest then 
than now, but where there was nothing to steal 
there was no stealing. The alcaldes and regi- 
dores put no temptation in the way of the poli- 
ticians, and thus they kept them reasonably 
honest, or at least they kept them from plunder- 
ing the taxpayers by the simple expedient of 
having no taxpayers. 

The functions of the various departments of 
the municipal governments were economically 
administered. Street cleaning and lighting were 
performed at individual expense instead of pub- 
lic. There was an ordinance in force in Los 
Angeles and Santa Barbara and probably in 
other mvmicipalities that required each owner of 
a house every Saturday to sweep and clean in 
front of his premises to the middle of the street. 
His neighbor on th'' opposite side met him half 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RJtCORD. 



119 



way, and the street was swept without expense 
to the pueblo. There was another ordinance 
that required each owner ol a house of more 
that two rooms on a main street to hang a 
hghted lantern in front of his door from twilight 
to eight o'clock in winter and to nine in sum- 
mer. There were fines for neglect of these duties. 
There was no fire department in the pueblos. 
The adobe houses with their clay walls, earthen 
floors, tiled roofs and rawhide doors were as 
nearly fireproof as any human habitation could 
be made. The cooking was done in detached 



kitchens and in beehive-shaped ovens wiihoul 
Hues. The houses were without chimneys, so 
the danger from fire was reduced to a minimum. 
A general conflagration was something un- 
known in the old pueblo days of Californi;) 

There was no paitl police department. Everv 
able-bodied young man was subject to military 
duty. A volunteer guard or patrol was kept on 
duty at the cuartels or guard houses. The 
guards policed the pueblos, but they were not 
paid. Each young man had to take his turn at 
guard duty. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

TERRITORIAL EXPANSION BY CONQUEST. 



THE Mexican war marked the beginning 
by the United States of territorial ex- 
pansion by conquest. "It was," says 
General Grant, "an instance of a republic fol- 
lowing the bad example of European mon- 
archies in not considering justice in their desire 
to acquire additional territory." The "additional 
territory" was needed for the creation of slave 
states. The southern politicians of the extreme 
pro-slavery school saw in the rapid settlement 
of the northwestern states the downfall of their 
domination and the doom of their beloved insti- 
tution, slavery. Their peculiar institution could 
not expand northward and on the south it had 
reached the Mexican boundary. The only way 
of acquiring new territory for the extension of 
slavery on the south was to take it by force from 
the weak Republic of Mexico. The annexation 
of Texas brought with it a disputed boundary 
line. The claim to a strip of country between 
the Rio Nueces and the Rio Grande furnished a 
convenient pretext to force Mexico to hostili- 
ties. Texas as an independent state had never 
exercised jurisdiction over the disputed terri- 
tory. As a state of the Union after annexation 
she could not rightfully lay claim to what she 
never possessed, but the army of occupation 
took possession of it as United States property, 
and the war was on. In the end we acquired a 
large slice of Mexican territory, but the irony 



of fate decreed that not an acre of its soil should 
be tilled by slave labor. 

The causes that led to the acquisition of Cali- 
fornia antedated the annexation of Texas and 
the invasion of Mexico, .\fter the adoption of 
liberal colonization laws by the Mexican gov- 
ernment in 1824, there set in a steady drift 
of Americans to California. At first they came 
by sea, but after the opening of the overland 
route in 1841 they came in great numbers by 
land. It was a settled conviction m the minds 
of these adventurous nomads that the manifest 
destiny of California was to become a part of the 
United States, and they were only too willing to 
aid destiny when an opportunity offered. The 
opportunity came and it found them ready for it. 

Capt. John C. Fremont, an engineer and ex- 
plorer in the services of the United States, ap- 
peared at Monterey in January, 1846, and ap- 
plied to General Castro, the military comandante. 
for permission to buy supplies for his party of 
sixty-two men who were encamped in the San 
Joaquin valley, in what is now Kern county. 
Permission was given him. There seems to 
have been a tacit agreement between Castro and 
Fremont that the exploring party should not 
enter the settlements, but early in March the 
whole force was encamped in the Salinas val- 
ley. Castro regarded the marching of a bod'- 
of armed men through the country as an act of 



120 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



hostility, and ordered them out of the country. 
Instead of leaving, Fremont intrenched himself 
on an eminence known as Gabilian Peak (about 
thirty miles from Monterey), raised the stars 
and stripes over his barricade, and defied Castro. 
Castro maneuvered his troops on the plain 
below, but did not attack Fremont. After two 
days' waiting Fremont abandoned his position 
and began his march northward. On May 9, 
when near the Oregon line, he vi'as overtaken 
by Lieutenant Gillespie, of the United States 
navy, with a dispatch from the president. Gil- 
lespie had left the United States in November, 
1845, and, disguised, had crossed Mexico from 
Vera Cruz to IMazatlan, and from there had 
reached Alonterey. The exact nature of the 
dispatches to Fremont is not known, but pre- 
sumably they related to the impending war be- 
tween Mexico and the LTnited States, and the 
necessity for a prompt seizure of the country 
to prevent it from falling into the hands of Eng- 
land. Fremont returned to the Sacramento, 
where he encamped. 

On the 14th of June, 1846, a body of Amer- 
ican settlers from the Napa and Sacramento 
valleys, thirty-three in number, of which Ide, 
Semple, Grigsby and Merritt seem to have been 
the leaders, after a night's march, took posses- 
sion of the old Castillo or fort at Sonoma, with 
its rusty muskets and unused cannon, and made 
Gen. M. G. Vallejo, Lieut.-Col. Prudon, Capt. 
Salvador \'allejo and Jacob P. Leese, a brother- 
in-law of the Vallcjos, prisoners. There seems 
to have been no privates at the Castillo, all offi- 
cers. Exactly what was the object of the Amer- 
ican settlers in taking General Vallejo prisoner 
is not evident. General Vallejo was one of the 
few eminent Californians who favored the an- 
nexation of California to the United States. He 
is said to have made a speech favoring such a 
movement in the junta at Monterey a few 
months before. Castro regarded him with sus- 
picion. The prisoners were sent under an 
armed escort to Fremont's camp. William B. 
Ide was elected captain of the revolutionists 
who remained at Sonoma, to "hold the fort." 
He issued a pronunciamiento in which he de- 
clared California a free and independent gov- 
ernment, under the name of the California Re- 



public. A nation must have a flag of its own, 
so one was improvised. It was made of a piece 
of cotton cloth, or manta, a yard wide and five 
feet long. Strips of red flannel torn from the 
shirt of one of the men were stitched on the 
bottom of the flag for stripes. With a blacking 
brush, or, as another authority says, the end 
of a chewed stick for a brush, and red paint, 
William L. Todd painted the figure of a grizzly 
bear passant on the field of the flag. The na- 
tives called Todd's bear "cochino," a pig; it 
resembled that animal more than a bear. A 
five-pointed star in the left upper corner, 
painted with the same coloring matter, and the 
words "California republic" printed on it in ink, 
completed the famous bear flag. 

The California republic was ushered into ex- 
istence June 14, 1846, attained the acme of its 
power July 4, when Ide and his fellow patriots 
burnt a quantity of powder in salutes, and fired 
ofT oratorical pyrotechnics in honor of the new 
republic. It utterly collapsed on the 9th of July, 
after an existence of twenty-five days, when 
news reached Sonoma that Commodore Sloat 
had raised the stars and stripes at Monterey and 
taken possession of California in the name of 
the United States. Lieutenant Revere arrived 
at Sonoma^ on the 9th and he it was who low- 
ered the bear flag from the Mexican flagstaiT. 
where it had floated through the brief existence 
of the California republic, and raised in its place 
the banner of the United States. 

Commodore Sloat, who had anchored in 
^lonterey Bay July 2, 1846, was for a time un- 
decided whether to take possession of the coun- 
try. He had no official information that war 
had been declared between the United States 
and Mexico; but, acting on the supposition 
that Captain Fremont had received definite in- 
structions, on the 7th of July he raised the flag 
and took possession of the custom-house and 
government buildings at Monterey. Captain 
Montgomery, on the 9th, raised it at San Fran- 
cisco, and on the same day the bear flag gave 
place to the stars and stripes at Sonoma. 

General Castro was holding Santa Clara and 
San Jose when he received Commodore Sloat's 
proclamation informing him that the commo- 
dore had taken possession of ilonterey. Cas- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 



11' I 



tro, after reading the proclamation, which was 
written in Spanish, formed his men in hne, and 
addressing them, said: "Monterey is taken by 
the Americans. What can I do with a handful 
of men against the United States? I am going 
to Mexico. All of you w^ho wish to follow me. 
'About face!' All that wish to remain can go to 
their homes."* A very small part of his force 
followed him. 

Commodore Sloat was superseded by Com- 
modore Stockton, who set about organizing an 
expedition to subjugate the part of the territory 
which still remained loyal to Alexico. Fre- 
mont's exploring party, recruited to a battalion 
of one hundred and twenty men, had marclied 
to Monterey, and from there was sent by vessel 
to San Diego to procure horses and prepare to 
act as cavalry. 

While these stirring events were transpiring 
in the north, what was the condition in the 
south where the capital, Los Angeles, and the 
bulk of the population of the territory were 
located? Pio Pico had entered upon the duties 
of the governorship with a desire to bring peace 
and harmony to the distracted country. He ap- 
pointed Juan Bandini, one of the ablest states- 
men of the south, his secretary. After Bandini 
resigned he chose J. M. Covarrubias, and later 
Jose M. Moreno filled the office. 

The principal offices of the territory had been 
divided equally between the politicians of the 
north and the south. While Los Angeles be- 
came the capital, and the departmental assembly 
met there, the military headquarters, the ar- 
chives and the treasury remained at Monterey. 
But, notwithstanding this division of the spoils 
of office, the old feud between the arribeiios 
and the abajeiios would not down, and soon the 
old-time quarrel was on with all its bitterness. 
Castro, as military comandante, ignored the 
governor, and Alvarado was regarded by the 
surenos as an emissary of Castro's. The de- 
partmental assembly met at Los Angeles, in 
March, 1846. Pico presided, and in his opening 
message set forth the unfortunate condition of 
affairs in the department. Education was neg- 
lected; justice was not administered; the mis- 



*Hairs History of San Jose. 



sions were so burdened by debt that but few 
of them could be rented; the army was disor- 
ganized and the treasury empty. 

Not even the danger of war with the Amer- 
icans could make the warring factions forget 
their fratricidal strife. Castro's proclamation 
against I'remont was construed by the surenos 
into a scheme to inveigle the governor to the 
north so that the comandante-general could de- 
pose him and seize the office for himself. Cas- 
tro's preparations to resist by force the en- 
croachments of the Americans were believed 
by Pico and the Angelenians to be fitting out 
of an army to attack Los Angeles and over- 
throw the government. 

On the 16th of June, Pico left Los Angeles 
for Monterey with a military force of a hundred 
men. The object of the expedition was to op- 
pose, and, if possible, to depose Castro. He 
left the capital under the care of the ayunta- 
miento. On the 20th of June .Mcaldc Gallardo 
reported to the ayuntamiento that he had posi- 
tive information "that Don Castro had left 
Monterey and would arrive here in three days 
with a military force for the purpose of captur- 
ing this city." (Castro had left Monterey with 
a force of seventy men, but he had gone north 
to San Jose.) The sub-prefect, Don Abel 
Stearns, was authorized to enlist troops to pre- 
serve order. On the 23d of June three compa- 
nies were organized, an artillery company under 
Miguel Pryor, a company of riflemen under 
Benito Wilson, and a cavalry company under 
Gorge Palomares. Pico called for reinforce- 
ments, but just as he was preparing to march 
against IMonterey the news reached him ot the 
capture of Sonoma by the Americans, and next 
day, June 24th, the news reached Los Angeles 
just as the council had decided on a plan of 
defense against Castro, who was five hundred 
miles away. Pico, on the impulse of the mo- 
ment, issued a proclamation, in which he 
arraigned the United States for perfidy and 
treachery, and the gang of "North American 
adventurers," who captured Sonoma "with the 
blackest treason the spirit of evil can invent." 
His arraignment of the "North .\merican na- 
tion" was so severe that some of his American 
friends in Los .Angeles took umbrage to his 



122 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



pronunciamento. He afterwards tried to recall 
it, but it was too late; it had been published. 

Castro, finding the "foreign adventurers" too 
numerous and too aggressive in the northern 
part of the territory, determined, with what men 
he could induce to go with him, to retreat to 
the south; but before so doing he sent a medi- 
ator to Pico to negotiate a treaty of peace and 
amity between the factions. On the I2th of 
July the two armies met at Santa Margarita, 
near San Luis Obispo. Castro brought the 
news that Commodore Sloat had hoisted the 
United States flag at Monterey and taken pos- 
session of the country for his government. The 
meeting of the governor and the comandante- 
general was not very cordial, but in the presence 
of the impending danger to the territory they 
concealed their mutual dislike and decided to 
do their best to defend the country they both 
loved. 

Sorrow-fully they began their retreat to the 
capital; but even threatened disaster to their 
common country could not wholly unite the 
north and the south. The respective armies, 
Castro's numbering about one hundred and fifty 
men, and Pico's one hundred and twenty, kept 
about a day's march apart. They reached Los 
Angeles, and preparations were begun to resist 
the invasion of the Americans. Pico issued a 
proclamation ordering all able-bodied men be- 
tween fifteen and sixty years of age, native and 
naturalized, to take up arms to defend the coun- 
try; any able-bodied Mexican refusing was to 
be treated as a traitor. There was no enthusi- 
asm for the cause. The old factional jealousy 
and distrust was as potent as ever. The militia 
of the south would obey none but their own 
officers; Castro's troops, who considered them- 
selves regulars, ridiculed the raw recruits of 
the sureiios, while the naturalized foreigners of 
American extraction secretly sympathized with 
their own people. 

Pico, to counteract the malign influence of his 
Santa Barbara proclamation and enlist the sym- 
pathy and more ready adhesion of the foreign 
element of Los Angeles, issued the following 
circular: (This circular or proclamation has 
never before found its way into print. I find 
no allusion to it in Bancroft's or Hittell's His- 



tories. A copy, probably the only one in exist- 
ence, was donated some years since to the 
Historical Society of Southern California.) 



SEAL OF 



Gobicmo del Dep. 
de Calif ornias. 

"Circular. — As owing to the unfortunate 
condition of things that now prevails in this 
department in consequence of the war into 
which the United States has provoked the Mex- 
ican nation, some ill feeling might spring up 
between the citizens of the two countries, out of 
which unfortunate occurrences might grow, and 
as this government desires to remove every 
cause of friction, it has seen fit, in the use of its 
power, to issue the present circular. 

"The Government of the department of Cali- 
fornia declares in the most solenm manner that 
all the citizens of the United States that have 
come lawfully into its territory, relying upon 
the honest administration of the laws and the 
observance of the prevailing treaties, shall not 
be molested in the least, and their lives and 
property shall remain in perfect safety under the 
protection of the Mexican laws and authorities 
legally constituted. 

"Therefore, in the name of the supreme gov- 
ernment of the nation, and by virtue of the 
authority vested upon me, I enjoin upon all the 
inhabitants of California to observe towards the 
citizens of the United States that have lawfully 
come among us, the kindest and most cordial 
conduct, and to abstain from all acts of violence 
against their persons or property; provided they 
remain neutral, as heretofore, and take no part 
in the invasion effected by the armies of their 
nation. 

"The authorities of the various municipalities 
and corporations will be held strictly responsi- 
ble for the faithful fulfillment of this order, and 
shall, as soon as possible, take the necessary 
measures to bring it to the knowledge of the 
people. God and Liberty. 

"Pio Pico. 

"Jose Matias Mareno, Secretary pro tent." 

Angeles, July 27, 1846. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



123 



When we consider the conditions existing in 
CaUfornia at the time this circular was issued, 
its sentiments reflect great credit on Pico for 
his humanity and forbearance. A little over a 
month before, a party of Americans seized 
General Vallejo and several other prominent 
Californians in their homes and incarcerated 
them in prison at Sutter's Fort. Nor was this 
outrage mitigated when the stars and stripes 
were raised. The perpetrators of the outrage 
were not punished. These native Californians 
were kept in prison nearly two months without 
any charge against them. Besides, Governor 
Pico and the leading Californians very well 
knew that the Americans whose lives and prop- 
erty this proclamation was designed to protect 
would not remain neutral when their country- 
men invaded the territory. Pio Pico deserved 
better treatment from the Americans than he 
received. He was robbed of his landed posses- 
sions by unscrupulous land sharks, and his char- 
acter defamed by irresponsible historical scrib- 
blers. 

Pico made strenuous efforts to raise men and 
means to resist the threatened invasion. He had 
mortgaged the government house to de Cells 
for $2,000, the mortgage to be paid "as soon as 
order shall be established in the department." 
This loan was really negotiated to fit out the 
expedition against Castro, but a part of it was 
expended after his return to Los Angeles in 
procuring supplies while preparing to meet the 
American army. The government had but little 
credit. The moneyed men of the pueblo w'ere 
averse to putting money into what was almost 
sure to prove a lost cause. The bickerings and 
jealousies between the factions neutralized to a 
considerable degree the efforts of Pico and Cas- 
tro to mobilize the army. 

Castro established his camp on the mesa east 
of the river. Here he and Andres Pico under- 
took to drill the somewhat incongruous collec- 
tion of hombres in military maneuvering. Their 
entire force at no time exceeded three hundred 
men. These were poorly armed and lacking in 
discipline. 

We left Stockton at Monterey preparing an 
expedition against Castro at Los Angeles. On 
taking command of the Pacific squadron, July 



29, he issued a proclamation. It was as bom- 
bastic as the pronunciamiento of a Mexican 
governor. Bancroft says: "The paper was 
made up of falsehood, of irrelevent issues and 
bombastic ranting in about equal parts, the 
tone being offensive and impolitic even in those 
inconsiderable portions which were true and 
legitimate." His only object in taking posses- 
sion of the country was "to save from destruc- 
tion the lives and property of the foreign resi- 
dents and citizens of the territory who had in- 
voked his protection." In view of Pico's humane 
circular and the uniform kind treatment that the 
Californians accorded the American residents, 
there w'as very little need of Stockton's interfer- 
ence on that score. Commodore Sloat did not 
approve of Stockton's proclamation or of his 
policy. 

On the 6th of August. Stockton reached San 
Pedro and landed three hundred and sixty 
sailors and marines. These were drilled in mili- 
tary movements on land and prepared for the 
inarch to Los Angeles. 

Castro sent two commissioners, Pablo de La 
Guerra and Jose M. Flores, to Stockton, asking 
for a conference and a cessation of hostilities 
while negotiations were pending. They asked 
that the United States forces remain at San 
Pedro while the terms of the treaty were under 
discussion. These requests Commodore Stock- 
ton peremptorily refused, and the commissioners 
returned to Los Angeles without stating the 
terms on which they proposed to treat. 

In several so-called histories, I find a very 
dramatic account of this interview. On the ar- 
rival of the commissioners they were marched 
up to the mouth of an immense mortar, 
shrouded in skins save its huge aperture. Their 
terror and discomfiture were plainly discernible. 
Stockton received them with a stern and forbid- 
ding countenance, harshly demantling their mis- 
sion, which they disclosed in great confusion. 
They bore a letter from Castro proposing a 
truce, each party to hold its own possessions 
until a general pacification should be had. This 
proposal Stockton rejected with contempt, and 
dismissed the commissioners with the assurance 
that only an immediate disbandment of his 
forces and an unconditional surrender would 



124 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.'\PHICAL RECORD. 



shield Castro from the vengeance of an incensed 
foe. The messengers remounted their horses 
in dismay and fled back to Castro." The mortar 
story, it is needless to say, is pure fabrication, 
yet it runs through a number of so-called his- 
tories of California. Castro, on the 9th of Au- 
gust, held a council of war with his ofificers at 
the Campo en La Mesa. He announced his in- 
tention of leaving the country for the purpose of 
reporting to the supreme government, and of 
returning at some future day to punish the 
usurpers. He wrote to Pico: "I can count only 
one hundred men, badly armed, worse supplied 
and discontented by reason of the miseries they 
suffer; so that I have reason to fear that not 
even these men will fight when the necessity 
arises." And this is the force that some imag- 
inative historians estimate at eight hundred to 
one thousand men. 

Pico and Castro left Los Angeles on the 
night of August 10, for Mexico; Castro going 
by the Colorado River route to Sonora, and 
Pico, after being concealed for a time by his 
brother-in-law, Juan Foster, at the Santa Mar- 
garita and narrowly escaping capture by Fre- 
mont's men, finally reached Lower California 
and later on crossed the Gulf to Sonora. 

Stockton began his march on Los Angeles 
August II. He took with him a battery of four 
guns. The guns were mounted on carretas, and 
each gun drawn by four oxen. He had with 
him a good brass band. 

Major Fremont, who had been sent to San 
Diego with his battalion of one hundred and 
seventy men, had, after considerable skirmish- 
ing among the ranchos, secured enough horses 
to move, and on the 8th of August had begun 
his march to join Stockton. He took with him 
one hundred and twenty men, leaving about 
fifty to garrison San Diego. 

Stockton consumed three days on the march. 
Fremont's troops joined him just south of the 
city, and at 4 p. m. of the 13th the combined 
force, numbering nearly five hundred men, en- 
tered the town without opposition, "our entry," 
says Major Fremont, "having more the effect 
of a parade of home guards than of an enemy 
taking possession of a conquered town." Stock- 
ton reported finding at Castro's abandoned camp 



ten pieces of artillery, four of them spiked. Fre- 
mont says he (Castro) "had buried part of his 
guns." Castro's troops that he had brought 
down with him took their departure for their 
northern homes soon after their general left, 
breaking up into small squads as they advanced. 
The southern troops that Pico had recruited dis- 
persed to their homes before the arrival of the 
Americans. Squads of Fremont's battalion were 
sent out to scour the country and bring in any of 
the Californian officers or leading men whom 
they could find. These, when found, were 
paroled. 

Another of those historical myths, like the 
mortar story previously mentioned, which is 
palmed off on credulous readers as genuine his- 
tory, runs as follows : "Stockton, while en route 
from San Pedro to Los Angeles, was informed 
by a courier from Castro "that if he marched 
upon the town he would find it the grave of him- 
self and men.' "Then," answered the commodore, 
'tell the general to have the bells ready to toll 
at eight o'clock, as I shall be there by that 
time.' " As Castro left Los Angeles the day 
before Stockton began his march from San 
Pedro, and when the commodore entered the 
city the Mexican general was probably two 
hundred miles away, the bell tolling myth goes 
to join its kindred myths in the category of his- 
tory as it should not be written. 

On the 17th of August, Stockton issued a sec- 
ond proclamation, in which he signs himself 
commander-in-chief and governor of the terri- 
tory of California. It was milder in tone and 
more dignified than the first. He informed the 
people that their country now belonged to the 
United .States. For the present it would be 
governed by martial law. They were invited 
to elect their local officers if those now in office 
refused to serve. 

Four days after the capture of Los Angeles, 
The Warren, Captain Hull, commander, an- 
chored at San Pedro. She brought official no- 
tice of the declaration of war between the 
United States and Mexico. Then for the first 
time Stockton learned that there had been an 
official declaration of war between the two 
countries. United States officers had waged 
war and had taken possession of California upon 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



125 



the strength of a rumor that hostilities existed 
between the countries. 

The conquest, if conquest it can be called, was 
accomplished without the loss of a life, if we 
except the two Americans, Fowler and Cowie, 
of the Bear Flag party, who were brutally mur- 
dered by a band of Californians under Padillo, 
and the equally brutal shooting of Beryessa and 
the two de Haro boys by the Americans at San 
Rafael. These three men were shot as spies, 
but there was no proof that they were such, and 
they were not tried. These murders occurred 
before Commodore Sloat raised the stars and 
stripes at Monterey. 

On the 15th of August, 1846, just thirty-seven 
days after the raising of the stars and stripes 
at ^lonterey, the first newspaper ever published 
in California made its appearance. It was pub- 
lished at Monterey by Semple and Colton and 
named The Californian. Rev. Walter Colton 
was a chaplain in the LTnited States navy and 
came to California on the Congress with Com- 
modore Stockton. He was made alcalde of 
Monterey and built, by the labor of the chain 



gang and from contributions and fines, the 
first schoolhouse in California, named foi him 
Colton Hall. Colton thus describes the other 
member of the firm, Dr. Robert Semple: "My 
partner is an emigrant from Kentucky, who 
stands six feet eight in his stockings. He is in 
a buckskin dress, a foxskin cap; is true with his 
rifle, ready with his pen and quick at the type 
case." Semple came to California in 1845, with 
the Hastings party, and was one of the leaders 
in the Bear Flag revolution. The type and 
press used were brought to California by Au- 
gustin \\ Zamorano in 1834, and by him sold 
to the territorial government, and had been 
used for printing bandos and pronunciamentos. 
The only paper the publishers of The Californian 
could procure was that used in the manufacture 
of cigarettes, wliich came in sheets a little 
larger than foolscap. The font of type was 
short of w's, so two v's were substituted for 
that letter, and wiien these ran out two u's were 
used. The paper was moved to San Francisco 
in 1848 and later on consolidated with the Cali- 
fornia Star. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

REVOLT OF THE CALIFORNIANS. 



HOSTILITIES had ceased in all parts of 
the territory. The leaders of the Cali- 
fornians had escaped to Mexico, and 
Stockton, regarding the conquest as completed, 
set about organizing a government for the con- 
quered territory. Fremont was to be appointed 
military governor. Detachments from his bat- 
talion were to be detailed to garrison different 
towns, while Stockton, with what recruits he 
could gather in California, and his sailors and 
marines, was to undertake a naval expedition 
against the west coast of Mexico, land his forces 
at Mazatlan or Acapuico and march overland 
to "shake hands with General Taylor at the 
gates of Mexico." Captain Gillespie was made 
military commandant of the southern depart- 
ment, with headquarters at Los Angeles, and as- 
signed a garrison of fifty men. Commodore 
Stockton left Los Angeles for the north Sep- 



tember 2. Fremont, with the remainder of his 
battalion, took up his line of march for Monte- 
rey a few days later. Gillespie's orders were to 
place the city under martial law, but not to en- 
force the more burdensome restrictions upon 
quiet and well-disposed citizens. A conciliatory 
policy in accordance with instructions of the 
secretary of the navy was to be adopted and the 
people were to be encouraged to "neutralit}-. 
self-government and friendship." 

Nearly all historians who have written upon 
this subject lay the blame for the subsequent 
uprising of the Californians and their revolt 
against the rule of the military commandant, 
Gillespie, to his petty tyrannies. Col. J. J. 
Warner, in his Historical Sketch of Los An- 
geles County, says: "Gillespie attempted by a 
coercive system to effect a moral and social 
change in the habits, diversions and pastimes of 



126 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the people and to reduce them to his standard 
of propriety." Warner was not an impartial 
judge. He had a grievance against Gillespie 
which embittered him against the captain. Gil- 
lespie may have been lacking in tact, and his 
schooling in the navy under the tyrannical 
regime of the quarterdeck of fifty years ago 
was not the best training to fit him for govern- 
ment, but it is hardly probable that in two 
weeks' time he undertook to enforce a "coercive 
system" looking toward an entire change in the 
moral and social habits of the people. Los An- 
geles under Mexican domination was a hotbed 
of revolutions. It had a turbulent and restless 
element among its inhabitants that was never 
happier than when fomenting strife and con- 
spiring to overthrow those in power. Of this 
class Colton, writing in 1846, says: "They drift 
about like Arabs. If the tide of fortune turns 
against them they disband and scatter to the 
four winds. They never become martyrs to any 
cause. They are too numerous to be brought 
to punishment by any of their governors, and 
thus escape justice." There was a conservative 
class in the territory, made up principally of 
the large landed proprietors, both native and 
foreign-born, but these exerted small influence 
in controlling the turbulent. While Los An- 
geles had a monopoly of this turbulent and rev- 
olutionary element, other settlements in the 
territory furnished their full quota of that class 
of political knight errants whose chief pastime 
was revolution, and whose capital consisted of 
a gaily caparisoned steed, a riata, a lance, a 
dagger and possibly a pair of horse pistols. 
These were the fellows whose "habits, diver- 
sions and pastimes" Gillespie undertook to re- 
duce "to his standard of propriety." 

That Commodore Stockton should have left 
Gillespie so small a garrison to hold the city 
and surrounding country in subjection shows 
that either he was ignorant of the character of 
the people, or that he placed too great reliance 
in the completeness of their subjection. With 
Castro's men in the city or dispersed among the 
neighboring ranches, many of them still retain- 
ing their arms, and all of them ready to rally 
at a moment's notice to the call of their leaders; 
w ith no reinforcements nearer than five hundred 



miles to come to the aid of Gillespie in case of 
an uprising, it was foolhardiness in Stockton to 
entrust the holding of the most important place 
in California to a mere handful of men, half 
disciplined and poorly equipped, without forti- 
fications for defense or supplies to hold out in 
case of a siege. 

Scarcely had Stockton and Fremont, with 
their men, left the city before trouble began. 
The turbulent element of the city fomented 
strife and seized every occasion to annoy and 
liarass the military commandant and his men. 
While his "petty tyrannies," so called, which 
were probably nothing more than the enforce- 
ment of martial law, may have been somewhat 
provocative, the real cause was more deep 
seated. The Californians, without provocation 
on their part and without really knowing the 
cause why, found their country invaded, their 
property taken from them and their government 
in the hands of an alien race, foreign to them 
in customs and religion. They would have been 
a tame and spiritless people indeed, had they 
neglected the opportunity that Stockton's blun- 
dering gave them to regain their liberties. They 
did not waste much time. Within two weeks 
from the time Stockton sailed from San Pedro 
hostilities had begun and the city was in a state 
of siege. 

Gillespie, writing in the Sacramento States- 
man in 1858, thus describes the first attack: 
"On the 22d of September, at three o'clock in 
the morning, a party of sixty-five Californians 
and Sonorenos made an attack upon my small 
command quartered in the government house. 
We were not wholly surprised, and with twenty- 
one rifles we beat them back without loss to our- 
selves, killing and wounding three of their num- 
ber. When daylight came, Lieutenant Hensley, 
with a few men, took several prisoners and 
drove the Californians from the town. This 
party was merely the nucleus of a revolution 
commenced and known to Colonel Fremont be- 
fore he left Los Angeles. In twenty-four hours, 
six hundred well-mounted horsemen, armed 
with escopetas (shotguns), lances and one fine 
brass piece of light artillery, surrounded Los 
Angeles and summoned me to surrender. There 
were three old honey-combed iron guns (spiked) 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



127 



ill the corral of my quarters, which we at once 
cleared and mounted upon the axles of carts." 

Serbulo Varela, a young man of some ability, 
but of a turbulent and reckless character, had 
been the leader at first, but as the uprising as- 
sumed the character of a revolution, Castro's old 
officers came to the front. Capt. Jose Maria 
Flores was chosen comandante-general; Jose 
Antonio Carrillo, major-general; and Andres 
Pico, comandante de escuadron. The main 
camp of the insurgents was located on the mesa, 
east of the river, at a place called Paredon 
Blanco (White Bluff). 

On the 24th of September, from the camp 
at White Bluff, was issued the famous Pronun- 
ciamiento de Barelas y otros Californias contra 
Los Americanos (The Proclamation of Barelas 
and other Californians against the Americans). 
1 1 was signed by Serbulo ^'arela (spelled Bare- 
las), Leonardo Cota and over three hundred 
others. Although this proclamation is gener- 
ally credited to Flores, there is no evidence to 
show that he had anything to do with framing 
it. He promulgated it over his signature Octo- 
ber I. It is probable that it was written by 
Varela and Cota. It has been the custom of 
American writers to sneer at this production as 
florid and bombastic. In fiery invective and 
fierce denunciation it is the equal of Patrick 
Henry's famous "Give me liberty or give me 
death!" Its recital of wrongs is brief, but to 
the point. "And shall we be capable of permit- 
ting ourselves to be subjugated and to accept in 
silence the heavy chains of slavery? Shall we 
lose the soil inherited from our fathers, which 
cost them so much blood? Shall we leav^ our 
families victims of the most barbarous servi- 
tude? Shall we wait to see our wives outraged, 
our innocent children beaten by American 
whips, our property sacked, our temples pro- 
faned, to drag out a life full of shame and dis- 
grace? No! a thousand times no! Compatriots, 
death rather than that! Who of you does not 
feel his heart beat and his blood boil on con- 
templating our situation? Who will be the 
Mexican that will not be indignant and rise in 
arms to destroy our oppressors? We believe 
there will be not one so vile and cowardly!" 

Gillespie had left the government house (lo- 



cated on what is now the site of the St. Charles 
Hotel) and taken a position on Fort Hill, where 
he had erected a temporary barricade of sacks 
filled with earth and had mounted his cannon 
there. The Americans had been summoned to 
surrender, but had refused. They were besieged 
by the Californians. There was but little firing 
between the combatants, an occasional sortie 
and a volley of rifle balls by the Americans 
when the Californians approached too near. 
The Californians were well mounted, but poorly 
armed, their weapons being principally muskets, 
shotguns, pistols, lances and riatas; while the 
Americans were armed with long-range rifles, 
of which the Californians had a wholesome 
dread. The fear of these arms and his cannon 
doubtless saved Gillespie and his men from 
capture. 

On the 24th Gillespie dispatched a messenger 
to find Stockton at Monterey, or at San Fran- 
cisco if he had left Monterey, and apprise him 
of the perilous situation of the Americans at 
Los Angeles. Gillespie's dispatch bearer, John 
Brown, better known by his California nick- 
name, Juan Flaco or Lean John, made one of 
the most wonderful rides in history. Gillespie 
furnished Juan Flaco with a package of cigar- 
etees, the paper of each bearing the inscription, 
"Believe the bearer;" these were stampd with 
Gillespie's seal. Brown started from Los Angeles 
at 8 p. m., September 24, and claimed to have 
reached Yerba Buena at 8 p. ra. of the 28th, 
a ride of six hundred and thirty miles in four 
days. This is incorrect. Colton, who was al- 
calde of Monterey at that time, notes Brown's 
arrival at that place on the evening of the 29th. 
Colton, in his "Three Years in California," says 
that Brown rode the whole distance (Los An- 
geles to Monterey) of four hundred and sixty 
miles in fifty-two hours, during which time he 
had not slept. His intelligence was for Com- 
modore Stockton and, in the nature of the case, 
was not committed to paper, except a few words 
rolled in a cigar fastened in his hair. But the 
commodore had sailed for San Francisco and 
it was necessary he should go one hundred and 
forty miles further. He was quite exhausted 
and was allowed to sleep three hours. Before 
day he was up and away on his journey. Gil- 



128 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



lespie, in a letter published in the Los Angeles 
Star, May 28, 1858, describing Juan Flaco's ride 
says: "Before sunrise of the 29th he was lying 
in the bushes at San Francisco, in front of the 
congress frigate, waiting for the early market 
boat to come on shore, and he delivered my 
dispatches to Commodore Stockton before 7 
o'clock." 

In trying to steal through the picket line of 
the Mexicans at Los Angeles, he was discovered 
and pursued by a squad of them. A hot race 
ensued. Finding the enemy gaining on him he 
forced his horse to leap a wide ravine. A shot 
from one of his pursuers mortally wounded his 
horse, which, after running a short distance, fell 
dead. Flaco, carrying his spurs and riata, made 
his way on foot in the darkness to Las Virgines, 
a distance of twenty-seven miles. Here he se- 
cured another mount and again set off on his 
perilous journey. The trail over which Flaco 
held his way was not like "the road from Win- 
chester town, a good, broad highway leading 
down," but instead a Camino de heradura, bridle 
path, now winding up through rocky canons, 
skirting along the edge of precipitous cliffs, then 
zigzagging down chaparral covered mountains; 
now over the sands of the sea beach and again 
across long stretches of brow'n mesa, winding 
through narrow valleys and out onto the rolling 
hills — a trail as nature made it, unchanged by 
the hand of man. Such was the highway over 
which Flaco's steeds "stretched away with ut- 
most speed." Harassed and pursued by the 
enemy, facing death night and day, with scarcely 
a stop or a stay to eat or sleep, Juan Flaco rode 
six hundred miles. 

"Of all the rides since the birth of time. 
Told in story or sung in rhyme. 
The fleetest ride that ever was sped," 

was Juan Flaco's ride from Los Angeles to San 
Francisco. Longfellow has immortalized the 
"Ride of Paul Revere," Robert Browning tells 
in stirring verse of the riders who brought the 
good news from Ghent to Aix, and Buchanan 
Read thrills us with the heroic measures of Sher- 
idan's Ride. No poet has sung of Juan Flaco's 
wonderful ride, fleeter, longer and more perilous 
than anv of these. Flaco rode si.x hundred miles 



through the enemy's country, to bring aid to a 
besieged garrison, while Revere and J orris and 
Sheridan were in the country of friends or pro- 
tected by an army from enemies. 

Gillespie's situation was growing more and 
more desperate each day. B. D. Wilson, who 
with a company of riflemen had been on an 
expedition against the Indians, had been ordered 
by Gillespie to join him. They reached the 
Chino ranch, where a fight took place between 
them and the Californians. Wilson's men being 
out of ammunition were compelled to sur- 
render. In the charge upon the adobe, where 
Wilson and his men had taken refuge, Carlos 
Eallestaros had been killed and several Cali- 
fornians w'ounded. This and Gillespie's stubborn 
resistance hadembittered the Californians against 
him and his men. The Chino prisoners had been 
saved from massacre after their surrender by 
the firmness and bravery of Varela. If Gillespie 
continued to hold the town his obstinacy might 
bring down the vengeance of the Californians 
not only upon him and his men, but upon many 
of the American residents of the south, who had 
favored their countrymen. 

Finally Flores issued his ultimatum to the 
Americans, surrender within twenty-four hours 
or take the consequences of an onslaught by 
the Californians, which might result in the mas- 
sacre of the entire garrison. In the meantime 
he kept his cavalry deployed on the hills, com- 
pletely investing the Americans. Despairing of 
assistance from Stockton, on the advice of Wil- 
son, who had been permitted by Flores to inter- 
cede with Gillespie, articles of capitulation were 
drawn up and signed by Gillespie and the leaders 
of the Californians. On the 30th of September 
the Americans marched out of the city with all 
the honors of war, drums beating, colors flying 
and two pieces of artillery mounted on carts 
drawn by oxen. They arrived at San Pedro 
without molestation and four or five days later 
embarked on the merchant ship Vandalia, which 
remained at anchor in the bay. Gillespie in 
his march was accompanied by a few of the 
American residents and probably a dozen of the 
Chino prisoners, who had been exchanged for 
the same number of Californians, whom he 
liad held under arrest most likely as hostages. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



12<) 



Gillespie took two cannon with him when he 
evacuated the city, leaving two spiked and broken 
on Fort Hill. There seems to have been a pro- 
viso in the articles of capitulation requiring him 



to deliver the guns to Flores on reaching tlie 
embarcadero. If there was such a stipulation Gil- 
lespie violated it. He spiked the guns, broke off 
the trunnions and rolled one of them into the bay. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE DEFEAT AND RETREAT OF MERVINE'S MEN. 



THE revolt of the Californians at Los An- 
geles was followed by similar uprisings 
in the different centers of population 
where American garrisons were stationed. Upon 
the receipt of Gillespie's message Commodore 
Stockton ordered Captain Mervine to proceed 
at once to San Pedro to regain, if possible, the 
lost territory. Juan Placo had delivered his 
message to Stockton on September 30. Early 
on the morning of October 1st, Captain Mer- 
vine got under way for San Pedro. '"He went 
ashore at Sausalito," says Gillespie, "on some 
trivial e.xcuse, and a dense fog coming on he 
was compelled to remain there until the 4th." 

Of the notable events occurring during the 
conquest of California there are few others of 
which there are so contradictory accounts as 
that known as the battle of Dominguez Ranch, 
where Mervine was defeated and compelled to re- 
treat to San Pedro. Historians dififer widely 
in the number engaged and in the number killed. 
The follow^ing account of iMervine's expedition 
I take from a log book kept by Midshipman and 
Acting-Lieut. Robert C. Duvall of the Savannah. 
He commanded a company during the battle. 
This book was donated to the Historical So- 
ciety of Southern California by Dr. J. E. Cowles 
of Los Angeles, a nephew of Lieutenant Duvall. 
The account given by Lieutenant Duvall is one 
of the fullest and most accurate in existence. 

"At 9.30 a. m." (October i, 1846), says Lieu- 
tenant Duvall, "we commenced working out of 
the harbor of San Francisco on the ebb tide. 
The ship anchored at Sausalito. where, on ac- 
count of a dense fog, it remained until the 4th, 
when it put to sea. On the 7th the ship entered 
the harbor of San Pedro. At 6:30 p. m., as we 



were standing in for anchorage, we made out 
the American merchant ship ^'andalia, having 
on her decks a body of men. On passing she 
saluted with two guns, which was repeated with 
three cheers, which we returned. * * * * 
Brevet Capt. Archibald Gillespie came on board 
and reported that he had evacuated the Pueblo 
de Los Angeles on account of the overpowering 
force of the enemy and had retired with his 
men on board the \'andalia after having spiked 
his guns, one of which he threw into the water. 
He also reported that the whole of California 
below the pueblo had risen in arms against our 
authorities, headed by Flores, a Mexican cap- 
tain on furlough in this country, who had but 
a few days ago given his parole of honor not 
to take up arms against the United States. We 
made preparations to land a force to march to 
the pueblo at daylight. 

"October 8, at 6 a. m., all the boats left the 
ship for the purpose of landing the forces, num- 
bering in all two hundred and ninety-nine men, 
including the volunteers under command of Cap- 
tain Gillespie. At 6:30 all were landed without 
opposition, the enemy in small detachments re- 
treating toward the pueblo. From their move- 
ments we apprehended that their w^hole force 
was near. Captain Mervine sent on board ship 
for a reinforcement of eighty men, under com- 
mand of Lieut. R. B. Hitchcock. At 8 a. m. 
the several companies, all under command of 
Capt William Mervine, took up the line of 
march for the purpose of retaking the pueblo. 
The enemy retreated as our forces advanced. 
(On landing, William A. Smith, first cabin boy, 
was killed by the accidental discharge of a Colt's 
pistol.) The reinforcements under the com- 



130 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



mand of Lieut. R. B. Hitchcock returned on 
board ship. For the first four miles our march 
was through hills and ravines, which the enemy 
might have taken advantage of, but preferred to 
occupy as spectators only, until our approach. 
A few shots from our flankers (who were the 
volunteer riflemen) would start them ofT; they 
returned the compliment before going. The 
remainder of our march was performed over a 
continuous plain overgrown with wild mustard, 
rising in places to si.x or eight feet in height. 
The ground was excessively dry, the clouds of 
dust were suffocating and there was not a breath 
of wind in motion. There was no water on our 
line of march for ten or twelve miles and we 
suffered greatly from thirst. 

"At 2:30 p. m. we reached our camping 
ground. The enemy appeared in considerable 
numbers. Their numbers continued to increase 
until sundown, when they formed on a hill near 
us, gradually inclining towards our camp. They 
were admirably formed for a cavalry charge. 
We drew up our forces to meet them, but find- 
ing they were disposed to remain stationary, 
the marines, under command of Captain Mars- 
ton, the Colt's riflemen, under command of 
Lieut. I. B. Carter and myself, and the volun- 
teers, under command of Capt. A. Gillespie, were 
ordered to charge on them, which we did. They 
stood their ground until our shots commenced 
'telling' on them, when they took to flight in 
every direction. They continued to annoy us by 
firing into our camp through the night. About 2 
a. m. they brought a piece of artillery and fired 
into our camp, the shot striking the ground 
near us. The marines, riflemen and volunteers 
were sent in pursuit of the gun, but could see 
or hear nothing of it. 

"We left our camp the next morning at 6 
o'clock. Our plan of march was in column by 
platoon. We had not proceeded far before the 
enemy appeared before us drawn up on each 
side of the road, mounted on fine horses, each 
man armed with a lance and carbine. They also 
had a field piece (a four-pounder), to which were 
hitched eight or ten horses, placed on the road 
ahead of us. 

"Captain Mervine, thinking it was the enemy's 
intention to throw us into confusion by using 



their gun on us loaded with round shot and 
copper grape shot and then charge us with their 
cavalry, ordered us to form a square — which was 
the order of march throughout the battle. When 
within about four hundred yards of them the 
enemy opened on us with their artillery. We 
made frequent charges, driving them before us, 
and at one time causing them to leave some of 
their cannon balls and cartridges; but owing to 
the rapidity with which they could carry ofif 
the gun, using their lassos on every part, en- 
abled them to choose their own distance, en- 
tirely out of all range of our muskets. Their 
horsemen kept out of danger, apparently con- 
tent to let the gun do the fighting. They kept 
up a constant fire with their carbines, but these 
did no harm. The enemy numbered between 
one hundred and seventy-five and two hundred 
strong. 

"Finding it impossible to capture the gun, the 
retreat was sounded. The captain consulted 
with his officers on the best steps to be taken. 
It was decided unanimously to return on board 
ship. To continue the march would sacrifice 
a number of lives to no purpose, for, admitting 
we could have reached the pueblo, all com- 
munications would be cut off with the ship, and 
we would further be constantly annoyed by their 
artillery without the least chance of capturing 
it. It was reported that the enemy were be- 
tween five and six hundred strong at the city 
and it was thought he had more artillery. On 
retreating they got the gun planted on a hill 
ahead of us. 

"The captain made us an address, saying to 
the troops that it was his intention to march 
straight ahead in the same orderly manner in 
which we had advanced, and that sooner tlian 
he would surrender to such an enemy, he would 
sacrifice himself and every other man in his 
command. The enemy fired into us four times 
on the retreat, the fourth shot falling short, the 
report of the gun indicating a small quantity of 
powder, after^which they remained stationary 
and manifested no further disposition to molest 
us. We proceeded quietly on our march to the 
landing, where we found a body of men under 
command of Lieutenant Hitchcock with two 
nine-pounder cannon gotten from the Vandalia 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



131 



to render us assistance in case wc should need it. 

"We presented truly a pitiable condition, 
many being barely able to drag one foot after 
the other from excessive fatigue, having gone 
through the exertions and excitement in battle 
and afterwards performing a march of eighteen 
or twenty miles without rest. This is the first 
battle I have ever been engaged in, and, having 
taken particular notice of those around me, I 
can assert that no men could have acted more 
bravely. Even when their shipmates were fall- 
ing by their sides, I saw but one impulse and 
that was to push forward, and when retreat was 
ordered I noticed a general reluctance to turn 
their backs to the enemy. 

"The following is a list of the killed and 
wounded; Michael Hoey, ordinary seaman, 
killed; David Johnson, ordinary seaman, killed; 
William H. Berry, ordinary seaman, mortally 
wounded; Charles Sommers, musician, mortally 
wounded; John Tyre, seaman, severely 
wounded; John Anderson, seaman, severely 
wounded; recovery doubtful. The following- 
named were slightly wounded: William Con- 
land, marine; Hiram Rockvill, marine; H. Lin- 
land, marine; James Smith, marine. 

"On the following morning we buried the 
bodies of William .\. Smith, Charles Sommers, 
David Johnson and Michael Hoey on an island 
in the harbor. 

"At II a. m. the captain called a council of 
commissioned officers regarding the proper 
course to adopt in the present crisis, which de- 
cided that no force should be landed, and that 
the ship remain here until further orders from 
the commodore, who is daily expected." 

Entry in the log for Sunday, nth: "William 
H. Berry, ordinary seaman, departed this life 
from the effect of wounds received in battle. 
Sent his body for interment to Dead Man's 
Island, so named by us. IMustered the com- 
mand at quarters, after which performed divine 
service." 

From this account it will be seen that the 
number killed and died of wounds received in 
battle was four; number wounded six, and one 
accidentally killed before the battle. On October 
22d, Henry Lewis died and was buried on the 
island. Lewis' name does not appear in the list 



of wounded. It is presumable that he died of 
disease. Six of the crew of the Savannah were 
buried on Dead Man's Island, four of whom 
were killed in battle. Lieutenant IJ)uvall gives 
the following list of the officers in the "Expedi- 
tion on the march to retake Pueblo de Los An- 
geles:" Capt. William Mervine, conunanding; 
Capt. Ward Marston, commanding marines; 
Brevet Capt. A. H. Gillespie, commanding vol- 
unteers; Lieut. Henry W. Queen, adjutant; 
Lieut. B. F. Pinckney, commanding first com- 
pany; Lieut. W. Rinckindoff, commanding sec- 
ond company; Lieut. I. B. Carter, Colt's rifle- 
men; Midshipman R. D. Minor, acting lieuten- 
ant second company; Midshipman S. P. Griffin, 
acting lieutenant first company; Midshipman P. 
G. Walmough, acting lieutenant second com- 
pany; Midshipman R. C. Duvall, acting lieuten- 
ant Colt's riflemen; Captain Clark and Captain 
Goodsall, conunanding pikcmen; Lieutenant 
H/ensley, first lieutenant volunteers; Lieutenant 
Russeau, second lieutenant volunteers. 

The piece of artillery that did such deadly 
execution on the Americans was the famous Old 
Woman's gun. It was a bronze four-pounder, or 
pedrero (swivel-gun) that for a number of years 
had stood on the plaza in front of the church, 
and was used for firing salutes on feast days and 
other occasions. When on the approach of 
Stockton's and Fremont's forces Castro aban- 
doned his artillery and fled, an old lady. Dona 
Clara Cota de Reyes, declared that the gringos 
should not have the church's gun; so, with the 
assistance of her daughters, she buried it in a 
cane patch near her residence, which stood on 
the east side of Alameda street, near First. 
When the Californians revolted against Gil- 
lespie's rule the gun was unearthed and used 
against him. The Historical Society of South- 
ern California has in its possession a brass 
grapeshot, one of a charge that was fired into 
the face of Fort Hill at Gillespie's men when 
they were posted on the hill. This gun was in 
the exhibit of trophies at the New Orleans Ex- 
position in 1885. The label on it read: "Trophy 
53, No. 63, Class 7. Used by Mexico against 
the United States at the battle of Dominguez" 
Ranch, October 9, 1846; at San Gabriel and the 
Mesa, January 8 and 9, 1847; used by the United 



132 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



States forces against Mexico at Mazatlan, No- 
vember II, 1847; Urios (crew all killed or 
wounded), Palos Prietos, December 13, 1847, 
and Lower California, at San Jose, February 15, 
1848." 

Before the battle the old gun had been 
mounted on forward axle of a Jersey wagon, 
which a man by the name of Hunt had brought 
across the plains the year before. It was lashed 
to the axle by means of rawhide thongs, and 
was drawn by riatas, as described by Lieutenant 
Duvall. The range was obtained by raising or 
lowering the pole of the wagon. Ignacio Aguilar 
acted as gunner, and having neither lanyard or 
pent-stock to fire it, he touched of? the gun with 
the lighted end of a cigarette. Never before or 
since, perhaps, was a battle won with such crude 
artillery. Jose Antonio Carrillo was in com- 
mand of the Californians. During the skirmish- 
ing of the first day he had between eighty and 
ninety men. During the night of the 8th Flores 
joined him with a force of sixty men. Next 
morning Flores returned to Los Angeles, taking 
with him twenty men. Carrillo's force in the 
battle numbered about one hundred and twenty 
men. Had Mervine known that the Californians 
had fired their last shot (their powder being ex- 
hausted) he could have pushed on and captured 
the pueblo. 

The expulsion of Gillespie's garrison from 
Los Angeles and the defeat of Mervine's force 
raised the spirits of the Californians, and there 
was great rejoicing at the pueblo. Detachments 
of Flores' army were kept at Sepulveda's rancho, 
the Palos Verdes, and at Temple's rancho of the 
Cerritos, to watch the Savannah and report any 
attempt at landing. The leaders of the revolt 
were not so sanguine of success as the rank and 
file. They were without means to procure arms 
and supplies. There was a scarcity of ammuni- 
tion, too. An inferior article of gunpowder was 
manufactured in limited quantities at San 
Gabriel. The only uniformity in weapons was 
in lances. These were rough, home-made af- 
fairs, the blade beaten out of a rasp or file, and 
the shaft a willow pole about eight feet long. 
These weapons were formidable in a charge 
against infantry, but easily parried by a swords- 
man in a cavalry charge. 



After the defeat of Mervine, Flores set about 
reorganizing the territorial government. He 
called together the departmental assembly. It 
met at the capital (Los Angeles) October 26th. 
The members present, Figueroa, Botello, Guerra 
and Olvera, were all from the south. The as- 
sembly decided to fill the place of governor, 
vacated by Pico, and that of comandante-gen- 
eral, left vacant by the flight of Castro. 

Jose Maria Flores, who was now recognized 
as the leader of the revolt against American rule, 
was chosen to fill both offices, and the two of- 
fices, as had formerly been the custom, were 
united in one person. He chose Narciso Bo- 
tello for his secretary. Flores, who was Mex- 
ican born, was an intelligent and patriotic officer. 
He used every means in his power to prepare 
his forces for the coming conflict with the 
Americans, but with little success. The old 
jealousy of the hijos del pais against the Mex- 
ican would crop out, and it neutralized his 
efforts. There were bickerings and complaints 
in the ranks and among the officers. The na- 
tives claimed that a Californian ought to be 
chief in command. 

The feeling of jealousy against Flores at 
length culminated in open revolt. Flores had 
decided to send the prisoners taken at the Chino 
fight to Mexico. His object was twofold — first, 
to enhance his own glory v\'ith the Mexican 
government, and, secondly, by showing what 
the Californians had already accomplished to 
obtain aid in the coming conflict. As most of 
these men w-ere married to California wives, 
and by marriage related to many of the leading 
California families of the south, there was at 
once a family uproar and fierce denunciations 
of Flores. But as the Chino prisoners were 
foreigners, and had been taken while fighting 
against the Mexican government, it was neces- 
sary to disguise the hostility to Flores under 
some other pretext. He was charged with the 
design of running away to Sonora with the pub- 
lic funds. On the night of December 3, Francisco 
Rico, at the head of a party of Californians, took 
possession of the cuartel, or guard house, and 
arrested Flores. A special session of the as- 
sembly was called to investigate the charges. 

Flores expressed his willingness to give up 



HISTORICAL AXn PJOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



13:5 



his purpose of sending the Chino prisoners to 
Mexico, and the assembly found no foundation 
to the charge of his design of running away 
with the pubHc funds, nor did they find any 
funds to run away with. Flores was liberated, 
and Rico imprisoned in turn. 

Flores was really the last Mexican governor 
of California. Like Pico, he was elected by the 
territorial legislature, but he was not confirmed 
by the Mexican congress. Generals Scott and 
Taylor were kccjiing President Santa Anna and 



his congress on the move so rapidly they had no 
time to spare for California affairs. 

Flores was governor from October 26, 1846, 
to January 8, 1847. 

With a threatened invasion by the Americans 
and a divided people within, it was hard times 
in the old pueblo. The town had to supply 
tile army with provisions. The few who pos- 
sessed money hid it away and all business was 
suspended except preparations to meet llu- 
invaders. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE FINAL CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 



COMMODORE STOCKTON, convinced 
that the revolt of the Californians was 
a serious affair, ordered Fremont's bat- 
talion, which had been recruited to one hun- 
dred and sixty men, to proceed to the south to 
co-operate with him in quelling the rebellion. 
The battalion sailed on the Sterling, but shortly 
after putting to sea, meeting the \'andalia, Fre- 
mont learned of Mervine's defeat and also that 
no horses could be procured in the lower coun- 
try; the vessel was put about and the battalion 
landed at Monterey, October 28. It was decided 
to recruit the battalion to a regiment and 
mounting it to march down the coast. Recruit- 
ing was actively begun among the newly ar- 
rived immigrants. Horses and saddles were 
procured by giving receipts on the government, 
payable after the close of the war or by confisca- 
tion if it brought returns quicker than receipts. 

The report of the revolt in the south quickly 
spread among the Californians in the north and 
they made haste to resist their spoilers. Manuel 
Castro was made comandante of the military 
forces of the north, headquarters at San Luis 
Obispo. Castro collected a force of about one 
hundred men, well mounted but poorly armed. 
His purpose was to carry on a sort of guerrilla 
warfare, capturing men and horses from the 
enemy whenever an opportunity offered. 

Fremont, now raised to the rank of lieuten- 
ant colonel in the regular army with head- 



quarters at Monterey, was rapidly mobilizing his 
motley collection of recruits into a formidable 
force. Officers and men were scouring the 
country for recruits, horses, accouterments and 
supplies. Two of these recruiting squads en- 
countered the enemy in considerable force and 
an engagement known as the battle of Xatividad 
ensued. Capt. Charles Ilurroughs with thirty- 
four men and two hundred horses, recruited at 
Sacramento, arrived at San Juan Bautista, No- 
vember 15, on his way to .Monterey on the same 
(lay Captain Thompson, with about the same 
number of men recruited at San Jose, reached 
San Juan. The Californians, with the design of 
capturing the horses, made a night march from 
their camp on the Salinas. At Gomez rancho 
they took prisoner Thomas O. Larkin, the 
American consul, who was on his way from 
Monterey to San Francisco on official business. 
On the morning of the i6th the Americans be- 
gan their march for Monterey. At Gomez 
rancho their advance learned of the presence of 
the enemy and of the capture of Larkin. A 
squad of six or eight scouts was sent out to find 
the Californians. The scouts encountered a 
detachment of Castro's force at Encinalitos 
(Little Oaks) and a fight ensued. The main body 
of the enemy came up and surrounded the grove 
of oaks. The scouts, though greatly outnum- 
bered, were well armed unth long range rifles and 
held the enemy at bay. until Captains Burroughs 



134 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and Thompson brought up their companies. 
Burroughs, who seems to have been the ranking 
officer, hesitated to charge the CaHfornians, who 
had the superior force, and besides he was fear- 
ful of losing his horses and thus delaying Fre- 
mont's movements. But, taunted with cowardice 
and urged on by Thompson, a fire eater, who 
was making loud protestations of his bravery, 
Burroughs ordered a charge. The Americans, 
badly mounted, were soon strung out in an ir- 
regular line. The CaHfornians, who had made a 
feint of retreating, turned and attacked with 
vigor, Captain Burroughs and four or five others 
were killed. The straggling line fell back on the 
main body and the Californians, having ex- 
pended their ammunition, retreated. The loss 
in killed and wounded amounted to twelve or 
fifteen on each side. 

The only other engagement in the north was 
the bloodless battle of Santa Clara. Fremont's 
methods of procuring horses, cattle and other 
supplies was to take them and give in payment 
demands on the government, payable after the 
close of the war. After his departure the same 
method was continued by the officers of the 
garrisons at San Francisco, San Jose and Mon- 
terey. Indeed, it was their only method of pro- 
curing supplies. The cjuartermasters were 
without money and the government without 
credit. On the 8th of December Lieutenant 
Bartlett, also alcalde of Yerba Buena, with a 
squad of five men started down the peninsula 
toward San Jose to purchase supplies. Fran- 
cisco Sanchez, a rancher, whose horse and cattle 
corrals had been raided by former purchasers, 
with a band of Californians waylaid and cap- 
tured Bartlett and his men. Other California 
rancheros who had lost their stock in similar 
raids rallied to the support of Sanchez and soon 
he found himself at the head of one hundred 
men. The object of their organization was 
rather to protect their property than to fight. The 
news soon spread that the Californians had re- 
volted and were preparing to massacre the 
Americans. Captain Weber of San Jose had a 
company of thirty-three men organized for de- 
fense. There was also a company of twenty 
men under command of Captain Aram stationed 
at the ex-mission of Santa Clara. On the 29th 



of December, Capt. Ward Marston with a de- 
tachment of thirty-four men and a field piece in 
charge of Master de Long and ten sailors was 
sent to Santa Clara. The entire force collected 
at the seat of war numbered one hundred and 
one men. On January 2 the American force 
encountered the Californians, one hundred 
strong, on the plains of Santa Clara. Firing at 
long range began and continued for an hour or 
more. Sanchez sent in a flag of truce asking an 
armistice preparatory to the settlement of diffi- 
culties. Januarj' 3, Captain Aladdo.x arrived 
from Monterey with fifty-nine mounted men, 
and on the 7th Lieutenant Grayson came with 
fifteen men. On the 8th a treaty of peace was 
concluded, by which the enemy surrendered 
Lieutenant Bartlett and all the other prisoners, 
as well as their arms, including a small field 
piece and were permitted to go to their homes. 
Upon "reliable authority" four Californians were 
reported killed, but their graves have never been 
discovered nor did their living relatives, so far 
as known, mourn their loss. 

Stockton with his flagship, the Congress, ar- 
rived at San Pedro on the 23d of October, 1846. 
The Savannah was still lying at anchor in the 
harbor. The commodore had now at San Pedro 
a force of about eight hundred men; but, not- 
withstanding the contemptuous opinion he held 
of the Californian soldiers, he did not march 
against the pueblo. Stockton in his report 
says: "Elated by this transient success (Mer- 
vine's defeat), which the enemy with his usual 
want of veracity magnified into a great victory, 
they collected in large bodies on all the adjacent 
hills and would not permit a hoof except their 
own horses to be within fifty miles of San 
Pedro." But "in the face of their boasting in- 
solence" Stockton landed and again hoisted "the 
glorious stars and stripes in the presence of 
their horse covered hills." "The enemy had 
driven of? every animal, man and beast from 
that section of the country; and it was not pos- 
sible by any means in our power to carry pro- 
visions for our march to the city." The city 
was only thirty miles away and American sol- 
diers have been known to carry rations in their 
haversacks for a march of one hundred miles. 
The "transient success" of the insolent enemv 



HISTORICAL AND B10GIL\PH1LAL RECORD. 



135 



had evidently made an impression on Stockton. 
He estimated the California force in the vicinity 
of the landing at eight hundred men, which was 
just seven hundred too high. He determined 
to approach Los Angeles by way of San Diego, 
and on the last day of October he sailed for that 
port. B. D. Wilson, Stephen C. Foster and 
others attribute Stockton's abandonment of an 
attack on Los Angeles from San Pedro to a 
trick played on him by Jose Antonio Carrillo. 
Carrillo was in command of the detachment 
stationed at the Cerritos and the Palos Verdes. 
Carrillo was an.xious to obtain an interview with 
Stockton and if possible secure a cessation of 
hostilities until the war then progressing in 
Mexico should be decided, thus settling the 
fate of California. B. D. Wilson, one of the 
Chino prisoners, was sent with a Mexican ser- 
geant to raise a white flag as the boats of the 
Congress approached the landing and present 
Carrillo's proposition for a truce. Carrillo, with 
the intention of giving Stockton an exaggerated 
idea of the number of his troops and thus ob- 
taining more favorable terms in the proposed 
treaty, collected droves of wild horses from the 
plains; these his caballeros kept in motion, pass- 
ing and repassing through a gap in the hills, 
which was in plain view from Stockton's vessel. 
Owing to the dust raised by the cavalcade it was 
impossible to discover that most of the horses 
were riderless. The troops were signalled to re- 
turn to the vessel, and the commodore shortly 
afterwards sailed to San Diego. Carrillo al- 
ways regretted that he made too much demon- 
stration. 

As an illustration of the literary trash that 
has been palmed ofif for California history, I 
give an extract from Frost's Pictorial History 
of California, a book written the year after 
the close of the Mexican war by Prof. 
John Frost, a noted compiler of histories, who 
writes LL. D. after his name. It relates to 
Stockton's exploits at San Pedro. "At the 
Rancho Sepulveda (the Palos ^^erdes) a large 
force of Californians were posted. Commodore 
Stockton sent one hundred men forward to re- 
ceive the fire of the enemy and then fall back 
on the main body without returning it. The 
main bodv of Stockton's armv was formed in a 



triangle with the guns liid by the men. By the 
retreat of the advance party the enemy w'ere 
decoyed close to the main force, when the wings 
(of the triangle) were extended and a deadly fire 
from the artillery opened upon the astonished 
Californians. More than one hundred were 
killed, the same number wounded and one hun- 
dred prisoners taken." The mathematical ac- 
curacy of Stockton's artillerists was truly 
astonishing. They killed a man for every one 
wounded and took a prisoner for every man 
they killed. As Florcs' army never amounted 
to more than three lumdred, if we are to believe 
I'rost, Stockton had all the enemy "present or 
accounted for." This silly fabrication of Frost's 
runs through a number of so-called histories of 
California. Stockton was a brave man and a 
very energetic commander, but he would boast 
of his achievements, and his reports are unre- 
liable. 

As previously mentioned, Fremont after his 
return to Alonterey proceeded to recruit a force 
to move against Los Angeles by land from Mon- 
terey. His recruits were principally obtained 
from the recently arrived inmiigrants. Each man 
was furnished with a horse and was to receive 
$25 a month. A force of about four hundred 
and fifty was obtained. Fremont left Monterey 
November 17 and rendezvoused at San Juan 
Bautista, wdiere he remained to the 29th of the 
month organizing his battalion. On the 29th 
of November he began his inarch southward to 
co-operate w-ith Stockton against Flores. 

After the expulsion of Gillespie and his men 
from Los Angeles, detachments from Flores' 
army were sent to Santa Barbara and San 
Diego to recapture these places. At Santa Bar- 
bara Fremont had left nine men of his battalion 
under Lieut. Theodore Talbot to garrison the 
town. A demand was made on the garrison to 
surrender by Colonel Garfias of Flores" army. 
Two hours were given the -Americans to decide. 
Instead of surrendering they fell back into the 
hills, where they remained three or four days, 
hoi)ing that reinforcements might be sent them 
from Monterey. Their only subsistence was the 
flesh of an old gray marc of Daniel Hill's that 
they captured, brought into camp and killed. 
Thev secured one of Michcltorena's cholos that 



136 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



had remained in the country and was hving in 
a canon among the hills for a guide. He fur- 
nished them a horse to carry their blankets and 
conducted them through the mountains to the 
San Joaquin valley. Here the guide left them 
with the Indians, he returning to Santa Barbara. 
The Indians fed them on chia (wild flaxseed), 
mush and acorn bread. They traveled down the 
San Joaquin valley. On their journey they lived 
on the flesh of wild horses, seventeen of which 
they killed. After many hardships they reached 
Monterey on the 8th of November, where they 
joined Fremont's battalion. 

Captain ]\Ierritt, of Fremont's battalion, had 
been left at San Diego with forty men to hold 
the town when the battalion marched north to 
co-operate with Stockton against Los Angeles. 
Immediately after Gillespie's retreat, Francisco 
Rico was sent with fifty men to capture the 
place. He was joined by recruits at San Diego. 
Merritt being in no condition to stand a siege, 
took refuge on board the American whale ship 
Stonington, which was lying at anchor. After 
remaining on board the Stonington ten days, 
taking advantage of the laxity of discipline 
among the Californians, he stole a march q^i 
them, recapturing the town and one piece of 
artillery. He sent Don Miguel de Pedrorena, 
who was one of his allies, in a whale boat with 
four sailors to San Pedro to obtain supplies 
and assistance. Pedrorena arrived at San Pedro 
on the 13th of October with IMerritt's dis- 
patches. Captain Mervine chartered the whale 
ship Magnolia, which was lying in the San 
Pedro harbor, and dispatched Lieutenant Minor, 
Midshipman Duvall and Morgan with thirty- 
three sailors and fifteen of Gillespie's volun- 
teers to reinforce ^Merritt. They reached San 
Diego on the i6th. The combined forces of 
Minor and Merritt, numbering about ninety 
men, put in the greater part of the next two 
weeks in dragging cannon from the old fort 
and mounting them at their barracks, which 
were located on the hill at the edge of the plain 
on the west side of the town, convenient to 
water. They succeeded in mounting six brass 
nine-pounders and building two bastions of 
adobes, taken from an old house. There was 
constant skirmishing between the hostile parties, 



but few fatalities. The Americans claimed to 
have killed three of the enemy, and one Amer- 
ican was ambushed and killed. 

The Californians kept well out of range, but 
prevented the Americans from obtaining sup- 
plies. Their provisions were nearly exhausted, 
and when reduced to almost the last extreme 
they made a successful foraging expedition and 
procured a supply of mutton. Midshipman Du- 
vall thus describes the adventure: "We had 
with us an Indian (chief of a numerous tribe) 
who, from his knowledge of the country, we 
thought could avoid the enemy; and getting 
news of a number of sheep about thirty-five miles 
to the south on the coast, we determined to send 
him and his companion to drive them onto an 
island which at low tide connected with the 
mainland. In a few days a signal was made on 
the island, and the boats of the whale ship 
Stonington, stationed ofT the island, were sent 
to it. Our good old Indian had managed, 
through his cunning and by keeping concealed 
in ravines, to drive onto the island about si.x hun- 
dred sheep, but his companion had been caught 
and killed by the enemy. I shall never forget 
his famished appearance, but pride in his Indian 
triumph could be seen playing in his dark eyes. 

"For thirty or forty days we were constantly 
expecting, from the movements of the enemy, 
an attack, soldiers and officers sleeping on their 
arms and ready for action. About the ist of 
November, Commodore Stockton arrived, and, 
after landing Captain Gillespie with his com- 
pany and about forty-three marines, he suddenly 
disappeared, leaving Lieutenant Minor governor 
of the place and Captain Gillespie command- 
ant."* 

Foraging continued, the whale ship Ston- 
ington, which had been impressed into the 
government service, being used to take parties 
down the coast, who made raids inland and 
brought back with them catties and horses. 

It was probably on one of these excursions 
that the flag-making episode occurred, of which 
there are more versions than Homer had birth- 
places. The correct version of the story is as 
follows: A party had been sent under com- 



*Log Book of Acting Lieutenant Duvall. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



1:57 



tnand of Lieutenant Hensley to Juan Bandini's 
rancho in Lower California to bring up bands 
of cattle and horses. Bandini was an adherent 
of the American cause. He and his family re- 
turned with the cavalcade to San Diego. At 
their last camping place before reaching the 
town, Hensley, in a conversation with Bandini, 
regretted they had no flag with them to display 
on their entry into the town. Sefiora Bandini 
volunteered to make one, which she did from 
red, white and blue dresses of her children. 
This flag, fastened to a staff, was carried at the 
head of the cavalcade when it made its triumphal 
entry into San Diego. The Mexican govern- 
ment confiscated Bandini's ranchos in Lower 
California on account of his friendship to the 
Americans during the w^ar. 

Skirmishing continued almost daily. Jose 
Antonio Carrillo was now in command of the 
Californians, their force numbering about one 
hundred men. Commodore Stockton returned 
and decided to fortify. Midshipman Duvall, in 
the Log Book referred to in the previous chap- 
ter, thus describes the fort: "The commodore 
now commenced to fortify the hill which over- 
looked the town by building a fort, constructed 
by placing three hundred gallon casks full of 
sand close together. The inclosure was twenty 
by thirty yards. A bank of earth and small gravel 
was thrown up in front as high as the top of 
the casks and a ditch dug around on the outside. 
Inside a ball-proof vault of ketch was built out 
of plank and lined on the inside with adobes, on 
top of which a swivel was mounted. The en- 
trance was guarded by a strong gate, with a 
drawbridge in front across the ditch or moat. 
The whole fortification was completed and the 
guns mounted on it in about three weeks. Our 
men working on the fort were on short allow- 
ance of beef and wheat, and for a time without 
bread, tea, sugar or cofifee, many of them being 
destitute of shoes, but there were few com- 
plaints. 

"About the ist of December, information hav- 
ing been received that General Kearny was at 
Warner's Pass, about eighty miles distant, with 
one hundred dragoons- on his march to San 
Diego, Commodore Stockton immediately sent 
an escort of fifty men under command of Cap- 



tain Gillespie, accompanied by Past Midshipmen 
Beale and Duncan, having with them one piece 
of artillery. They reached General Kearny with- 
out molestation. On the march the combined 
force was surprised by about ninety-three Cal- 
ifornians at San Pasqual, under command of 
Andres Pico, who had been sent to that part 
of the country to drive of? all the cattle and 
horses to prevent us from getting them. In 
the battle that ensued General Kearny lost in 
killed Captains Johnston and Moore and Lieu- 
tenant Hammond, and fifteen dragoons. Seven- 
teen dragoons were severely wounded. The 
enemy captured one piece of artillery. General 
Kearny and Captains Gillespie and Gibson were 
severely wounded; also one of the engineer offi- 
cers. Some of the dragoons have since died." 

:fe * * 

"After the engagement General Kearny took 
position on a hill covered with large rocks. It 
was well suited for defense. Lieutenant Godev 
of Gillespie's volunteers, the night after the 
Isattle, escaped through the enemy's line of sen- 
tries and came in with a letter from Captain 
Turner to the commodore. Whilst among the 
rocks, Past Midshipman Beale and Kit Carson 
managed, under cover of night, to pass out 
through the enemy's ranks, and after three days' 
and nights' hard marching through the moun- 
tains without water, succeeded in getting safely 
into San Diego, completely famished. Soon 
after arriving Lieutenant P.eale fainted away, 
and for some days entirely lost his reason." 

On the night of Beale's arrival, December 9, 
about 9 p. m., detachments of two hundred sail- 
ors and marines from the Congress and Ports- 
mouth, under the immediate command of Cap- 
tain Zeilin, assisted by Lieutenants Gray, 
Hunter, Renshaw, Parrish, Thompson and 
Tilghman and Midshipmen Duvall and Morgan, 
each man carrying a blanket, three pounds of 
jerked beef and the same of hard-tack, began 
their march to relieve General Kearny. They 
marched all night and camped on a chaparral 
covered mountain during the day. .Xt 4 p. m. 
of the second night's march they reached 
Kearny's camp, surprising him. Godey, who 
had been sent ahead to inform Kearny that as- 
sistance was coming, had been captured by the 



138 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



enemy. General Kearny had burnt and de- 
stroyed all his baggage and camp equipage, sad- 
dles, bridles, clothing, etc., preparatory to 
forcing his way through the enemy's line. 
Burdened with his wounded, it is doubtful 
whether he could have escaped. Midshipman 
Duvall says: "It would not be a hazard of 
opinion to say he would have been overpowered 
and compelled to surrender." The enemy dis- 
appeared on the arrival of reinforcements. The 
relief expedition, with Kearny's men, reached 
San Diego after two days' march. 

A brief explanation of the reason why Kearny 
was at San Pasqual may be necessary. In June, 
1846,, Gen. Stephen W. Kearny, commander of 
the Army of the West, as his command was 
designated, left Fort Leavenworth with a force 
of regulars and volunteers to take possession of 
New Mexico. The conquest of that territory 
was accomplished without a battle. Under or- 
ders from the war department, Kearny began his 
march to California with a part of his force to 
co-operate with the naval forces there. Octo- 
ber 6, near Socorro, N. M., he met Kit Carson 
with an escort of fifteen men en route from Los 
Angeles to Washington, bearing dispatches 
from Stockton, giving the report of the con- 
quest of California. Kearny required Carson to 
turn back and act as his guide. Carson was 
very unwilling to do so, as he was within a few 
days' journey of his home and family, from 
whom he had been separated for nearly two 
years. He had been guide for Fremont on his 
exploring expedition. He, however, obeyed 
Kearny's orders. 

General Kearny sent back about three hun- 
dred of his men, taking with him one hundred 
and twenty. After a toilsome march by way 
of the Pima villages, Tucson, the Gila and 
across the Colorado desert, they reached the 
Indian village of San Pasqual (about forty miles 
from San Diego), where the battle was fought. 
It was the bloodiest battle of the conquest; 
Kearny's men, at daybreak, riding on broken 
down mules and half broken horses, in an ir- 
regular and disorderly line, charged the Califor- 
nians. While the American line was stretched 
out over the plain Capt. Andres Pico, who was 
in command, wheeled his column and charged 



the Americans. A fierce hand to hand fight en- 
sued, the Californians using their lances and lar- 
iats, the Americans clubbed guns and sabers. Of 
Kearny's command eighteen men were killed and 
nineteen wounded; three of the wounded died. 
Only one, Capt. Abraham R. Johnston (a rela- 
tive of the author's), was killed by a gunshot; 
all the others were lanced. The mules to one 
of the howitzers became unmanageable and ran 
into the enemy's lines. The driver was killed 
and the gun captured. One Californian was 
captured and several slightly wounded; none 
were killed. Less than half of Kearny's one 
hundred and seventy men* took part in the 
battle. His loss in killed and wounded was fifty 
per cent of those engaged. Dr. John S. Grif- 
fin, for many years a leading physician of Los 
Angeles, was the surgeon of the command. 

The foraging e.xpeditions in Lower Califor- 
nia having been quite successful in bringing in 
cattle, horses and mules. Commodore Stockton 
hastened his preparation for marching against 
Los Angeles. The enemy obtained information 
of the projected movement and left for the 
pueblo. 

"The Cyane having arrived," says Duvall, 
"our force was increased to about six hundred 
men, most of whom, understanding the drill, 
performed the evolutions like regular soldiers. 
Everything being ready for our departure, the 
commodore left Captain Montgomery and offi- 
cers in command of the town, and on the 29th of 
December took up his line of march for Los An- 
geles. General Kearny was second in command 
and having the inmiediate arrangement of the 
forces, reserving for himself the prerogative 
which his rank necessarily imposed upon him. 
Owing to the weak state of our oxen we had 
not crossed the dry bed of the river San Diego 
before they began breaking down, and the carts, 
which were thirty or forty in number, had to be 
dragged by the men. The general urged on the 
commodore that it was useless to commence 
such a march as was before us with our present 
means of transportation, but the commodore 
insisted on performing at least one day's march 



*General Kearny's original force of one liundred and 
twenty had been increased by Gillespie's command, 
numbering fifty men. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



139 



even if we should have to return the next day. 
We succeeded in reaching the valley of the 
Soledad that night by dragging our carts. Next 
day the commodore proposed to go six miles 
farther, which we accomplished, and then con- 
tinued six miles farther. Having obtained some 
fresh oxen, by assisting the carts up hill we 
made ten or twelve miles a day. At San Luis 
Key we secured men, carts and oxen, and after 
that our days' marches ranged from fifteen to 
twenty-two miles a day. 

"The third day out from San Luis Rey a white 
flag was seen ahead, the bearer of which had a 
communication from Flores, signing himself 
'Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Califor- 
nia,' asking for a conference for the purpose of 
coming to terms, which would be alike 'honor- 
able to both countries.' The commodore refused 
to answer him in writing, saying to the bearer 
of the truce that his answer was, 'he knew no 
such person as Governor Flores; that he him- 
self was the only governor in California; that 
he knew a rebel by that name, a man who had 
given his parole of honor not to take up arms 
against the government of the United States, 
who, if the people of California now in arms 
against the forces of the United States would 
deliver up, he (Stockton) would treat with them 
on condition that they surrender their arms 
and retire peaceably to their homes and he 
would grant them, as citizens of the United 
States, protection from further molestation.' 
This the embassy refused to entertain, saying 
'they would prefer to die with Flores than to 

surrender on such terms.' " 
* * * 

"On the 8th of January, 1847, they met us on 
the banks of the river San Gabriel with between 
five and six hundred men mounted on good 
horses and armed with lances and carbines, 
having also four pieces of artillery planted on 
the heights about three hundred and fifty yards 
distant from the river. Owing to circumstances 
which have occurred since the surrender of the 
enemy, I prefer not mentioning the particulars 
of this day's battle and also that of the day fol- 
lowing, or of referring to individuals concerned 
in the successful management of our forces." 
(The circumstance to which Lieutenant Duvall 



refers was undoubtedly the quarrel between 
Stockton and Kearny after the capture of Los 
Angeles.) "It is sufficient to say that on the 8th 
of January we succeeded in crossing the river 
and driving the enemy from the heights. Hav- 
ing resisted all their charges, dismounted one 
of their pieces and put them to flight in every 
direction, we encamped on the ground they had 
occupied during the fight. 

"The next day the Californians met us on the 
])lains of the mesa. For a time the fighting was 
carried on by both sides with artillery, but that 
proving too hot for them they concentrated 
their whole force in a line ahead of us and at a 
given signal divided from the center and came 
down on us like a tornado, charging us on all 
sides at the same time; but they were effectually 
defeated and fled in every direction in the ut- 
most confusion. Many of their horses w-ere left 
dead on the field. Their loss in the two battles, 
as given by Andres Pico, second in command, 
was eighty-three killed and wounded; our loss, 
three killed (one accidentally), and fifteen or 
twenty wounded, none dangerously. The enemy 
abandoned two pieces of artillery in an Indian 
village near by." 

1 have given at considerable length Midship- 
man Duvall's account of Stockton's march from 
San Diego and of the tw^o battles fought, not 
because it is the fullest account of those events, 
but because it is original historical matter, never 
having appeared in print before, and also be- 
cause it is the observations of a participant 
written at the time the events occurred. In it 
the losses of the enemy are greatly exaggerated, 
hut that was a fault of his superior officers as 
well. Commodore Stockton, in his official re- 
ports of the two battles, gives the enemy's loss 
in killed and wounded "between seventy and 
eighty." And General Kearny, in his report of 
the battle of San Pasqual, claimed it as a vic- 
tory, and states that the enemy left six dead on 
the field. The actual loss of the Californians 
ill the two battles (San Gabriel river and La 
Mesa) was three killed and ten or twelve 
wounded.* 



*Thc killed were Ignacio Sepulvcda, Francisco 
Rubio, and El Guaymeno, a Yaqui Indian. 



140 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



While the events recorded in this chapter 
were transpiring at San Diego and its vicinity, 
what was the state of affairs in the capital, Los 
Angeles? After the exultation and rejoicing 
over the expulsion of Gillespie's garrison, Mer- 
vine's defeat and the victory over Kearny at 
San Pasqual there came a reaction. Dissension 
continued between the leaders. There was lack 
of arms and laxity of discipline. The army was 
but little better than a mob. Obedience to or- 
ders of a superior was foreign to the nature of a 
Californian. His wild, free life in the saddle 
made him impatient of all restraint. Then the 
impossibihty of successful resistance against 
the Americans became more and more apparent 
as the final conflict approached. Fremont's 
army was moving down on the doomed city 
from the north, and Stockton's was coming up 
from the south. Either one of these, in num- 
bers, exceeded the force that Flores could bring 
into action; combined they would crush him 
out of existence. The California troops were 
greatly discouraged and it was with great diffi- 
culty that the officers kept their men together. 
There was another and more potent element of 
disintegration. Many of the wealthier natives 
and all the foreigners, regarding the contest as 
hopeless, secretly favored the American cause, 
and it was only through fear of loss of property 
that they furnished Flores and his officers any 
supplies for the army. 

During the latter part of December and the 
first days of January Flores' army was stationed 
at the San Fernando Mission, on the lookout 
for Fremont's battalion; but the more rapid 
advance of Stockton's army compelled a change 
of base. On the 6th and /th of January Flores 
moved his army back secretly through the 



Cahuenga Pass, and, passing to the southward 
of the city, took position where La Jaboneria 
(the soap factory) road crosses the San Gabriel 
river. Here his men were stationed in the thick 
willows to give Stockton a surprise. Stockton 
received information of the trap set for him and 
after leaving the Los Coyotes swung off to the 
right until he struck the Upper Santa Ana road. 
The Californians had barely time to effect a 
change of base and get their cannon planted 
when the Americans arrived at the crossing. 

Stockton called the engagement there the bat- 
tle of San Gabriel river; the Californians call it 
the battle of Paso de Bartolo, which is the bet- 
ter name. The place where the battle was fought 
is on bluff just south of the Upper Santa Ana 
road, near where the Southern California 
railroad crosses the old San Gabriel river. (The 
frjril or crossing was formerly known as Pico's 
Crossing.) There was, at the time of the bat- 
tle, but one San Gabriel river. The new river 
channel was made in the great flood of 1868. 
What Stockton, Emory, Duvall and other 
American officers call the battle of the Plains 
of the Mesa the Californians call the battle of 
La Mesa, which is most decidedly a better name 
than the "Plains of the Plain." It was fought at 
a ravine, the Canada de Los Alisos, near the 
southeastern corner of the Los Angeles city 
boundary. In these battles the Californians had 
four pieces of artillery, two iron nine-pounders, 
the old woman's gun and the howitzer captured 
from Kearny. Their powder was very poor. It 
was made at San Gabriel. It was owing to this 
that they did so little execution in the fight. 
That the Californians escaped with so little 
punishment was probably due to the wretched 
marksmanship of Stockton's sailors and marines. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



141 



CHAPTER XX. 

CAPTURE AND OCCUPATION OF THE CAPITAL. 



J\ FTER the battle of La Mesa, the Amer- 
r Y icans, keeping to the south, crossed the 
Los Angeles river at about the point 
where the south boundary line of the city 
crosses it and camped on the right bank. Here, 
under a willow tree, those killed in battle were 
buried. Lieutenant Emory, in his "Notes of a 
Military Reconnoissance," says: "The town, 
known to contain great quantities of wine and 
aguardiente, was four miles distant (four miles 
from the battlefield). From previous experience 
of the difficulty of controlling men when enter- 
ing towns, it was determined to cross the river 
San Fernando (Los Angeles), halt there for 
the night and enter the town in the morning, 
with the whole day before us. 

"After we had pitched our camp, the enemy 
came down from the hills, and four hundred 
horsemen with four pieces of artillery drew ofif 
towards the town, in order and regularity, whilst 
about sixty made a movement down the river on 
our rear and left flank. This led us to suppose 
they were not yet whipped, as we thought, and 
that we should have a night attack. 

"January lo (1847) — . Just as we had raised 
our camp, a flag of truce, borne by Mr. Cells, a 
Castilian; Mr. Workman, an Englishman, and 
Alvarado, the owner of the rancho at the Alisos, 
was brought into camp. They proposed, on 
behalf of the Californians, to surrender their 
dear City of the Angels provided we would re- 
spect property and persons. This was agreed 
to, but not altogether trusting to the honesty 
of General Florcs, who had once broken his 
parole, we moved into the town in the same 
order we should have done if expecting an at- 
tack. It was a wise precaution, for the streets 
were full of desperate and drunken fellows, who 
brandished their arms and saluted us with every 
term of reproach. The crest, overlooking the 
town, in rifle range, was covered with horsemen 
engaged in the same hospitable manner. 



"Our men marched steadily on, until crossing 
the ravine leading into the public square (plaza), 
when a fight took place amongst the Califor- 
nians on the hill; one became disarmed and to 
avoid death rolled down the hill towards us, 
his adversary pursuing and lancing him in the 
most cold-blooded manner. The man tumbling 
down the hill was supposed to be one of our 
vaqueros, and the cry of 'rescue him" was 
raised. The crew of the Cyane, nearest the 
scene, at once and without any orders, halted 
and gave the man that was lancing him a volley; 
strange to say, he did not fall. The general 
gave the jack tars a cursing, not so much for 
the firing without orders, as for their bad marks- 
manship." 

Shortly after the above episode, the Cali- 
fornians did open fire from the hill on the 
vaqueros in charge of the cattle. (These 
vaqueros were Californians in the employ of the 
Americans and were regarded by their country- 
men as traitors.) A company of riflemen was 
ordered to clear the hill. A single volley ef- 
fected this, killing two of the enemy. This was 
the last bloodshed in the war; and the second 
conquest of California was completed as the first 
had been by the capture of Los Angeles. Two 
hundred men, with two pieces of artillery, were 
stationed on the hill. 

The Angelenos did not exactly welcome the 
invaders with "bloody hands to inhospitable 
graves," but they did their best to let them know 
they were not wanted. The better class of the 
native inhabitants closed their houses and took 
refuge with foreign residents or went to the 
ranchos of their friends in the countrv. The 
fellows of the baser sort, who were in pos- 
session of the city, exhausted their vocabularies 
of abuse on the invading gringos. There was 
one paisano w^ho excelled all his countrymen in 
this species of warfare. It is a pity his name 
has not been preserved in history with that of 



142 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



other famous scolds and kickers. He rode by 
the side of the advancing column up Main street, 
firing volleys of invective and denunciation at 
the hated gringos. At certain points of his 
tirade he worked himself to such a pitch of 
indignation that language failed him; then he 
would solemnly go through the motions of 
"Make ready, take aim!" with an old shotgun 
he carried, but when it came to the order "Fire!'' 
discretion got the better of his valor; he low- 
ered his gun and began again, firing invective 
at the gringo soldiers; his mouth would go off 
if his gun would not. 

Commodore Stockton's headquarters were in 
the Abila house, the second house on Olvera 
street, north of the plaza. The building is still 
standing, but has undergone many changes in 
fifty years. A rather amusing account was re- 
cently given me by an old pioneer of the manner 
in which Commodore Stockton got possession 
of the house. The widov^f Abila and her daugh- 
ters, at the approach of the American army, had 
abandoned their house and taken refuge with 
Don Luis Vignes of the Aliso. Vignes was a 
Frenchman and friendly to both sides. The 
widow left a young Californian in charge of her 
house (which was finely furnished), with strict 
orders to keep it closed. Stockton had with him 
a fine brass band, something new in California. 
When the troops halted on the plaza, the band 
began to play. The boyish guardian of the 
Abila casa could not resist the temptation to 
open the door and look out. The enchanting 
music drew him to the plaza. Stockton and his 
stafif, hunting for a place suitable for headquar- 
ters, passing by, found the door invitingly open, 
entered, and, finding the house deserted, took 
possession. The recreant guardian returned to 
find himself dispossessed and the house in pos- 
session of the enemy. "And the band played on." 

It is a fact not generally known that there 
were two forts planned and partially built on 
Fort Hill during the war for the conquest of 
California. The first was planned by Lieut. Wil- 
liam H. Emory, topographical engineer of Gen- 
eral Kearny's staff, and work was begun on it 
by Commodore Stockton's sailors and marines. 
The second was planned by Lieut. J- W. David- 
son, of the First L^nited States Dragoons, and 



built by the Mormon battalion. The first was 
not completed and not named. The second was 
named Fort Moore. Their location seems to 
have been identical. The first was designed to 
hold one hundred men. The second was much 
larger. Florefe' army was supposed to be in the 
neighborhood of the city ready to make a dash 
into it, so Stockton decided to fortify. 

"On January nth," Lieutenant Emory writes, 
"I was ordered to select a site and place a fort 
capable of containing a hundred men. With 
this in view a rapid reconnoissance of the town 
was made and the plan of a fort sketched, so 
placed as to enable a small garrison to com- 
mand the town and the principal avenues to it, 
the plan was approved." 

"January 12. I laid off the work and before 
night broke the first ground. The population 
of the town and its dependencies is about three 
thousand; that of the town itself about fifteen 
hundred. * * * Here all the revolutions 
have had their origin, and it is the point upon 
which any Mexican force from Sonora would 
be directed. It was therefore desirable to estab- 
lish a fort which, in case of trouble, should en- 
able a small garrison to hold out till aid might 
come from San Diego, San Francisco or Mon- 
terey, places which are destined I0 become cen- 
ters of American settlements." 

"January 13. It rained steadily all day and 
nothing was done on the work. At night I 
worked on the details of the fort." 

"January 15. The details to work on the 
fort were by companies. I sent to Captain 
Tilghman, who commanded on the hill, to de- 
tach one of the companies under his command 
to commence the work. He furnished, on the 
i6th, a company of artillery (seamen from the 
Congress) for the day's work, which was per- 
formed bravely, and gave me great hopes of 
success." 

On the i8th Lieutenant Emory took his de- 
parture with General Kearny for San Diego. 
From there he was sent with despatches, via 
Panama, to the war department. In his book 
he says: "Subsequent to my departure the en- 
tire plan of the fort was changed, and I am not 
the projector of the work finally adopted for 
defense of that town." 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



143 



As previously stated, Fremont's battalion 
began its march down the coast on the 29th of 
November, 1846. The winter rains set in with 
great severity. The volunteers were scantily 
provided with clothing and the horses were in 
poor condition. Many of the horses died of 
starvation and hard usage. The battalion en- 
countered no opposition from the enemy on its 
march and did no fighting. On the iith of 
January, a few miles above San Fernando, Colo- 
nel Fremont received a message from General 
Kearny informing him of the defeat of the 
enemy and the capture of Los Angeles. That 
night the battalion encamped in the mission 
buildings at San I'ernando. From the mission 
that evening Jesus Pico, a cousin of Gen. An- 
dres Pico, set out to find the Californian army 
and open negotiations with its leaders. Jesus 
Pico, better known as Tortoi, had been arrested 
at his home near San Luis Obispo, tried by 
court-niartial and sentenced to be shot for 
breaking his parole. Fremont, moved by the 
pleadings of Pico's wife and children, pardoned 
him. He became a warm admirer and devoted 
friend of Fremont's. 

He found the advance guard of the Califor- 
nians encamped at Verdugas. He was detained 
here, and the leading officers of the army were 
summoned to a council. Pico informed them 
of Fremont's arrival and the number of his men. 
With the combined forces of Fremont and 
Stockton against them, their cause was hopeless. 
He urged them to surrender to Fremont, as they 
could obtain better terms from him than from 
Stockton. 

General Flores, who held a commission in the 
Mexican army, and who had been appointed by 
the territorial assembly governor and comand- 
ante-general by virtue of his rank, appointed 
Andres Pico general and gave him command 
of the army. The same night he took his de- 
parture for ]\Iexico, by way of San Gorgonio 
Pass, accompanied by Colonel Garfias, Diego 
Sepulveda, Manuel Castro, Segura, and about 
thirty privates. General Pico, on assuming com- 
mand, appointed Francisco Rico and Francisco 
do La Guerra to go with Jesus Pico to confer 
with Colonel Fremont. Fremont appointed as 
commissioners to negotiate a treaty. Major P. 



]j. Reading, Major- William H. Russell and 
Capt. Louis M'cLane. On the return of Guerra 
and Rico to the Californian camp. Gen. Andres 
I'ico appointed as commissioners, Jose Antonio 
Carrillo, commander of the cavalry squadron, 
and Agustin Olvera, diputado of the assembly, 
and moved his army near the river at Cahuenga. 
On the 13th I'rcmont moved his camp to the 
Cahuenga. The commissioners met in the de- 
serted ranch-house, and the treaty was drawn 
up and signed. 

The principal conditions of the treaty or ca- 
pitulation of "Cahuenga," as it was termed, were 
that the Californians, on delivering up their ar- 
tillery and public arms, and promising not again 
to take arms during the war, and conforming 
to the laws and regulations of the United States, 
shall be allowed peaceably to return to their 
homes. They were to be allowed the same rights 
and privileges as are allowed to citizens of the 
United States, and were not to be compelled 
to take an oath of allegiance until a treaty of 
peace was signed between the TJnited States and 
Mexico, and were given the privilege of leaving 
the country if they wished to. An additional 
section was added to the treaty on the i6th at 
Los Angeles releasing the officers from their 
paroles. Two cannon were surrendered, the 
howitzer captured from General Kearny at San 
Pasqual and the woman's gun that won the bat- 
tle of Dominguez. On the 14th, Fremont's bat- 
talion marched through the Cahuenga Pass to 
Los Angeles in a pouring rainstorm, and en- 
tered it four days after its surrender to Stock- 
ton. The conquest of California, was com- 
pleted. Stockton approved the treaty, although 
it was not altogether satisfactory to him. On 
the i6th he appointed Colonel Fremont gov- 
ernor of the territory, and William H. Russell, 
of the battalion, secretary of state. 

This precipitated a quarrel between Stockton 
and Kearny, which had been brewing for some 
time. General Kearny claimed that under his 
instructions from the government he should be 
recognized as governor. As he had directly under 
his command but the one company of dragoons 
that he brought across the plain with him, he 
was unable to enforce his authority. He left on 
the i8th for San Diego, taking with him his 



14'4 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



officers and dragoons. On the 20th Commo- 
dore Stockton, with his sailors and marines, 
marched to San Pedro, where they all em- 
barked on a man-of-war for San Diego to re- 



join their ships. Shortly afterwards Commo- 
dore Stockton was superseded in the command 
of the Pacific squadron by Commodore Shu- 
brick. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



TRANSITION AND TRANSFORMATION. 



THE capitulation of Gen. Andres Pico at 
Cahuenga put an end to the war in Cali- 
fornia. The instructions' from the secre- 
tary of war were to pursue a policy of concilia- 
tion towards the Californians with the ultimate 
design of transforming them into American citi- 
zens. Colonel Fremont was left in command at 
Los Angeles. He established his headquarters 
on the second floor of the Bell block (corner of 
Los Angeles and Aliso streets), then the best 
building in the city. One company of his bat- 
talion was retained in the city; the others, under 
command of Captain Owens, were quartered at 
the Mission San Gabriel. 

The Jilormons had been driven out of Illinois 
and Missouri. A sentiment of antagonism had 
been engendered against them and they had 
begun their migration to the far west, pre- 
sumably to California. They were encamped on 
the Missouri river at Kanesville, now Council 
Bluffs, preparatory to crossing the plains, when 
hostilities broke out between the United States 
and Mexico, in April, 1846. A proposition was 
made by President Polk to their leaders to raise 
a battalion of five hundred men to serve as 
United States volunteers for twelve months. 
These volunteers, under command of regular 
army officers, were to march to Santa Fe, or, 
if necessary, to California, where, at the expira- 
tion of their term of enlistment, they were to be 
discharged and allowed to retain their arms. 
Through the influence of Brigham Young and 
other leaders, the battalion was recruited and 
General Kearny, commanding the Army of the 
West, detailed Capt. James Allen, of the First 
United States Dragoons, to muster them into 
the service and take command of the battalion. 
On the i6th of July, at Council Blufifs, the bat- 



talion was mustered into service and on the 14th 
of August it began its long and weary march. 
About eighty women and children, wives and 
families of the officers and some of the enlisted 
men, accompanied the battalion on its march. 
Shortly after the beginning of the march, Allen, 
who had been promoted to lieutenant-colonel, 
fell sick and died. The battalion was placed 
temporarily under the command of Lieut. A. J. 
Smith, of the regular army. At Santa Fe 
Lieut. -Col. Philip St. George Cooke took com- 
mand under orders from General Kearny. The 
battalion was detailed to open a wagon road by 
the Gila route to California. About sixty of 
the soldiers who had become unfit for duty and 
all the women except five were sent back and 
the remainder of the force, after a toilsome jour- 
ney, reached San Luis Rey, Cal., January 29, 
1847, where it remained until ordered to Los 
.'\ngeles, which place it reached March 17. 

Captain Owens, in command of Fremont's 
battalion, had moved all the artillery, ten pieces, 
from Los Angeles to San Gabriel, probably with 
the design of preventing it falling into the hands 
of Colonel Cooke, who was an adherent of 
General Kearny. General Kearny, under addi- 
tional instructions from the general government, 
brought by Colonel Mason from the war depart- 
ment, had established himself as governor at 
Monterey. With a governor in the north and 
one in the south, antagonistic to each other 
California had fallen back to its normal condi- 
tion under Mexican rule. Colonel Cooke. 
shortly after his arrival in the territor}', thus de- 
scribes the condition prevailing: "General 
Kearny is supreme somewhere up the coast. 
Colonel Fremont is supreme at Pueblo de Los 
Angeles; Colonel Stockton is commander-in- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



145 



chief at San Diego; Commodore Shubrick the 
same at Monterey; and I at San Luis Rey; and 
we are all supremely poor, the government hav- 
ing no money and no credit, and we hold the 
territory because Mexico is the poorest, of all." 

Col. R. B. Mason was appointed inspector of 
the troops in California and made an official 
visit to Los Angeles. In a misunderstanding 
about some official matters he used insulting 
language to Colonel Fremont. Fremont 
promptly challenged him to fight a duel. The 
challenge was accepted; double-barreled shot- 
guns were chosen as the weapons and the 
Rancho Rosa del Castillo as the place of meet- 
ing. Mason was summoned north and the duel 
was postponed until his return. General Kearny, 
hearing of the proposed affair of honor, put a 
stop to further proceedings by the duelists. 

Col. Philip St. George Cooke, of the Mormon 
battalion, was made commander of the military 
district of the south with headquarters at Los 
Angeles. Fremont's battalion was mustered out 
of service. The Mormon soldiers and the two 
companies of United States Dragoons who 
came with General Kearny were stationed at 
Los Angeles to do guard duty and prevent any 
uprising of the natives. 

Colonel Fremont's appointment as governor 
of California had never been recognized by 
General Kearny. So when the general had 
made himself supreme at Monterey he ordered 
Fremont to report to him at the capital and 
turn over the papers of his governorship. Fre- 
mont did so and passed out of office. He was 
nominally governor of the territory about two 
months. His appointment was made by Com- 
modore Stockton, but was never confirmed by 
the president or secretary of war. His jurisdic- 
tion did not extend beyond Los Angeles. He 
left Los Angeles May 12 for Monterey. From 
that place, in company with General Kearny, 
on May 31, he took his departure for the states. 
The relations between the two were strained. 
While ostensibly traveling as one company, 
each officer, with his stafT and escort, made sep- 
arate camps. .\t Fort Leavenworth General 
Kearny placed Fremont under arrest and pre- 
ferred charges against him for disobedience of 
orders. He was tried by court-martial at Wash- 
10 



ington and was ably defended by his father-in- 
law, Colonel Benton, and his brother-in-law, 
William Carey Jones. The court found him 
guilty and fixed the penalty, dismissal from the 
service. President Polk remitted the penalty 
and ordered Colonel Fremont to resume his 
sword and report for duty. He did so, but 
shortly afterward resigned his commission and 
left the army. 

While Colonel Cooke was in command of 
the southern district rumors reached Los .An- 
geles that the Mexican general, Bustamente, 
v.'ith a force of fifteen hundred men, was pre- 
paring to reconquer California. "Positive infor- 
mation," writes Colonel Cooke, under date of 
April 20, 1847, "has been received that the 
Mexican government has appropriated $600,000 
towards fitting out this force." It was also re- 
ported that cannon and military stores had been 
landed at San Vicente, in Lower California. 
Rumors of an approaching army came thick and 
fast. The natives were supposed to be in league 
with Bustamente and to be secretly preparing 
for an uprising. Precautions were taken against 
a surprise. A troop of cavalry was sent to 
Warner's ranch to patrol the Sonora road as 
far as the desert. The construction of a fort 
on the hill fully commanding the town, which 
had previously been determined upon, was 
begun and a company of infantry posted on 
the hill. 

On the 23d of .'\pril, three months after work 
had ceased on Emory's fort, the construction of 
the second fort was begun and pushed vigor- 
ously. Rumors continued to come of the ap- 
proach of the enemy. May 3, Colonel Cooke 
writes: "A report was received through the 
most available sources of information that Gen- 
eral Bustamente had crossed the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia near its head, in boats of the pearl fishers, 
and at last information was at a rancho on the 
western road, seventy leagues below San 
Diego." Colonel Stevenson's regiment of New 
York volunteers had recently arrived in Cali- 
fornia. Two companies of that regiment had 
been sent to Los Angeles and two to San 
Diego. The report that Colonel Cooke had re- 
ceived reinforcement and that Los Angeles was 
being fortified was supposed to have frightened 



146 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Bustamente into abandoning his invasion of 
California. Bustamente's invading army was 
largely the creation of somebody's fertile imag- 
ination. The scare, however, had the effect of 
hurrying up work on the fort. May 13, Colo- 
nel Cooke resigned and Col. J. B. Stevenson 
succeeded him in the command of the southern 
military district. 

Colonel Stevenson continued work on the 
fort and on the ist of July work had progressed 
so far that he decided to dedicate and name it 
on the 4th. He issued an official order for the 
celebration of the anniversary of the birthday of 
American independence at this port, as he called 
Los Angeles. "At sunrise a Federal salute will 
be fired from the field work on the hill which 
commands this town and for the first time from 
this point the American standard will be dis- 
played. At II o'clock all the troops of the 
district, consisting of the Mormon battalion, the 
two companies of dragoons and two companies 
of the New York volunteers, were formed in a 
hollow square at the fort. The Declaration of 
Independence was read in English by Captain 
Stuart Taylor and in Spanish by Stephen C. 
Foster. The native Californians, seated on their 
horses in rear of the soldiers, listened to Don 
Esteban as he rolled out in sonorous Spanish the 
Declaration's arraignment of King George HI., 
and smiled. They had probably never heard of 
King George or the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, either, but they knew a pronunciamiento 
when they heard it, and after a pronunciamiento 
in their governmental system came a revolution, 
therefore they smiled at the prospect of a gringo 
revolution. "At the close of this ceremony 
(reading of the Declaration) the field work will 
be dedicated and appropriately named; and at 
12 o'clock a national salute will be fired. The 
field work at this post having been planned and 
the work conducted entirely by Lieutenant Da- 
vidson of the First Dragoons, he is requested 
to hoist upon it for the first time on the morn- 
ing of the 4th the American standard." * * * 
The commander directs that from and after the 
4th instant the fort shall bear the name of 
Moore. Benjamin D. Moore, after whom the fort 
was named, was captain of Company A, First 
United States Dragoons. He was killed by a 



lance thrust in the disastrous charge at the bat- 
tle of San Pasqual. This fort was located on 
what is now called Fort Hill, near the geograph- 
ical center of Los Angeles. It was a breastwork 
about four hundred feet long with bastions and 
embrasures for cannon. The principal em- 
brasure conuuanded the church and the plaza, 
two places most likely to be the rallying points 
in a rebellion. It was built more for the sup- 
pression of a revolt than to resist an invasion. 
It was in a commanding position; two hundred 
men, about its capacity, could have defended it 
against a thousand if the attack came from the 
front; but as it was never completed, in an at- 
tack from the rear it could easily have been cap- 
tured with an equal force. 

Col. Richard B. Mason succeeded General 
Kearny as commander-in-chief of the troops 
and military governor of California. Col. Philip 
St. George Cooke resigned command of the 
military district of the south May 13, joined 
General Kearny at Monterey and went east 
with him. As previously stated, Col. J. D. Ste- 
venson, of the New York volunteers, succeeded 
him. His regiment, the First New York, but 
really the Seventh, had been recruited in the 
eastern part of the state of New York in the 
summer of 1846, for the double purpose of con- 
quest and colonization. The United States gov- 
ernment had no intention of giving up California 
once it was conquered, and therefore this regi- 
ment came to the coast well provided with pro- 
visions and implements of husbandry. It came 
to California via Cape Horn in three transports. 
The first ship, the Perkins, arrived at San 
Francisco, March 6, 1847; the second, the Drew, 
March 19; and the third, the Loo Choo, March 
26. Hostilities had ceased in California before 
their arrival. Two companies, A and B, under 
command of Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, were 
sent to Lower California, where they saw hard 
service and took part in several engagements. 
The other companies of the regiment were sent 
to different towns in Alta California to do gar- 
rison duty. 

Another military organization that reached 
California after the conquest was Company F 
of the Third United States Artillery. It landed 
at Monterey January 28, 1847. It was com- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



147 



manded by Capt. C. Q. Tlioiiipkins. With 
it came Licuts. E. O. C. Ord, William T. Sher- 
man and H. W. Halleck, all of whom became 
prominent in California affairs and attained na- 
tional reputation during the Civil war. The 
Mormon battalion was mustered out in July, 
1847. One company under command of Cap- 
tain Hunt re-enlisted. The others made their 
way to Utah, where they joined their brethren 
who the year before had crossed the plains and 
founded the City of Salt Lake. The Xew York 
volunteers were discharged in August, 1848. 
After the treaty of peace, in 1848, four compa- 
nies of United States Dragoons, under com- 
mand of Major L. P. Graham, marched from 
Chihuahua, by way of Tucson, to California. 
Major Graham was the last military commander 
of the south. 

Commodore W. Branford Shubrick succeeded 
Commodore Stockton in command of the naval 
forces of the north Pacific coast. Jointly with 
General Kearny he issued a circular or proc- 
lamation to the people of California, printed in 
English and Spanish, setting forth "That the 
president of the United States, desirous to give 
and secure to the people of California a share 
of the good government and happy civil organ- 
ization enjoyed by the people of the United 
States, and to protect them at the same time 
from the attacks of foreign foes and from inter- 
nal commotions, has invested the undersigned 
with separate and distinct powers, civil and mil- 
itary; a cordial co-operation in the exercise of 
which, it is hoped and believed, will have the 
happy results desired. 

"To the commander-in-chief of the naval 
forces the president has assigned the regula- 
tion of the import trade, the conditions on which 
vessels of all nations, our own as well as foreign, 
may be admitted into the ports of the territory, 
and the establishment of all port regulations. 
To the commanding military officer the presi- 
dent has assigned the direction of the operations 
on land and has invested him with administra- 
tive functions of government over the people 
and territory occupied by the forces of the 
United States. 

"Done at Monterey, capital of California, this 
1st day of March, A. D. 1847. W. Branford 



Shubrick, commander-in-chief of the naval 
forces. S. W. Kearny, Brig.-Gen. United States 
Army, and Governor of California." 

Under the administration of Col. Richard B. 
^lason, the successor of General Kearny as 
military governor, the reconstruction, or, more 
appropriately, the transformation period began. 
The orders from the general goverimient were 
to conciliate the people and to make no radical 
changes in the form of government. The Mex- 
ican laws were continued in force. Just what 
these laws were, it was difificult to find out. No 
code commissioner had codified the laws and it 
sometimes happened that the judge made the 
law to suit the case. Lender the old regime the al- 
calde was often law-giver, judge, jury and exe- 
cutioner, all in one. Occasionally there was fric- 
tion between the military and civil powers, and 
there were rumors of insurrections and inva- 
sions, but nothing came of them. The Califor- 
nians, with easy good nature so characteristic 
of them, made the best of the situation. "A 
thousand things," says Judge Hays, "combined 
to smooth the asperities of war. Fremont had 
been courteous and gay; ]\Iason was just and 
firm. The natural good temper of the popula- 
tion favored a speedy and perfect conciliation. 
The American officers at once found themselves 
happy in every circle. In suppers, balls, visiting 
in town and country, the hours glided away with 
pleasant reflections." 

There were, however, a few individuals who 
were not happy unless they could stir up dis- 
sensions and cause trouble. One of the chief of 
these was Serbulo \'arela, agitator and revolu- 
tionist. Varela, for some ofifense not specified 
in the records, had been committed to prison by 
the second alcalde of Los Angeles. Colonel Ste- 
venson turned him out of jail, and Varela gave 
the judge a tongue lashing in refuse Castilian. 
The judge's official dignity was hurt. He sent 
a communication to the ayuntamiento saying: 
"Owing to personal abuse which I received at 
the hands of a private individual and from the 
]iresent military commander. I tender my resig- 
nation." 

The ayuntamiento sent a communication to 
Colonel Stevenson asking why he had turned 
\'arela out of jail and why he had insulted the 



148 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHICAL RECORD. 



judge. The colonel curtly replied that the mili- 
tary would not act as jailers over persons guilty 
of trifling offenses while the city had plenty of 
persons to do guard duty at the jail. As to the 
abuse of the judge, he was not aware that any 
abuse had been given, and would take no further 
notice of him unless he stated the nature of the 
insult ofifered him. The council decided to no- 
tify the governor of the outrage perpetrated by 
the military commander, and the second alcalde 
said since he could get no satisfaction for insults 
to his authority from the military despot, he 
would resign; but the council would not accept 
his resignation, so he refused to act, and the city 
had to worry along with one alcalde. 

Although foreigners had been coming to Cali- 
fornia ever since 1814, their numbers had not 
increased very rapidly. Nearly all of these had 
found their way there by sea. Those who had 
become permanent residents had married native 
Californian women and adopted the customs of 
the country. Capt. Jedediah S. Smith, in 1827, 
crossed the Sierra Nevada mountains from Cali- 
fornia and by way of the Humboldt, or, as he 
named it, the Mary River, had reached the Great 
Salt Lake. From there through the South Pass 
of the Rocky mountains the route had been 
traveled for several years by the fur trappers. 
This latter became the great emigrant route to 
California a few years later. A southern route 
by way of Santa Fe had been marked out and 
the Pattee party had found their way to the 
Colorado by the Gila route, but so far no emi- 
grant trains had come from the States to Cali- 
fornia with women and children. The first of 
these mixed trains was organized in western 
Missouri in May, 1841. The party consisted of 
si.xty-nine persons, including men, women and 
children. This party divided at Soda Springs, 
half going to Oregon and the others keeping on 
their way to California. They reached the San 
Joaquin valley in November, 1841, after a toil- 
some journey of six months. The first settle- 
ment they found was Dr. Marsh's ranch in what 
is now called Contra Costa county. Marsh gave 
them a cordial reception at first, but afterwards 
treated them meanly. 

Fourteen of the party started for the Pueblo 
de San Jose. At the ^lission of San Jose, 



twelve miles from the Pueblo, they were all ar- 
rested by order of General Vallejo. One of the 
men was sent to Dr. ^larsh to have him come 
forthwith and explain why an armed force of 
liis countrymen were roaming around the coun- 
try without passports. Marsh secured their re- 
lease and passports for all the party. On his 
return home he charged the men who had re- 
mained at his ranch $5 each for a passport, al- 
though the passports had cost him nothing. As 
there was no money in the party, each had to 
put up some equivalent from his scanty posses- 
sions. Marsh had taken this course to reim- 
burse himself for the meal he had given the 
half-starved emigrants the first night of their 
arrival at his ranch. 

In marked contrast with the meanness of 
Marsh was the Hberality of Captain Sutter. Sut- 
ter had built a fort at the junction of the Amer- 
ican river and the Sacramento in 1839 and had 
obtained extensive land grants. His fort was 
the frontier post for the overland emigration. 
Gen. John Bidwell, who came with the first 
emigrant train to California, in a description of 
"Life in California Before the Gold Discovery," 
says: "Nearly everybody who came to Califor- 
nia then made it a point to reach Sutter's Fort. 
Sutter was one of the most liberal and hospita- 
ble of men. Everybody was welcome, one man 
or a hundred, it was all the sflme." 

Another emigrant train, known as the Work- 
man-Rowland party, numbering forty-five per- 
sons, came from Santa Fe by the Gila route to 
Los Angeles. About twenty-five of this party 
were persons who had arrived too late at West- 
port, Mo., to join the northern emigrant party, 
so they went with the annual caravan of St. 
Louis traders to Santa Fe and from there, with 
traders and trappers, continued their journey to 
California. From 1841 to the American con- 
quest immigrant trains came across the plains 
every year. 

One of the most noted of these, on account of 
the tragic fate that befell it, was the Donner 
party. The nucleus of this party, George and 
Jacob Donner and James K. Reed, with their 
families, started from Springfield, 111., in the 
spring of 1846. By accretions and combinations, 
when it reached Fort Bridger, July 25, it had 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ll'.t 



increased to eighty-seven persons — thirty-six 
men, twenty-one women and thirty children, 
under the command of George Donner. A new 
route called the Hastings Cut-Off, had just been 
opened by Lansford W. Hastings. This route 
passed to the south of Great Salt Lake and 
struck the old Fort Hall emigrant road on the 
Humboldt. It was claimed that the "cut-off" 
shortened the distance three hundred miles. 
The Donner party, by misrepresentations, were 
induced to take this route. The cut-off proved 
to be almost impassable. They started on the 
cut-off the last day of July, and it was the end 
of September when they struck the old emigrant 
trail on the Humboldt. They had lost most of 
their cattle and were nearly out of provisions. 
From this on, unmerciful disaster followed them 
fast and faster. In an altercation, Reed, one of 
the best men of the party, killed Snyder. He 
was banished from the train and compelled to 
leave his wife and children behind. An old 
Ilelgian named Hardcoop and Wolfinger, a 
German, unable to keep up, were abandoned to 
die on the road. Pike was accidentally shot by 
Foster. The Indians stole a number of their 
cattle, and one calamity after another delayed 
them. In the latter part of October they had 
reached the Truckee. Here they encountered a 
heavy snow storm, which blocked all further 
progress. They wasted their strength in trying 
to ascend the mountains in the deep snow that 
had fallen. Finally, finding this impossible, they 
turned back and built cabins at a lake since 
known as Donne'r Lake, and prepared to pass 
the winter. Most of their oxen had strayed 
away during the storm and perished. Those 
still alive they killed and. preserved the meat. 
A party of fifteen, ten men and five women, 



known as the "Forlorn Hope," started, Decem- 
ber i6, on snowshoes to cross the Sierras. They 
had provisions for six days, but the journey 
consumed thirty-two days. Eight of the ten 
men perished, and among them the noble Stan- 
ton, who had brought relief to the emigrants 
from Sutter's Fort before the snows began to 
fall. The five women survived. Upon the ar- 
rival of the wretched survivors of the "Forlorn 
Hope," the terrible sufferings of the snow-bound 
immigrants were made known at Sutter's Fort, 
and the first relief party was organized, and on 
the 5th of February started for the lake. Seven 
of the thirteen who started sticceeded in reach- 
ing the lake. On the 19th they started back 
with twenty-one of the immigrants, three of 
whom died on the way. A second relief, under 
Reed and McCutchen, was organized. Reed 
had gone to Yerba Buena to seek assistance. A 
public meeting was called and $1,500 subscribed. 
The second relief started from Johnston's 
Ranch, the nearest point to the mountains, on 
the 23d of February and reached the camp on 
March ist. They brought out seventeen. Two 
others were organized and reached Donner 
Lake, the last on the 17th of April. The only 
survivor then was Keseburg, a German, who 
was hated by all the company. There was a 
strong suspicion that he had killed Mrs. Don- 
ner, who had refused to leave her husband (who 
was too weak to travel) with the previous relief. 
There were threats of hanging him. Keseburg ' 
had saved his life by eating the bodies of the 
dead. Of the original party of eighty-seven, a 
total of thirty-nine perished from starvation. 
Most of the survivors were compelled to resort 
to cannabalism. Tliey were not to blame if they 
did. 



150 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.\PHlCAL RECORD. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



MEXICAN LAWS AND AMERICAN OFFICIALS. 



•u 



PON the departure of General Kearny, 
May 31, 1847, Col. Richard B. Alason 
became governor and commander-in- 
chief of the United States forces in CaHfornia 
by order of the president. Stockton, Kearny 
and Fremont had taken their departure, the 
dissensions that had existed since the conquest 
of the territory among the conquerors ceased, 
and peace reigned. 

There were reports of Mexican invasions and 
suspicions of secret plottings against gringo 
rule, but the invaders came not and the plottings 
never produced even the mildest form of a Alexi- 
can revolution. Mexican laws were adminis- 
tered for the most part by military officers. The 
municipal authorities were encouraged to con- 
tinue in power and perform their governmental 
functions, but they were indifferent and some- 
times rebelled. Under Mexican rule there was 
no trial by jury. The alcalde acted as judge 
and in criminal cases a council of war settled the 
fate of the criminal. The Rev. Walter Colton, 
while acting as alcalde of Monterey, in 1846-47, 
impaneled the first jury ever summoned in Cali- 
fornia. "The plaintiff and defendant," he writes, 
"are among the principal citizens of the country. 
The case was one involving property on the one 
side and integrity of character on the other. Its 
merits had been pretty widely discussed, and 
had called forth an unusual interest. One-third 
of the jury were Mexicans, one-third Califor- 
nians and the other third Americans. This mix- 
ture may have the better answered the ends of 
justice, but I was apprehensive at one thue it 
would embarrass the proceedings; for the plaint- 
iff spoke in English, the defendant in French; 
the jury, save the Americans, Spanish, and the 
witnesses, all the languages known to California. 
By the tact of ^Ir. Ilartnell, who acted as inter- 
preter, and the absence of young lawyers, we 
got along very well. 



"The examination of witnesses lasted five or 
six hours. I then gave the case to the jury, 
stating the questions of fact upon which they 
were to render their verdict. They retired for 
an hour and then returned, when the foreman 
handed in their verdict, which was clear and 
explicit, though the case itself was rather com- 
plicated. To this verdict both parties bowed 
without a word of dissent. The inhabitants who 
witnessed the trial said it was what they liked, 
that there could be no bribery in it, that the 
opinion of twelve honest men should set the 
case forever at rest. And so it did, though 
neither party completely triumphed in the issue. 
One recovered his property, which had been 
taken from him by mistake, the other his char- 
acter, which had been slandered by design." 

The process of Americanizing the people was 
no easy undertaking. The population of the 
countr}- and its laws were in a chaotic condition. 
It was an arduous task that Colonel Mason and 
the military commanders at the various pueblos 
had to perform, that of evolving order out of 
the chaos that had been brought about by the 
change in nations. The native population 
neither understood the language nor the cus- 
toms of their new rules, and the newcomers 
among the Americans had very little toleration 
for the slow-going Mexican ways and methods 
they found prevailing. To keep peace between 
the factions required more tact than knowledge 
of law, military or civil, in the commanders. 

Los Angeles, under Mexican domination, had 
been the storm center of revolutions, and here 
under the new regime the most difficulty w-as 
encountered in transforming the quondam rev- 
olutionists into law-abiding and peaceful Amer- 
ican citizens. The ayuntamiento was convened 
in 1847, after the conquest, and continued in 
power until the close of the year. When the 
time came round for the election of a new avun- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



131 



lamicnto there was trouble. Stephen C. Foster, 
Colonel Stevenson's interpreter, submitted a 
paper to the council stating that the govern- 
ment had authorized him to get up a register of 
voters. The ayuntamiento voted to return the 
paper just as it was received. Then the colonel 
made a demand of the council to assist Stephen 
in compiling a register of voters. Regidor Cha- 
vez took the floor and said such a register 
should not be gotten up under the auspices of 
the military, but, since the government had so 
disposed, thereby outraging this honorable 
body, no attention should be paid to said com- 
munication. But the council decided that the 
matter did not amount to much, so they granted 
the request, much to the disgust of Chavez. 
The election was held and a new ayuntamiento 
elected. At the last meeting of the old council, 
December 29, 1847, Colonel Stevenson ad- 
dressed a note to it requesting that Stephen C. 
Foster be recognized as first alcalde and judge 
of the first instance. The council decided to 
turn the whole business over to its successor, to 
deal with as it sees fit. 

Colonel Stevenson's request was made in ac- 
cordance with the wish of Governor Mason 
that a part of the civil offices be filled by Amer- 
icans. The new ayuntamiento resented the in- 
terference. How the matter terminated is best 
told in Stephen C. Foster's own words: "Colo- 
nel Stevenson was determined to have our in- 
auguration done in style. So on tlie day ap- 
pointed, January i, 1848, he, together with 
myself and colleague, escorted by a guard of 
soldiers, proceeded from the colonel's quarters 
to the alcalde's office. There we found the re- 
tiring ayuntamiento and the new one awaiting 
our arrival. The oath of office was adminis- 
tered by the retiring first alcalde. We knelt to 
take the oath, when we found they had changed 
their minds, and the alcalde told us that if two 
of their number were to be kicked out they 
would all go. So they all marched out and left 
us in possession. Here was a dilemma, but 
Colonel Stevenson was equal to the emergency. 
He said he could give us a swear as well as tlie 
alcalde. So w-e stood up and he administered 
to us an oath to support the constitution of 
the United States and administer justice in ac- 



cordance with Mexican law. I then knew as 
much about Mexican law as I did about Chinese, 
and my colleague knew as much as I did. Guer- 
rero gathered up the books tliat pertained to his 
office and took them to his house, where he 
established his office, and I took the archives 
and records across the street to a house I had 
rented, and there I was duly installed for the 
next seventeen months, the first American al- 
calde and carpet-bagger in Los Angeles." 

Colonel Stevenson issued a call for the elec- 
tion of a new ayuntamiento, but the people 
stayed at home and no votes were cast. At the 
close of the year the voters had gotten over 
their pet and when a call was made a council 
was elected, but only Californians (hijos del 
pais) were returned. The ayuntamientos con- 
tinued to be the governing power in the pueblos 
until superseded by city and county govern- 
ments in 1850. 

The most difficult problem that General Kear- 
ny in his short term had to confront and, un- 
solved, he handed down to his successor. Colo- 
nel Alason, was the authority and jurisdiction 
of the alcaldes. Under the Mexican regime 
these officers were supreme in the pueblo over 
which they ruled. For the Spanish transgressor 
fines of various degrees were the usual penalty; 
for the mission neoph)tc, the lash, well laid on, 
and labor in the chain gang. There was no 
written code that defined the amount of pun- 
ishment, the alcalde meted out justice and some- 
times injustice, as suited his humor. Kearny 
appointed John H. Nash alcalde of Sonoma. 
Nash was a somewhat erratic individual, who 
had taken part in the Bear Flag revolution. 
When the offices of the prospective Pacific Re- 
public were divided among the revolutionists, 
he was to be the chief justice. After the col- 
lapse of that short-lived republic, Nash was 
elected alcalde. His rule was so arbitrarv and 
his decisions so biased by favoritism or preju- 
dice that the American settlers soon protested 
and General Kearny removed him or tried to. 
He appointed L. W. Boggs, a recently arrived 
immigrant, to the office. Nash refused to sur- 
render the books and papers of the office. Lieut. 
W. T. Sherman was detailed by Colonel ^lason, 
after his succession to the office of governor, to 



I 



152 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



proceed to Sonoma and arrest Nash. Sherman 
quietly arrested him at night and before the 
belHcose alcalde's friends (for he had quite a fol- 
lowing) were aware of what was going on, 
marched him ofi to San Francisco. He was 
put on board the Dale and sent to Monterey. 
Finding that it was useless for him to resist the 
authority of the United States, its army and 
navy as well, Nash expressed his willingness to 
submit to the inevitable, and surrendered his 
office. He was released and ceased from troub- 
ling. Another strenuous alcalde was William 
Blackburn, of Santa Cruz. He came to the 
country in 1845, ^nd before his elevation to the 
honorable position of a judge of the first in- 
stance he had been engaged in making shingles 
in the redwoods. He had no knowledge of law 
and but little acquaintance with books of any 
kind. His decisions were always on the side of 
justice, although some of the penalties imposed 
were somewhat irregular. 

In Alcalde Blackburn's docket for August 14, 
1847, appears this entry: "Pedro Gomez was 
tried for the murder of his wife, Barbara Gomez, 
and found guilty. The sentence of the court is 
that the prisoner be conducted back to prison, 
there to remain until Monday, the i6th of Au- 
gust, and then be taken out and shot." August 
17, sentence carried into effect on the i6th ac- 
cordingly. William Bl.\ckburn, Alcalde. 

It does not appear in the records that Black- 
burn was the executioner. He proceeded to 
dispose of the two orphaned children of the 
murderer. The older daughter he indentured to 
Jacinto Castro "to raise until she is twenty-one 
years of age, unless sooner married, said Ja- 
cinto Castro, obligating himself to give her a 
good education, three cows and calves at her 
marriage or when of age." The younger daugh- 
ter was disposed of on similar terms to A. Rod- 
riguez. Colonel ]\Iason severely reprimanded 
Blackburn, but the alcalde replied that there 
was no use making a fuss over it; the man was 
guilty, he had a fair trial before a jury and de- 
served to die. Another case in his court illus- 
trates the versatility of the judge. A Spanish 
boy, out of revenge, sheared the mane and tail 
of a neighbor's horse. The offense was proved. 



but the judge was sorely perplexed when he 
came to sentence the culprit. He could find no 
law in his law books to fit the case. After pon- 
dering over the question a while, he gave this 
decision: "I find no law in any of the statutes 
to fit this case, except in the law of Moses, 'An 
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' Let the 
prisoner be taken out in front of this office and 
there sheared close." The sentence was imme- 
diately executed. 

Another story is told of Blackburn, which 
may or may not be true. A mission Indian who 
had committed murder took the rigjjt of sanc- 
tuary in the church, and the padre refused to 
give him up. Blackburn wrote to the governor, 
stating the case. The Indian, considering him- 
self safe while with the padre, left the church 
in company with the priest. Blackburn seized 
him, tried him and hung him. He then reported 
to the governor: "I received your order to sus- 
pend the execution of the condemned man, but 
I had hung him. When I see you I will ex- 
plain the affair." 

Some of the military commanders of the pre- 
sidios and pueblos gave Governor Mason as 
much trouble as the alcaldes. These, for the 
most part, were officers of the volunteers who 
had arrived after the conquest. They were un- 
used to "war's alarms," and, being new to 
the country and ignorant of the Spanish lan- 
guage, they regarded the natives with suspicion. 
They were on the lookout for plots and revolu- 
tions. Sometimes they foiuid these incubating 
and undertook to crush them, only to discover 
that the affair was a hoax or a practical joke. 
The Canon Perdido (lost canon) of Santa Bar- 
bara episode is a good illustration of the 
trouble one "finicky" man can make when en- 
trusted with military power. 

In the winter of 1847-48 the American bark 
Elisabeth was wrecked on the Santa Barbara 
coast. Among the flotsam of the wreck was a 
brass cannon of uncertain calibre; it might have 
been a six, a nine or a twelve pounder. What 
the capacity of its bore matters not, for the gun 
unloaded made more noise in Santa Barbara 
than it ever did when it belched forth shot and 
shell in battle. The gun, after its rescue from 
a watery grave, lay for some time on the beach. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



153 



devoid of carriage and useless, apparently, for 
offense or defense. 

One dark night a little squad of native Cali- 
forniaiis stole down to the beach, loaded the 
gun in an ox cart, hauled it to the estero and 
hid it in the sands. What was their object in 
taking the gun no one knows. Perhaps they 
did not know themselves. It might come handy 
m a revolution, or maybe they only intended to 
play a practical joke on the gringos. Whatever 
their object, the outcome of their prank must 
have astonished them. There \^'as a company 
(T") of Stevenson's New York volunteers sta- 
tioned at Santa Barbara, under command of 
Captain Lippett. Lippett was a fussy, nervous 
individual who lost his head when anything un- 
usual occurred. In the theft of the cannon he 
thought he had discovered a California revolu- 
tion in the formative stages, and he determined 
to crush it in its infancy. He sent post haste a 
courier to Governor Alason at Monterey, in- 
forming him of the prospective uprising of the 
natives and the possible destruction of the 
troops at Santa Barbara by the terrible gun the 
enemy had stolen. 

Colonel Alason, relying on Captain Lippett's 
report, determined to give the natives a lesson 
that would teach them to let guns and revolu- 
tions alone. He issued an order from headquar- 
ters at Monterey, in which he said tlmt ample 
time having been allowed for the return of the 
gun, and the citizens having failed to produce 
it, he ordered that the town be laid under a con- 
tribution of $500, assessed in the following man- 
ner: A capitation tax of $2 on all males over 
twenty rears of age; the balance to be paid by 
the heads of families and property-holders in the 
proportion of the value of their respective real 
and personal estate in the town of Santa Bar- 
bara and vicinity. Col. J. D. Stevenson was ap- 
pointed to direct the appraisement of the prop- 
erty and the collection of the assessment. If 
any failed to pay his capitation, enough of his 
property was to be seized and sold to pay his 
enforced contribution. 

The promulgation of the order at Santa Bar- 
bara raised a storm of indignation at the old 
pueblo. Colonel Stevenson came up from Los 
Angeles and had an interview with Don Pablo 



de La Guerra, a leading citizen of Santa Bar- 
bara. Don Pablo was wrathfully mdignant at 
the insult put upon his people, but after talking 
over the affair with Colonel Stevenson, he be- 
came somewhat mollified. He invited Colonel 
Stevenson to make Santa Barbara his headciuar- 
ters and inquired about the brass band at the 
lower pueblo. Stevenson took the hint and or- 
dered up the band from Los Angeles. July 4th 
had been fixed upon as the day for the payment 
of the fines, doubtless with the idea of giving 
the Californians a little celeljration that would 
remind them hereafter of Liberty's natal day. 
Colonel Stevenson contrived to have the band 
reach Santa Barbara on the night of the 3d. 
The band astonished Don Pablo and his family 
with a serenade. The Don was so delighted 
that he hugged the colonel in ihe most approved 
style. The band serenaded all the Dons of note 
in town and tooted until long after midnight, 
tlien started in next morning and kept it up 
till ten o'clock, the time set for each man to con- 
tribute his "dos pesos" to the common fund, 
liy that time every hombre on the list was so 
filled with wine, music and patriotism that the 
greater portion of the fine was handed over 
without protest. The day closed with a grand 
ball. The beauty and the chivalry of Santa Bar- 
bara danced to the music of a gringo brass 
band and the brass cannon for the nonce was 
forgotten. 

But the memory of the city's ransom rankled, 
and although an American band played Spanish 
airs, American injustice was still remembered. 
When the city's survey was made in 1850 the 
nomenclature of three streets, Caiion Perdido 
(Lost Cannon street), Quinientos (Five Hun- 
dred street) and Mason street kept the cannon 
episode green in the memory of the Barbarenos. 
When the pueblo, by legislative act, became a 
ciudad, the municipal authorities selected this 
device for a seal: In the center a cannon em- 
l>lazoned, encircled with these words. Vale 
Quinientos Pesos — Worth $500, or, more liber- 
ally translated. Good-bye, $500, which, by the 
way, as the sequel of the story^ will show, is the 
better translation. This seal was used from the 
incorporation of the city in 1850 to i860, when 
another design was chosen. 



154 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



After peace was declared, Colonel Mason sent 
the $500 to the prefect at Santa Barbara, with 
instructions to use it in building a city jail; and 
although there was pressing need for a jail, the 
jail was not built. The prefect's needs were 
pressing, too. Several years passed; then the 
city council demanded that the prefect turn the 
money into the city treasury. He replied that 
the money was entrusted to him for a specific 
jnirpose, and he would trust no city treasurer 
with it. The fact was that long before he had 
lost it in a game of monte. 
• Ten years passed, and the episode of the lost 
cannon was but a dimly remembered story of 
the olden time. The old gun reposed peacefully 
in its grave of sand and those who buried it 
Iiad forgotten the place of its interment. One 
stormy night in December, 1858, the estero 
fcreek) cut a new channel to the ocean. In 
the morning, as some Barbarenos were survey- 
ing the changes caused by the flood, they saw 
the muzzle of a large gun protruding from the 
cut in the bank. They unearthed it, cleaned off 
the sand and discovered that it was El Caiion 
Perdido, the lost cannon. It was hauled up 
.State street to Canon Perdido, where it was 
mounted on an improvised carriage. But the 
sight of it was a reminder of an impleasant in- 
cident. The finders sold it to a merchant for 
$80. He shipped it to San Francisco and sold 
it at a handsome profit for old brass. 

Governor Pio Pico returned from Mexico to 
California, arriving at San Gabriel July 17, 1848. 
Although the treaty of peace between the 
L^nited States and Mexico had been signed and 
proclaimed, the news had not reached Califor- 
nia. Pico, from San Fernando, addressed let- 
ters to Colonel Stevenson at Los Angeles and 
Governor ]\Iason at ^Monterey, stating that as 
Mexican governor of California he had come 
back to the country with the object of carrying 
.out the armistice which then existed between 
the United States and Mexico. He further 
stated that he had no desire to impede the es- 
tablishment of peace between the two countries; 
and that he wished to see the Mexicans and 
Americans treat each other in a spirit of frater- 
nity. Mason did not like Pico's assumption of 
the title of Mexican governor of California, al- 



though it is not probable that Pico intended to 
assert any claim to his former position. Gov- 
ernor ^lason sent a special courier to Los An- 
geles with orders to Colonel Stevenson to 
arrest the ex-governor, who was then at his 
Santa Margarita rancho, and send him to Mon- 
terey, but the news, of the ratification of the 
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo reached Los An- 
geles before the arrest was made, and Pico was 
spared this humiliation. 

The treaty of peace between the United States 
and Mexico was signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, 
a hamlet a few miles from the City of ]\Ie.xico, 
February 2, 1848; ratifications were exchanged 
at Oueretaro, May 30 following, and a procla- 
mation that peace had been established between 
the two countries was published July 4, 1848. 
Lender this treaty the United States assumed the 
payment of the claims of American citizens 
against Me.xico, and paid, in addition, $15,000,- 
000 to Me.xico for Texas, New ]\Ie.xico and 
.\lta California. Out of what was the Mexican 
territory of Alta California there has been 
carved all of California, all of Nevada, Utah and 
Arizona and part of Colorado and Wyoming. 
The territory acquired by the treaty of Guada- 
lupe Hidalgo was nearly equal to the aggre- 
gated area of the thirteen original states at the 
time of the Revolutionary war. 

The news of the treaty of peace reached Cali- 
fornia August 6, 1848. On the 7th Governor 
Alason issued a proclamation announcing the 
ratification of the treaty. He announced that 
all residents of California, who wished to be- 
come citizens of the United -States, were ab- 
.solved from their allegiance to IMe.xico. Those 
who desired to retain their Mexican citizenship 
could do so, provided they signified such inten- 
tion within one year from May 30, 1848. Those 
who wished to go to Mexico were at liberty to 
do so without passports. Six months before, 
Governor Mason had issued a proclamation pro- 
hibiting any citizen of Sonora from entering 
California except on official business, and then 
only under flag of truce. He also required all 
Sonorans in the country to report themselves 
either at Los Angeles or ^Monterey. 

The war was over; and the treaty of peace 
had made all who so elected, native or foreign 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



155 



born, American citizens. Strict military rule 
was relaxed and the people henceforth were to 
be self-governing. American and Californian 
were one people and were to enjoy the same 
rights and to be subject to the same penalties. 
The war ended, the troops were no longer 
needed. Orders were issued to muster out the 
volunteers. These all belonged to Stevenson's 
New York regiment. The last company of the 
Mormon battalion had been discharged in April. 



The New York volunteers were scattered ail 
along the coast from Sonoma to Cape St. Lucas, 
doing garrison duty. They were collected at 
different points and mustered out. Although 
those stationed in Alta California had done 
no fighting, they had performed arduous serv- 
ice in keeping peace in the conquered territory. 
Most of them remained in California after their 
discharge and rendered a good account of them- 
selves as citizens. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

GOLD! GOLD! GOLD! 



SEBASTLA.N VISCAINO, from the bay of 
Monterey, writing to the King of Spain 
three hundred years ago, says of the In- 
dians of California: "They are well acquainted 
with gold and silver, and said that these were 
found in the interior." Viscaino was endeavor- 
ing to make a good impression on the mind of 
the king in regard to his discoveries, and the 
remark about the existence of gold and silver 
in California was thrown to e.xcite the cupidity 
of his Catholic majesty. The traditions of the 
existence of gold in California before any was 
discovered are legion. Most of these have been 
evolved since gold was actually found. Col. J. 
J. Warner, a pioneer of 183 1, in his Historical 
Sketch of Los Angeles County, briefly and very 
eflectually disposes of these rumored discov- 
eries. He says: "While statements respecting 
the existence of gold in the earth of California 
and its procurement therefrom have been made 
and published as historical facts, carrying back 
the date of the knowledge of the auriferous 
character of this state as far as the time of the 
visit of Sir Francis Drake to this coast, there is 
no evidence to be found in the written or oral 
history of the missions, the acts and correspond- 
ence of the civil or military officers, or in the 
unwritten and traditional history of Upper Cali- 
fornia that the existence of gold, either with 
ores or in its virgin state, was ever suspected 
by any inhabitant of California previous to 1841, 
and, furthermore, there is conclusive testimony 



that the first known grain of native gold dust 
was found upon or near the San Francisco ranch, 
about forty-frve miles north-westerly from Los 
Angeles City, in the month of June, 1841. This 
discovery consisted of grain gold fields (known 
as placer mines), and the auriferous fields dis- 
covered in that year embraced the greater part 
of the country drained by the Santa Clara river 
from a point some fifteen or twenty miles from 
its mouth to its source, and easterly beyond 
]\Iount San Bernardino." 

The story of the discovery as told by Warner 
and by Don Abel Stearns agrees in the main 
facts, but differing materially in the date. Stearns 
says gold was first discovered by Francisco 
Lopez, a native of California, in the month of 
March, 1842, at a place called San Francisquito, 
about thirty-five miles northwest from this city 
(Los Angeles). The circumstances of the dis- 
covery by Lopez, as related by himself, are as 
follows: "Lopez, with a companion, was out in 
search of some stray horses, and about midday 
they stopped under some trees and tied their 
horses out to feed, they resting under the shade, 
when Lopez, with his sheath-knife, dug up some 
wild onions, and in the dirt discovered a piece 
of gold, and, searching further, found some 
more. He brought these to town, and showed 
them to his friends, who at once declared there 
must be a placer of gold. This news being cir- 
culated, numbers of the citizens went to the 
place, and commenced prospecting in the ifeigh- 



156 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



borhood, and found it to be a fact that there was 
a placer of gold." 

Colonel Warner says: "The news of this dis- 
covery soon spread among the inhabitants from 
Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, and in a few 
weeks hundreds of people were engaged in 
washing and winnowing the sands and earth of 
these gold fields." 

Warner visited the mines a few weeks after 
their discovery. He says: "From' these mines 
was obtained the first parcel of California gold 
dust received at the United States mint in Phila- 
delphia, and which was sent with Alfred Robin- 
son, and went in a merchant ship around Cape 
Horn." This shipment of gold was 18.34 ounces 
before and 18.I ounces after melting; fineness, 
.925; value, $344.75, or over $19 to the ounce, 
a very superior quality of gold dust. It was 
deposited in the mint July 8, 1843. 

It may be regarded as a settled historical fact 
that the first authenticated discovery of gold 
in Alta California was made on the San Fran- 
cisco rancho in the San Feliciano Canon, Los 
Angeles county. This canon is about ten miles 
northwest of Newhall station on the Southern 
Pacific railroad, and about forty miles northwest 
of Los Angeles. 

The date of the discovery is in doubt. A peti- 
tion to the governor (Alvarado) asking permis- 
sion to work the placers, signed by Francisco 
Lopez, Manuel Cota and Domingo Bermudez is 
on file in the California archives. It recites: 
"That as Divine Providence was pleased to give 
us a placer of gold on the 9th of last March in 
the locality of San Francisco rancho, that be- 
longs to the late Don Antonio del Valle." This 
petition fixes the day of the month the discovery 
was made, but unfortunately omits all other 
dates. Tlie evidence is about equally divided 
between the years 1841 and 1842. 

It is impossible to obtain definite information 
in regard to the yield of the San Fernando 
placers, as these mines are generally called. 
William Fleath Davis, in his "Sixty Years in 
California," states that from $80,000 to $100,000 
was taken out for the first two years after their 
discovery. He says that T^Iellus at one time 
shipped $5,000 of dust on the ship Alert. Ban- 
croft says: "That by December, 1843. two thou- 



sand ounces of gold had been taken from the 
San Fernando mines." Don Antonio Coronel 
informed the author that he, with the assistance 
of three Indian laborers, in 1842, took out $600 
worth of dust in two months. De Mofras, in his 
book, states that Carlos Baric, a Frenchman, in 
1842, was obtaining an ounce a day of pure gold 
from his placer. 

These mines were worked continuously from 
the time of their discovery until the .A.merican 
conquest, principally by Sonorians. The dis- 
covery of gold at Coloma, January 24, 1848, 
drew away the miners, and no work was done 
on these mines between 1848 and 1854. After 
the latter dates work was restimed, and in 1855, 
Francisco Garcia, working a gang of Indians, 
is reported to have taken out $65,000 in one 
season. The mines are not exhausted, but the 
scarcity of water prevents working them profit- 
ably. 

It is rather a singular coincidence that the 
exact dates of both the first and second authen- 
ticated discoveries of gold in California are still 
among the undecided questions of history. In 
the first, we know the day but not the year; in 
the second, we know the year but not the day 
of the month on which Marshall picked up the 
first nuggets in the mdlrace at Coloma. For a 
number of years after the anniversary of Mar- 
shall's discovery began to be observed the 19th 
of January was celebrated. Of late years Jan- 
uary 24 has been fixed upon as the correct date, 
but the Associated Pioneers of the Territorial 
Days of California, an association made up of 
men who were in the territory at the time of 
iNlarshall's discovery or came here before it 
became a state, object to the change. For nearl\- 
thirty years they have held their annual dinners 
on January 18, "the anniversary of the discovery 
of gold at Sutter's sawmill, Coloma, Cal." This 
society has its headquarters in Xew York City. 
In a circular recently issued, disapproving of 
the change of date from the i8th to the 24th, the 
trustees of that society say: "Upon the organi- 
zation of this society, February 11, 1875, it was 
decided to hold its annual dinners on the anni- 
versary of the discovery of gold at Sutter's saw- 
mill, Coloma, Cal. Through the Hon. Newton 
Booth, of the L^nited States Senate, this infor- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



157 



mation was sought, with the result of a commu- 
nication from the secretary of the state of Cali- 
fornia to the eft'ect 'that the archives of the 
state of California recorded the date as of Jan- 
uary i8, 1848. Some years ago this date was 
changed by the society at San Francisco to that 
of January 24, and that date has been adopted 
by other similar societies located upon the 
Pacific and Atlantic coasts. This society took 
the matter under advisement, with the result 
that the new evidence upon which it was pro- 
posed to change the date was not deemed suffi- 
cient to justify this society in ignoring its past 
records, founded on the authority of the state 
of California; therefore it has never accepted 
the new date." 

Marshall himself was uncertain about the 
exact date. At various times he gave three 
different dates — the i8th, 19th and 20th, but 
never moved it along as far as the 24th. In the 
past thirty years three different dates — the i8th, 
19th and 24th of January — have been celebrated 
as the anniversary of ^^larshall's gold dis- 
covery. 

The evidence upon which the date was changed 
to the 24th is found in an entry in a diary kept 
l)y H. \V. Cigler, a Mormon, who was working 
for Marshall on the millrace at the time gold 
was discovered. The entry reads: "January 24. 
This day some kind of metal that looks like 
goold was found in tlie tailrace." On this 
authority about ten years ago the California 
Pioneers adopted the 24th as the correct date 
of Marshall's discovery. 

While written records, especially if made at 
the time of the occurrence of the event, are 
more reliable than oral testimony given long 
after, yet when we take into consideration the 
conflicting stories of Sutter, Marshall, the Win- 
ners and others who were immediately con- 
cerned in some way with the discovery, we must 
concede that the Territorial Pioneers have good 
reasons to hesitate about makmg a change in 
the date of their anniversary. In Dr. Trywhitt 
Brook's "Four Months Among the Gold l*"ind- 
ers," a book published in London in 18^9. and 
long since out of print, we have Sutter's version 
nf Marshall's discovery given only three months 
after that discovery was made. Dr. Brooks 



visited Sutter's Fort early in May, 1848, and 
received from Sutter himself the story of the 
find. Sutter stated that he was sitting in his 
room at the fort, one afternoon, when Marshall, 
whom he supposed to be at the mill, forty miles 
up the American river, suddenly burst in upon 
him. Marshall was so vyildly excited that Sutter, 
suspecting that he was crazy, looked to see 
whether his rifle was in reach. Marshall declared 
that he had made a discovery that would give 
them both millions and millions of dollars. Then 
he drew his sack and poured out a handful of 
nuggets on the table. Sutter, when he had 
tested the metal and found that it was gold, 
became almost as excited as Marshall. He 
eagerly asked if the workmen at the mill knew 
of the discovery. Marshall declared that he had 
not spoken to a single person about it. They 
both agreed to keep it secret. Next day Sutter 
and Marshall arrived at the sawmill. The day 
after their arrival, they prospected the bars of 
the river and the channels of some of the dry 
creeks and found gold in all. 

"On our return to the mill," says Sutter, "we 
vyere astonished by the work-people coming up 
to us in a body and showing us some flakes of 
gold similar to those we had ourselves procured. 
Marshall tried to laugh the matter off with them, 
and to persuade them that what they had found 
was only some shining mineral of trifling value; 
but one of the Indians, who had worked at a 
sjold mine in the neighborhood of La Paz, 
Lower California, cried out: 'Ora! Oral' (gold! 
gold!), and the secret was out." 

Captain Sutter continues: "I heard afterward 
that one of them, a sly Kentuckian, had dogged 
us about and. that, looking on the ground to see 
if he could discover what wc were in search of, 
he lighted on some of the flakes himself." 

If this account is correct. Bigler's entry in 
his diary was made on the day that the workmen 
found gold, which was five or six days after 
Marshall's first find, and consequently the 24th 
is that much too late for the true date of the 
discovery. The story of the discovery given in 
the "Life and Adventures of James W. Mar- 
shall," by George Frederick Parsons, differs 
materially from Sutter's account. The date of 
the discovery given in that book is January 19, 



158 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



1848. On the morning of that day Marshall, 
after shutting off the water, walked down the 
tailrace to see what sand and gravel had been 
removed during the night. (The water was 
turned into the tailrace during the night to cut 
it deeper.) While examining a mass of debris, 
"his eye caught the glitter of something that lay 
lodged in a crevice on a riffle of soft granite 
some six inches under water." Picking up the 
nugget and examining it, he became satisfied 
that it must be one of three substances — mica, 
sulphurets of copper, or gold. Its weight satis- 
fied him that it was not rhica. Knowing that 
gold was malleable, he placed the specimen on 
a flat rock and struck it with another; it bent. 
but did not crack or break. He was satisfied 
that it was gold. He showed the nugget to his 
men. In the course of a few days he had col- 
lected several ounces of precious metal. "Some 
four days after the discovery it became necessary 
for him to go below, for Sutter had failed to 
send a supply of provisions to the mill, and the 
men were on short commons. While on his way 
down he discovered gold in a ravine at a place 
afterwards known as Mormon island. Arrived 
at the fort, he interviewed Sutter in his private 
ofiice and showed him about three ounces of 
gold nuggets. Sutter did not believe it to be' 
gold, but after weighing it in scales against $3.25 
worth of silver, all the coin they could raise at 
the fort, and testing it with nitric acid obtained 
from the gun shop, Sutter became convinced and 
returned to the mill with iNIarshall. So little did 
the workmen at the mill value the discovery that 
they continued to work for Sutter until the mill 
was completed, j\Iarch 11, six weeks after the 
nuggets were found in the tailrace. 

The news of the discovery spread slowly. It was 
two months in reaching San Francisco, although 
the distance is not over one hundred and twenty- 
five miles. The great rush to the mines from 
San Francisco did not begin until the middle of 
May, nearly four months after the discovery. On 
the loth of May, Dr. Brooks, who was in San 
Francisco, writes: ".\ number of people have ac- 
tually started of? with shovels, mattocks and 
pans to dig the gold themselves. It is not likelv, 
however, that this will be allowed, for Captain 
Folsom has already written to Colonel Mason 



about taking possession of the mine on behalf of 
the government, it being, he says, on public land." 

As the people began to realize the richness 
and extent of the discovery, the excitement in- 
creased rapidly. May 17, Dr. Brooks writes: 
"This place (San Francisco) is now in a perfect 
furore of excitement; all the workpeople have 
struck. Walking through the town to-day, I 
observed that laborers were employed only upon 
about half a dozen of the fifty new buildings 
which were in course of being run up. The 
majority of the mechanics at this place are mak- 
ing preparations for moving off to the mines, 
and several people of all classes — lawyers, store- 
keepers, merchants, etc., are smitten with the 
fever; in fact, there is a regular gold mania 
springing up. I counted no less than eighteen 
houses which were closed, the owners having 
left. If Colonel Mason is moving a force to 
the .\merican Fork, as is reported here, their 
journey will be in vain." 

Colonel Mason's soldiers moved without 
orders — they nearly all deserted, and ran ofT to 
the mines. 

The first newspaper announcement of the 
discovery appeared in The Calif ornian of March 
15, 1848, nearly two months after the discovery. 
But little attention was paid to it. In the issue 
of April 19, another discovery is reported. The 
item reads: "New gold mine. It is stated that 
a new gold mine has been discovered on the 
American Fork of the Sacramento, supposed to 
be on the land of W. A. Leidesdorfif, of this 
place. A specimen of the gold has been ex- 
hibited, and is represented to be very pure." 
On the 29th of May, The Califomiaii had sus- 
pended publication. "Othello's occupation is 
gone," wails the editor. "The majority of otir 
subscribers and many of our advertising patrons 
have closed their doors and places of business 
and left town, and we have received one order 
after another conveying the pleasant request that 
the printer will please stop my paper or my ad, 
as I am about leaving for Sacramento." 

The editor of the other paper. The California 
Star, made a pilgrimage to the mines in the lat- 
ter part of April, but gave them no extended 
write-up. "Great country, fine climate," he wrote 
on his return. "Full flowing streams, mighty 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



159 



timber, large crops, luxuriant clover, fragrant 
llowers, gold and silver," were his comments on 
what he saw. The policy of both papers seems 
to have been to ignore as much as possible the 
gold discovery. To give it publicity was for a 
time, at least, to lose their occupation. 

In The Star of May 20, 1848, its eccentric 
editor, E. C. Kemble, under the caption "El 
Dorado Anew," discourses in a dubious manner 
upon the efTects of the discovery and the extent 
of the gold fields: "A terrible visitant we have 
had of late. A fever which has well-nigh de- 
populated a town, a town hard pressing upon a 
thousand souls, and but for the gracious inter- 
position of the elements, perhaps not a goose 
would have been spared to furnish a quill to pen 
the melancholy fate of the remainder. It has 
preyed upon defenseless old age, subdued the 
elasticity of careless youth and attacked indis- 
criminately sex and class, from town councilman 
to tow-frocked cartman, from tailor to tippler, 
of which, thank its pestilential powers, it has 
beneficially drained (of tipplers, we mean) every 
villainous pulperia in the place. 

"And this is the gold fever, the only form of 
that popular southerner, yellow jack, with which 
we can be alarmingly threatened. The insatiate 
maw of the monster, not appeased by the easy 
conquest of the rough-fisted yeomanry of the 
north, must needs ravage a healthy, prosperous 
place beyond his dominion and turn the town 
topsy-turvy in a twinkling. 

"A fleet of launches left this place on Sunday 
and Monday last bound up the Sacramento river, 
close stowed with human beings, led by love of 
filthy lucre to the perennial yielding gold mines 
of the north. When any man can find two ounces 
a day and two thousand men can find their 
hands full, of work, was there ever anything so 
superlatively silly! 

"Honestly, though, we are inclined to believe 
the reputed wealth of that section of country, 
thirty miles in extent, all sham, a superb take-in 
as was ever got up to guzzle the gullible. But 
it is not improbable that this mine, or, properly, 
placer of gold can be traced as far south as the 
city of Los Angeles, where the precious metal 
lias been found for a number of years in the bed 
of a stream issuing from its mountains, said 



to be a continuation of this gold chain which 
courses southward from the base of the snowy 
mountains. But our best information respecting 
the metal and the quantity in which it is gath- 
ered varies much from many reports current, yet 
it is beyond a question that no richer mines of 
gold have ever been discovered upon this con- 
tinent. 

"Should there be no paper forthcoming on 
Saturday next, our readers may assure them- 
selves it will not be the fault of us individually. 
To make the matter public, already our devil has 
rebelled, our pressman (poor fellow) last seen 
was in search of a pickaxe, and we feel like Mr. 
Hamlet, we shall never again look upon the 
likes of him. Then, too, our compositors have, 
in defiance, sworn terrible oaths against type- 
sticking as vulgar and unfashionable. Hope has 
not yet fled us, but really, in the phraseology 
of the day, 'things is getting curious.' " 

And things kept getting more and more curi- 
ous. The rush mcreased. The next issue of 
The Star (May 27) announces that the Sacra- 
mento, a first-class craft, left here Thursday last 
thronged with passengers for the gold mines, 
a motley assemblage, composed of lawyers, mer- 
chants, grocers, carpenters, cartmen and cooks, 
all possessed with the desire of becoming rich. 
The latest accounts from the gold country are 
highly flattering. Over three hundred men are 
engaged in washing gold, and numbers are con- 
tinually arriving from every part of the country. 
Then the editor closes with a wail; "Persons 
recently arrived from the country speak of 
ranches deserted and crops neglected and suf- 
fered to waste. The unhappy consequence of 
this state of afifairs is easily foreseen. One more 
twinkle, and The Star disappeared in the gloom. 
On June 14 appeared a single sheet, the size of 
foolscap. The editor announced: "In fewer 
words than are usually employed in the an- 
nouncement of similar events, we appear before 
the remnant of a reading community on this 
occasion with the material or immaterial in- 
formation that we have stopped the paper, that 
its publication ceased with the last regular issue 
(June 7). On the approach of autumn, we shall 
again appear to announce The Star's redivus. 
We have done. Let our parting word be hasto 



160 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



luego." {Star and Californian reappeared No- 
vember 14, 1848. The Star had absorbed The 
Californian. E. C. Kemble was its editor and 
proprietor.) 

Although there was no paper in existence on 
the coast to spread the news from the gold 
fields, it found its way out of California, and 
the rush from abroad began. It did not acquire 
great force in 1848, but in 1849 the immigration 
to California exceeded all previous migrations 
in the history of the race. 

Among the first foreigners to rush to the 
mines were the ]\Iexicans of Sonora. Many of 
these had had some experience in placer mining 
in their native country, and the report of rich 
placers in California, where gold could be had 
for the picking up, aroused them from their lazy 
self-content and stimulated them to go in search 
of it. Traveling in squads of from fifty to one 
hundred, tliey came by the old Auza trail across 
the Colorado desert, through the San Gorgonio 
Pass, then up the coast and on to the mines. 
They were a job lot of immigrants, poor in purse 
and poor in brain. They were despised by the 
native Californians and maltreated by the Amer- 
icans. Their knowledge of mining came in play. 
and the more provident among them soon man- 
aged to pick up a few thousand dollars, and then 
returned to their homes, plutocrats. The im- 
provident gambled away their earnings and re- 
mained in the country to add to its criminal ele- 
ment. The Oregonians came in force, and all 
the towns in California were almost depopulated 
of their male population. V,\ the close of 1848, 
there were ten thousand men at work in the 
mines. 

The first official report of the discovery was 
sent to Washington by Thomas O. Larkin, June 
I, and reached its destination about the middle 
of September. Lieutenant P.eale, by way of 
Mexico, brought dispatches dated a month later, 
which arrived about the same time as Larkin's 
report. These accounts were published in the 
eastern papers, and the excitement began. 

In the early part of December, Lieutenant 
Loeser arrived at Washington with Governor 
^lason's report of his observations in the mines 
made in August. But the most positive evidence 
was a tea caddy of gold dust containing about 



two hundred and thirty ounces that Governor 
Mason had caused to be purchased in the mines 
with money from the civil service fund. This the 
lieutenant had brought with him. It was placed 
on exhibition at the war office. Here was tan- 
gible evidence of the existence of gold in Cali- 
fornia, the doubters were silenced and the ex- 
citement was on and the rush began. 

By the 1st of January, 1849, vessels were fit- 
ting out in every seaport on the Atlantic coast 
and the Gulf of Mexico. Sixty sliips were an- 
nounced to sail from New York in February and 
seventy from Philadelphia and Boston. All kinds 
of crafts were pressed into the service^ some to 
go by way of Cape Horn, others to land their 
passengers at Vera Cruz, Nicaragua and Pana- 
ma, the voyagers to take their chances on the 
Pacific side for a passage on some unknown 
vessel. 

With opening of spring, the overland travel 
began. Forty thousand men gathered at differ- 
ent points on the Missouri river, but principally 
at St. Joseph and Independence. Horses, mules, 
oxen and cows were used for the propelling 
power of the various forms of vehicles that were 
to convey the provisions and other impedimenta 
of the army of gold seekers. By the 1st of May 
the grass was grown enough on the plains to 
furnish feed for the stock, and the vanguard of 
the grand army of gold hunters started. For 
two months, company after company left the 
rendezvous and joined the procession until for 
one thousand miles there was an almost un- 
broken line of wagons and pack trains. The 
first half of the journey was made with little 
inconvenience, but on the last part there was 
great suffering and loss of life. The cholera 
broke out among them, and it is estimated that 
five thousand died on the plains. The alkali 
desert of the Humboldt was the place where the 
immigrants suffered most. Exhausted by the 
long journey and weakened by lack of food, 
many succumbed under the hardship of the des- 
ert journey and died. The crossing of the Sierras 
was attended with great hardships. From the 
loss of their horses and oxen, many were com- 
pelled to cross the mountains on foot. Their 
provisions exhausted, they would have perished 
but for relief sent out from California. The 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRArHICAL RECORD. 



IGl 



greatest sufferers were the woman and children, 
who in considerable numbers made the perilous 
journey. 

The overland immigration of 1850 exceeded 
that of 1849. According to record kept at Fort 
Laramie, there passed that station during the 
season thirty-nine thousand men, two thousand 
five hundred women and six hundred children, 
making a total of forty-two thousand one hun- 
dred persons. These immigrants had with them 
when passing Fort Laramie twenty-three thou- 
sand horses, eight thousand mules, three thou- 
sand six hundred oxen, seven thousand cows 
and nine thousand wagons. 

Besides those coming by the northern route, 
that is by the South Pass and the Humboldt 
river, at least ten thousand found their way to 
the land of gold by the old Spanish trail, by the 
Gila route and by Texas, Coahuila and Chihua- 
hua into Arizona, and thence across the Colo- 
rado desert to Los Angeles, and from there by 
the coast route or the San Joaquin valley to the 
mines. 

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company had 
been organized before the discovery of gold in 
California. March 3, 1847, 3" act of Congress 
was passed authorizing the secretary of the navy 
to advertise for bids to carry the United States 
mails by one line of steamers between New 
York and Chagres, and by another line between 
Panama and Astoria, Ore. On the Atlantic side 
the contract called for five ships of one thousand 
five hundred tons burden, on the Pacific side two 
of one thousand tons each, and one of six hun- 
dred tons. These were deemed sufficient for the 
trade and travel between the Atlantic and Pacific 
coasts of the United States. The Pacific Mail 
Steamship Company was incorporated April 12, 
1848, with a capital stock of $500,000. October 
6, 1848, the California, the first steamer for the 
Pacific, sailed from New York, and was followed 
in the two succeeding months by the Oregon 
and the Panama. T*he California sailed before 
the news of the gold discovery had reached New 
York, and she had taken no passengers. When 
she arrived at Panama, January 30, 1849, she 
encountered a rush of fifteen hundred gold hunt- 
ers, clamorous for a passage. These had reached 
Chagres on sailing vessels, and ascended the 
u 



Chagres river in bongos or dugouts to Gor- 
gona, and from thence by land to Panama. The 
California had accommodations for only one 
hundred, but four hundred managed to find 
some place to stow themselves away. The price 
of tickets rose to a fabulous sum, as high as 
$1,000 having been paid for a steerage passage. 
The California entered the bay of San Francisco 
February 28, 1849, ^"<i ^^'^^ greeted by the boom 
of cannon and the cheers of thousands of people 
lining the shores of the bay. The other two 
steamers arrived on time, and the Pacific Mail 
Steamship Company became the predominant 
factor in California travel for twenty years, or up 
to the completion of the first transcontinentr.l 
railroad in 1869. The charges for fare on these 
steamers in the early '50s were prohibitory to 
men of small means. From New York to 
Chagres in the saloon the fare was $150, in the 
cabin $120. From Panama to San Francisco in 
the saloon, $250; cabin, $200. Add to these the 
expense of crossing the isthmus, and the argo- 
naut was out a goodly sum when he reached the 
land of the golden fleece, indeed, he was often 
fleeced of his last dollar before he entered the 
Golden Gate. 

The first effect of the gold discovery on San 
F'rancisco, as we have seen, was to depopulate 
it, and of necessity suspend all building opera- 
tions. In less than three months the reaction 
began, and the city experienced one of the most 
magical booms in history. Real estate doubled 
in some instances in twenty-four hours. The 
Calif ornian of September 3, 1848, says: "The 
vacant lot on the corner of Montgomery and 
Washington streets was offered the day previous 
for $5,000 and next day sold readily for $10,000." 
Lumber went up in value until it was sold at a 
dollar per square foot. Wages kept pace with 
the general advance. Sixteen dollars a day was 
mechanic's wages, and the labor market was not 
overstocked even at these high rates. With the 
approach of winter, the gold seekers came flock- 
ing back to the city to find shelter and to spend 
their suddenly acquired wealth. The latter was 
easily accomplished, but the former was more 
difficult. Any kind of a shelter that would keep 
out the rain was utilized for a dwelling. Rows 
of tents that circled around the business por- 



162 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



tion, shanties patched togetlier from pieces of 
packing boxes and sheds thatched with brush 
from the chaparral-covered hills constituted 
the principal dwellings at that time of the future 
metropolis of California. The yield of the mines 
for 1848 has been estimated at ten million 
dollars. This was the result of only a few 
months' labor of not to exceed at any time ten 
thousand men. The rush of miners did not 
reach the mines until July, and mining opera- 
tions were mainly suspended by the middle of 
October. 

New discoveries had followed in quick suc- 
cession Marshall's find at Coloma until by the 
close of 1848 gold placers had been located on 
all the principal tributaries of the Sacramento 
and San Joaquin rivers. Some of the richest 
yields were obtained from what was known as 
"Dry Diggins." These were dry ravines from 
which pay dirt had to be packed to water for 
washing or the gold separated by dry washing, 
tossing the earth into the air until it was 
blown away by the wind, the gold, on account 
of its weight, remaining in the pan. 

A correspondent of the Calif ornian, writing 
August 15, 1848, from what he designates as 
"Dry Diggins," gives this account of the rich- 
ness of that gold field: "At the lower mines 
(Mormon Island) the miners count the success 
of the day in dollars; at the upper mines near 
the mill (Coloma), in ounces, and here in 
pounds. The only instrument used at first was 
a butcher knife, and the demand for that ar- 
ticle was so great that $40 has been refused 
for one. 



"The earth is taken out of the ravines which 
make out of the mountains and is carried in 
wagons or packed on horses from one to three 
miles to water and washed. Four hundred dol- 
lars is the average to the cart load. In one in- 
stance five loads yielded $16,000. Instances are 
known here where men have carried the earth 
on their backs and collected from $800 to $1,500 
a day." 

The rapidity with which the country was ex- 
plored by prospectors was truly remarkable. 
The editor of the Californian, who had sus- 
pended the publication of his paper on May 29 
to visit the mines, returned and resumed it on 
July 15 (1848). In an editorial in that issue he 
gives his observations: "The country from the 
Ajuba (Yuba) to the San Joaquin rivers, a dis- 
tance of one hundred and twenty miles, and 
from the base toward the summit of the moun- 
tains as far as Snow Hill, about seventy miles, 
has been explored, and gold found in every 
part. There are probably three thousand men, 
including Indians, engaged in collecting gold. 
The amount collected by each man who works 
ranges from $10 to $350 per day. The publisher 
of this paper, while on a tour alone to the min- 
ing district, collected, with the aid of a shovel, 
pick and pan, from $44 to $128 a day, averag- 
ing about $100. The largest piece of gold 
known to be found weighed four pounds." 
Among other remarkable yields the Californian 
reports these: "One man dug $12,000 in six 
days, and three others obtained thirty-six 
pounds of pure metal in one day." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



MAKING A STATE. 



COL. R. B. MASON, who had been 
the military governor of California since 
the departure of General Kearny in 
May, 1847, had grown weary of his task. He 
had been in the military service of his country 
thirty years and wished to be relieved. His 
request was granted, and on the 12th of April, 
1849, Brevet Brigadier General Bennett Riley, 



his successor, arrived at Monterey and the next 
day entered upon his duties as civil governor. 
Gen. Persifer F. Smith, who had been appointed 
commander of the Pacific division of the United 
States army, arrived at San Francisco Febru- 
ary 26, 1849, and relieved Colonel Mason of 
his military command. A brigade of troops 
six hundred and fifty strong had been sent to 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



163 



California for military service on the border 
and to maintain order. Alost of these promptly 
deserted as soon as an opportunity ofifered and 
found their way to the mines. 

Colonel Mason, who under the most trying 
circumstances had faithfully served his govern- 
ment and administered justice to the people of 
California, took his departure May i, 1849. 
The same year he died at St. Louis of cholera. 
A year had passed since the treaty of peace 
with Mexico had been signed, which made Cali- 
fornia United States territory, but Congress 
had done nothing toward giving it a govern- 
ment. The anomalous condition existed of citi- 
iiens of the United States, living in the United 
States, being governed by Mexican laws admin- 
istered by a mixed constituency of Mexican- 
born and American-born ofificials. The pro- 
slavery element in Congress was determined to 
foist the curse of human slavery on a portion 
of the territory acquired from Mexico, but the 
discovery of gold and the consequent rush of 
freemen to the territory had disarranged the 
plans of the slave-holding faction in Congress, 
and as a consequence all legislation was at a 
standstill. 

The people were becoming restive at the long 
delay. The Americanized Mexican laws and 
forms of government were unpopular and it 
was humiliating to the conqueror to be gov- 
erned by the laws of the people conquered. 
The question of calling a convention to form a 
provisional government was agitated by the 
newspapers and met a hearty response from the 
people. Meetings were held at San Jose, De- 
cember II, 1848; at San Francisco, December 
21, and at Sacramento, January 6, 1849, to 
consider the question of establishing a pro- 
visional government. It was recommended by 
the San Jose meeting that a convention be held 
at that place on the second Monday of January. 
The San Francisco convention recommended 
the 5th of March; this the Monterey committee 
considered too early as it would take the dele- 
gates from below fifteen days to reach the pu- 
eblo of San Jose. There was no regular mail 
and the roads in February (when the delegates 
would have to start) were impassable. The 
committee recommended May i as the earliest 



date for the meeting to consider the question of 
calling of a convention. Sonoma, without wait- 
ing, took the initiative and elected ten delegates 
to a provisional government convention. There 
was no unanimity in regard to the time of meet- 
ting or as to what could be done if the conven- 
tion met. It was finally agreed to postpone the 
time of meeting to the first Monday of August, 
when, if Congress had done nothing towards 
giving California some form of government bet- 
ter than that existing, the convention should 
meet and organize a provisional government. 

The local government of San Francisco had 
become so entangled and mixed up by various 
councils that it was doubtful whether it had 
any legal legislative body. When the term of 
the first council, which had been authorized 
by Colonel Mason in 1848, was about to ex- 
pire an election was held December 27, to 
choose their successors. Seven new council- 
men were chosen. The old council declared 
the election fraudulent and ordered a new one. 
An election was held, notwithstanding the pro- 
test of a number of the best citizens, and an- 
other council chosen. So the city was blessed 
or cursed with three separate and distinct coun- 
cils. The old council voted itself out of ex- 
istence and then there were but two, but that 
was one too man}-. Then the people, disgusted 
with the condition of affairs, called a public 
meeting, at which it was decided to elect a 
legislative assembly of fifteen members, who 
should be empowered to make the necessary 
laws for the government of the city. An election 
was held on the 21st of February, 1849, and a 
legislative assembly and justices elected. Then 
Alcalde Levenworth refused to turn over the 
city records to the Chief ^lagistrate-elect Nor- 
ton. On the 22d of March the legislative as- 
sembly abolished the ofiice of alcalde, but 
Levenworth still held on to the records. He 
was finally compelled by public opinion and a 
writ of replevin to surrender the official records 
to Judge Norton. The confusion constantly 
arising from the attempt to carry on a govern- 
ment that was semi-miHtary and semi-AIexican 
induced Governor Riley to order an election to 
be held August 1st, to elect delegates to a 
convention to meet in Monterey September ist. 



164 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



1849, to form a state constitution or territorial 
organization to be ratified by the people and 
submitted to Congress for its approval. Judges, 
prefects and alcaldes were to be elected at the 
same time in the principal municipal districts. 
The constitutional convention was to consist of 
thirty-seven delegates, apportioned as follows: 
San Diego two, Los Angeles four, Santa Bar- 
bara two, San Luis Obispo two, Monterey five, 
San Jose five, San Francisco five, Sonoma four, 
Sacramento four, and San Joaquin four. In- 
stead of thirty-seven delegates as provided for 
in the call, forty-eight were elected and seated. 

The convention met September i, 1849, at 
Monterey in Colton Hall. This was a stone 
building erected by Alcalde Walter Colton for 
a town hall and school house. The money to 
build it was derived partly from fines and partly 
from subscriptions, the prisoners doing the 
greater part of the work. It was the most 
commodious public building at that time in the 
territory. 

Of the forty-eight delegates elected twenty- 
two were natives of the northern states; fifteen 
of the slave states; four were of foreign birth, 
and seven were native Californians. Several of 
the latter neither spoke nor understood the 
English language and William E. P. Hartnell 
was appointed interpreter. Dr. Robert Semple 
of Bear Flag fame was elected president, Will- 
iam G. Marcy and J. Ross Browne reporters. 

Early in the session the slavery question was 
disposed of by the adoption of a section declar- 
ing that neither slavery or involuntary servitude, 
unless for the punishment of crimes, shall ever 
be tolerated in this state. The question of fix- 
ing the boundaries of the future state excited 
the most discussion. The pro-slavery faction 
was led by William IM. Gwin, who had a few 
months before migrated from Tennessee to 
California with the avowed purpose of repre- 
senting the new state in the LTnited States sen- 
ate. The scheme of Gwin and his southern as- 
sociates was to make the Rocky mountains the 
eastern boundary. This would create a state 
with an era of about four hundred thousand 
square miles. They reasoned that when the 
admission of the state came before congress the 
southern members would oppose the admission 



of so large an area under a free state constitu- 
tion and that ultimately a compromise might 
be effected. California would be split in two 
from east to west, the old dividing line, the 
parallel of 36° 30', would be established and 
Southern California come into the Union as a 
slave state. There were at that time fifteen 
free and fifteen slave states. If two states, one 
free and one slave, could be made out of Calif or-' 
nia, the equilibrium between the opposing fac- 
tions would be maintained. The Rocky moun- 
tain boundary was at one time during the ses- 
sion adopted, but in the closing days of the 
session the free state men discovered Gwin's 
scheme and it was defeated. The present boun- 
daries were established by a majority of two. 

A committee had been appointed to receive 
propositions and designs for a state seal. Only 
one design was ofifered. It was presented by 
Caleb Lyon of Lyondale, as he usually signed 
his name, but was drawn by Major Robert S, 
Garnett, an army officer. It contained a figure 
of Minerva in the foreground, a grizzly bear 
feeding on a bunch of grapes; a miner with an 
uplifted pick; a gold rocker and pan; a view of 
the Golden Gate with ships riding at anchor 
in the Bay of San Francisco; the peaks of the 
Sierra Nevadas in the distance; a sheaf of wheat; 
thirty-one stars and above all the word 
"Eureka" (I have found it), which might apply 
either to the miner or the bear. The design 
seems to have been an attempt to advertise the 
resources of the state. General \'allejo wanted 
the bear taken out of the design, or if allowed 
to remain, that he be made fast by a lasso in the 
hands of a vaquero. This amendment was re- 
jected, as was also one submitted by O. AI. 
Wozencraft to strike out the figures of the gold 
digger and the bear and introduce instead bales 
of merchandise and bags of gold. The original 
design was adopted with the addition of the 
words, "The Great Seal of the State of CaHfor- 
nia." The convention voted to give Lyon $1,000 
as full compensation for engraving the seal and 
furnishing the press and all appendages. 

Garnett, the designer of the seal, was a Vir- 
ginian by birth. He graduated from West 
Point in 1841, served through the Mexican war 
and through several of the Indian wars on the 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



165 



Pacific coast. At the breaking out of the re- 
belHon in 1861 he joined tlie Confederates and 
was made a brigadier general. He was killed 
at the battle of Carrick"s Ford July 15, 1861. 

The constitution was completed on the iith 
of October and an election was called by Gov- 
ernor Riley to be held on the 13th of November 
to vote upon the adoption of the constitution 
and to elect state ofEcers, a legislature and mem- 
bers of congress. 

At the election Peter H. Burnett, recently 
from Oregon territory, who had been quite 
active in urging the organization of a state gov- 
ernment, was chosen governor; John McDou- 
gall, lieutenant governor, and George W. 
Wright and Edward Gilbert members of con- 
gress. San Jose had been designated by the 
constitutional convention the capital of the state 
pro tem. 

The people of San Jose had pledged them- 
selves to provide a suitable building for the 
meeting of the legislature in hopes that their 
town might be made the permanent capital. 
They were unable to complete the building de- 
signed for a state capital in time for the meet- 
ing. The uncomfortable quarters furnished 
created a great deal of dissatisfaction. The leg- 
islature consisted of si.xteen senators and thirty- 
six assemblymen. There being no county or- 
ganization, the members were elected by 
districts. The representation was not equally 
distributed; San Joaquin district had more sen- 
ators than San Francisco. The senate and as- 
sembly were organized on the 17th of Decem- 
ber. E. K. Chamberlain of San Diego was 
elected president pro tem. of the senate and 
Thomas J. White of Sacramento speaker of the 
assembly. The governor and lieutenant-gov- 
ernor were sworn in on the 20th. The state 
government being organized the legislature 
proceeded to the election of United States sen- 
ators. The candidates were T. Butler King, 
John C. Fremont, William M. Gwin. Thomas 
J. Henly, John W. Geary, Robert Semple and 
H. W. Halleck. Fremont received twenty-nine 
out of forty-six votes on the first ballot and was 
declared elected. Of the aspirants, T. Butler 
King and William M. Gwin represented the 
ultra pro-slavery element. King was a cross- 



roads politician from down in Georgia, who 
had been sent to the coast as a confidential 
agent of the government. The officers of the 
army and navy were enjoined to "in all matters 
aid and assist him in carrying out the views of 
the government and be guided by his advice and 
council in the conduct of all proper measures 
within the scope of those instructions." He 
made a tour of the mines, accompanied by Gen- 
eral Smith and his stafT; Commodore Ap Catesby 
Jones and staff and a cavalry escort under Lieu- 
tenant Stoneman. He wore a black stovepipe 
hat and a dress coat. He made himself the 
laughing stock of the miners and by traveling 
in the heat of the day contracted a fever that 
very nearly terminated his existence. He had 
been active so far as his influence went in trying 
to bring California into the Union with the hope 
of representing it in the senate. Gwin had 
come a few months before from Mississippi with 
the same object in view. Although the free 
state men were in the majority in the legislature 
they recognized the fact that to elect two sena- 
tors opposed to the extension of slavery would 
result in arraying the pro-slavery faction in con- 
gress against the admission of the state into 
the Union. Of the two representatives of the 
south, Gwin was the least objectionable and on 
the second ballot he was elected. On the 
21 st Governor Burnett delivered his message. 
It was a wordy document, but not marked by 
any very brilliant ideas or valuable suggestions. 
Burnett was a southerner from Missouri. He 
was hobbled on the subject of the exclusion of 
free negroes. The African, free to earn his own 
living unrestrained by a master, was, in his 
opinion, a menace to the perpetuity of the com- 
monwealth. 

On the 22d the legislature elected the remain- 
ing state officers, viz.: Richard Roman, treas- 
urer; John I. Houston, controller; E. J. C. 
Kewen, attorney general; Charles J. Whiting, 
surveyor-general; S. C. Hastings, chief jus- 
tice; Henry Lyons and Nathaniel Bennett, as- 
sociate justices. The legislature continued in 
session until April 22, 1850. Although it was 
nicknamed the "Legislature of a thousand 
drinks," it did a vast amount of work and did 
most of it well. It was not made up of hard 



106 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



drinkers. The majority of its members were 
above tlie average legislator in intelligence, 
temperance and patriotism. The members were 
not there for pay or for political preferment. They 
were there for the good of their adopted state and 
labored conscientiously for its benefit. The op- 
probrious nickname is said to have originated 
thus: A roystering individual by the name of 
Green had been elected to the senate from Sac- 
ramento as a joke. He regarded the whole pro- 
ceedings as a huge joke. He kept a supply of 
liquors on hand at his quarters and when the 
legislature adjourned he was in the habit of call- 
ing: "Come, boys, let us take a thousand 
drinks." 

The state had set up housekeeping without a 
cent on hand to defray e.xpenses. There was not 
a quire of paper, a pen, nor an inkstand belong- 
ing to the state and no money to buy supplies. 
After wrestling with the financial problem some 
time an act authorizing a loan of $200,000 for 
current expenses was passed. Later on in the 
session another act was passed authorizing the 
bonding of the state for $300,000 with interest 
at the rate of three per cent a month. The 
legislature divided the state into twenty-seven 
counties, created nine judicial districts, passed 
laws for the collection of revenue, taxing all 
real and personal property and imposing a poll 
tax of $5 on all male inhabitants over twen- 
ty-one and under fifty years of age. 

California was a self-constituted state. It 
had organized a state government and put it into 
successful operation without the sanction of 
congress. Officials, state, county and town, had 
been elected and had sworn to support the con- 
stitution of the state of California and yet there 
was really no state of California. It had not 
been admitted into the Union. It was only a 
state de facto and it continued in that condition 
nine months before it became a state de jure. 

"^^"hei; the question of admitting California 
ir(o the. l^nion came before congress it evoked 
a bitter controversy. The senate was equally 
divided, thirty senators from the slave states 
and the same number from the free. There 
were among the southern senators some broad 
minded and patriotic men, willing to do what 
was right, but they were handicapped by an 



ultra pro-slavery faction, extremists, who 
would willingly sacrifice the Union if by that 
they could extend and perpetuate that sum of 
all villainies, human slavery. This faction in 
the long controversy resorted to every known 
parliamentary device to prevent the admission of 
California under a free state constitution. To 
admit two senators from a free state would de- 
stroy the balance of power. That gone, it could 
never be regained by the south. Tlie north was 
increasing in power and population, while the 
south, under the blighting influence of slavery, 
was retrograding. 

Henry Clay, the man of compromises, under- 
took to bridge over the difficulty by a set of 
resolutions known as the Omnibus bill. These 
were largely concessions to the slave holding 
faction for the loss of the territory acquired by 
the Mexican war. Among others was this, that 
provision should be made by law for the restitu- 
tion of fugitive slaves in any state or territory 
of the Union. This afterward was embodied 
into what was known as the fugitive slave law 
and did more perhaps than any other cause to 
destroy the south's beloved institution. 

These resolutions were debated through 
many months and were so amended and changed 
that their author could scarcely recognize them. 
Most of them were adopted in some form and 
effected a temporary compromise. 

On August 13th the bill for the admission 
of California finally came to a vote. It passed 
the senate, thirty-four ayes to eighteen noes. 
Even then the opposition did not cease. Ten 
of the southern pro-slavery extremists, led by 
Jefferson Davis, joined in a protest against the 
action of the majority, the language of which 
was an insult to the senate and treason to the 
government. In the house the bill passed by a 
vote of one hundred and fifty ayes to fifty-six 
ultra southern noes. It was approved and signed 
by President Fillmore September 9, 1850. On 
the nth of September the California senators 
and congressmen presented themselves to be 
sworn in. The slave holding faction in the sen- 
ate, headed by Jefferson Davis, who had been 
one of the most bitter opponents to the admis- 
sion, objected. But their protest availed them 
nothing. Their ascendency was gone. We 



HISTORfCAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



107 



might sympathize with them had their fight 
been made for a noble principle, but it was not. 
From that day on until the attempt was made 
in 1861 these men schemed to destroy the 
Union. The admission of California as a free 
state was the beginning of the slave holders' re- 
bellion. 

The news of the admission of California 
reached San Francisco on the morning -of Oc- 
tober 18, by the mail steamer Oregon, nearly six 
weeks after congress had admitted it. Business 
was at once suspended, the courts were ad- 
journed and the people went wild with excite- 
ment. Messengers, mounted on fleet steeds, 
spread the news throughout the state. News- 
papers from the states containing an account 
of the proceedings of congress at the time of 
admission sold for $5 each. It was decided to 
hold a formal celebration of the event on the 
29th and preparations were begun for a grand 
demonstration. Neither labor nor money was 
spared to make the procession a success. The 
parade was cosmopolitan in the fullest meaning 
of that word. There were people in it from 
almost every nation under the sun. The Chi- 
nese made quite an imposing spectacle in the 
parade. Dressed in rich native costumes, each 
carrying a gaudily painted fan, they marched 
under command of their own marshals, Ah He 
and Ah Sing. At their head proudly marched 
a color bearer carrying a large blue silk ban- 
ner, inscribed the "China boys." Following 
them came a triumphal car, in which was seated 
thirty bo}S in black trousers and white shirts, 
representing the thirty states. In the center of 
this group, seated on a raised platform, was a 
young girl robed in white with gold and silver 
gauze floating about her and supporting a 
breast plate, upon which was inscribed "Cali- 
fornia, the Union, it must and shall be pre- 
served." The California pioneers carried a ban- 
ner on wliich was represented a New Englander 
in the act of stepping ashore and facing a na- 
tive Californian with lasso and serape. In the 
center the state seal and the inscription, "Far 
west. Eureka 1846, California pioneers, or- 
ganized August, 1850." Army and navy offi- 
cers, soldiers, sailors and marines, veterans of 
the Mexican war, municipal officers, the fire de- 



partment, secret and benevolent societies and as- 
sociations, with a company of mounted native 
Californians bearing a banner with thirty-one 
stars on a blue satin ground with the inscription 
in gold letters, California, E Pluribus Unum, all 
these various organizations and orders with 
their marshals and aids mounted on gaily 
caparisoned steeds and decked out with their 
gold and silver trimmed scarfs, made an impos- 
ing display that has seldom if ever been equaled 
since in the metropolis of California. 

At the plaza a flag of thirty-one stars was 
raised to the mast head. An oration was de- 
livered by Judge Nathaniel Bennett and Mrs. 
Wills recited an original ode of her own compo- 
sition. The rejoicing over, the people settled 
down to business. Their unprecedented action 
in organizing a state government and putting it 
into operation without the sanction of congress 
had been approved and legalized by that body. 

Like the Goddess Minerva, represented on its 
great seal, who sprung full grown from the 
brain of Jupiter, California was born a fully ma- 
tured state. She passed through no territorial 
probation. No state had such a phenomenal 
growth in its infancy. No state before or since 
has met with such bitter opposition when it 
sought admission into the family of states. 
Never before was there such a medley of nation- 
alities — Yankees, Mexicans, English, Germans. 
French, Spaniards, Peruvians, Polynesians, 
Mongolians — organized into a state and made 
a part of the body politic nolens volens. 

The constitutional convention of 1849 did not 
definitely fix the state capital. San Jose was 
designated as the place of meeting for the legis- 
lature and the organization of the state govern- 
ment. San Jose had offered to donate a square 
of thirty-two acres, valued at $60,000, for cap- 
itol grounds and provide a suitable building for 
the legislature and state officers. The of?er was 
accepted, but when the legislature met there 
December 15, 1849, the building was unfinished 
and for a time the meetings of the legislature 
were held at a private residence. There was a 
great deal of complaining and dissatisfaction. 
The first capitol of the state was a two-story 
adobe building 40x60, which had been intended 
for a hotel. It was destroyed by fire April 29, 



168 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



1853. The accommodations at San Jose were 
so unsatisfactory that the legislature decided 
to locate the capital at some other point. Prop- 
ositions were received from Monterey, from 
Reed of San Jose, from Stevenson & Parker of 
New York of the Pacific and from Gen. M. G. 
Vallejo. Vallejo's proposition was accepted. 
He offered to donate one hundred and fifty-si.x 
acres of land in a new town that he proposed 
to lay out on the straits of Carquinez (now Val- 
lejo) for a capital site and within two years to 
give $370,000 in money for the erection of pub- 
lic buildings. He asked that his proposition be 
submitted to a vote of the people at the next 
general election. His proposition was accepted 
by the legislature. At the general election, Octo- 
ber 7, 1850, Vallejo received seventy-four hun- 
dred and seventy-seven votes; San Jose twelve 
hundred and ninety-two, and Monterey three 
hundred and ninety-nine. The second legisla- 
ture convened at San Jose. General Vallejo ex- 
erted himself to have the change made in accord- 
ance with the previous proposition. The cit- 
izens of San Jose made an efifort to retain the 
capital, but a bill was passed making Vallejo 
the permanent seat of government after the 
close of the session, provided General Vallejo 
should give bonds to carry out his proposals. 
In June Governor McDougal caused the gov- 
ernmental archives to be removed from San 
Jose to Vallejo. 

When the members of the third legislature 
met at the new capital January 2, 1852, they 
found a large unfurnished and partly unfinished 
wooden building for their reception. Hotel ac- 
commodations could not be obtained and there 
was even a scarcity of food to feed the hungry 
lawmakers. Sacramento offered- its new court 
house and on the i6th of January the legislature 
convened in that city. The great flood of 



March, 1852, inundated the city and the law- 
makers were forced to reach the halls of legis- 
lation in boats and again there was dissatisfac- 
tion. Then Benicia came to the front with an 
offer of her new city hall, which was above 
high water mark. General Vallejo had become 
financially embarrassed and could not carry out 
his contract with the state, so it was annulled. 
The offer of Benicia was accepted and on May 
18, 1853, that town was declared the permanent 
capital. 

In the legislature of 1854 the capital question 
again became an issue. Offers were made by 
several aspiring cities, but Sacramento won with 
the proffer of her court house and a block of 
land betwen I and J, Ninth and Tenth streets. 
Then the question of the location of the capital 
got into the courts. The supreme court de- 
cided in favor of Sacramento. Before the legis- 
lature met again the court house that had been 
offered to the state burned down. A new and 
more commodious one was erected and rented 
to the state at $12,000 a year. Oakland made 
an unsuccessful effort to obtain the capital. 
Finally a bill was passed authorizing the erection 
of a capitol building in Sacramento at a cost 
not to exceed $500,000. Work was begun on 
the foundation in October, i860. The great 
flood of 1861-62 inundated the city and ruined 
the foundations of the capitol. San Francisco 
made a vigorous effort to get the capital re- 
moved to that city, but was unsuccessful. Work 
was resumed on the building, the plans were 
changed, the edifice enlarged, and, finally, after 
many delays, it was ready for occupancy in De- 
cember, 1869. From the original limit of half a 
million dollars its cost when completed had 
reached a million and a half. The amount ex- 
pended on the building and grounds to date 
foots up $2,600,000. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



IGS 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE ARGONAUTS. 



WHEN or by whom the name argonaut 
was first applied to the early Cali- 
fornia gold seekers I have not been 
able to ascertain. The earliest allusion to the 
similarity of Jason's voyage after the Golden 
Fleece and the miners' rush to the gold fields of 
California is found in a caricature published in 
the London Punch in 1849. O" ''^e shore of 
an island is a guide board bearing the inscrip- 
tion "California;" near it is a miner digging gold 
and presumably singing at his work. In a 
boat near the shore is a fat individual, a typical 
"Johnny Bull." He is struggling desperately 
with two individuals who are holding him back 
from leaping into the water, so fascinated is he 
by the song of the miner. Under tiie drawing 
are the words, "The Song of the Sirens." 

If we include among the argonauts all who 
traveled by land or voyaged by sea in search of 
the golden fleece in the days of '49 we will have 
a motley mixture. The tales of the fabulous rich- 
ness of the gold fields of California spread rap- 
idly throughout the civilized world and drew to 
the territory all classes and conditions of men, 
the bad as well as the good, the indolent as well 
as the industrious, the vicious as well as the 
virtuous. They came from Europe, from South 
America and from Mexico. From Australia 
and Tasmania came the ex-convict and the 
ticket-of-leave man; from the isles of the sea 
came the Polynesian, and from Asia the Hindoo 
and the "Heathen Chinee." 

The means of reaching the land of gold were 
as varied as the character of the people who 
came. Almost every form of vehicle was pressed 
into service on land. One individual, if not more, 
made the trip trundling his impedimenta in a 
wheelbarrow. Others started out in carriages, 
intent on making the journey in comfort and 
ease, but finished on foot, weary, worn and 
ragged. When the great rush came old sailing 
vessels that had long been deemed unseaworthy 



were fitted out for the voyage to California. It 
must have been the providence that protects 
fools which prevented these from going to the 
bottom of the ocean. With the desperate 
chances that the argonauts took on these old 
tubs, it is singular that there were so few ship- 
wrecks and so little loss of life. Some of these 
were such slow sailers that it took them the 
greater part of a year to round Cape Horn and 
reach their destination. On one of these some 
passengers, exasperated at its slowness, landed 
near Cape St. Lucas and made the long journey 
up the peninsula of Lower California and on to 
San Francisco on foot, arriving there a month 
before their vessel. Another party undertook to 
make the voyage from Nicaragua in a whale 
boat and actually did accomplish seven hundred 
miles of it before they were picked up in the last 
extremities by a sailing vessel. 

The Sierra Nevada region, in which gold was 
first found, comprised a strip about thirty miles 
wide and two hundred miles long from north 
to south in the basins of the Feather, Yuba, 
Bear, American, Cosumne, Mokolumne, Stanis- 
laus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers, between the 
elevations of one thousand and five thousand 
feet. In all these streams miners washed gold 
in 1848. The placer mines on the Upper Sacra- 
mento and in the Shasta region were discovered 
and worked late in the fall of 1848. The Kla- 
math mines were discovered later. 

The southern mines, those on the San Joaquin, 
Fresno, Kern and San Gabriel rivers, were lo- 
cated between 1851 and 1855. Gold was found 
in some of the ravines and creeks of San Diego 
county. Practically the gold belt of California 
extends from the Mexican line to Oregon, but 
at some points it is rather thin. The first gold 
digging was done with butcher knives, the gold 
liunter scratching in the sand and crevices of 
the rock to find nuggets. Next the gold pan 
came into use and the nn'ners became experts 



170 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



in twirling the pan in a pool of water, so as to 
wash out the sand and gravel and leave the gold 
dust in the pan. Isaac Humphreys, who had 
mined gold in Georgia, was the first person to 
use a rocker or gold cradle in California. Al- 
though a very simple piece of machinery those 
who reached the mines early found it quite an 
expensive one. Dr. Brooks in his diary, under 
date of June ii, 1848, writes; "On Tuesday we 
set to work upon our cradle. We resolved upon 
the construction of two and for this purpose 
went down to the store in a body to see about 
the boards. We found timber extravagantly 
dear, being asked $40 a hundred feet. The next 
question was as to whether we should hire a 
carpenter. We were told there was one or two 
in the diggings, who might be hired, though 
at a very extravagant rate. Accordingly Brad- 
ley and I proceeded to see one of these gentle- 
men, and found him washing away with a hollow 
log and a willow branch sieve. He offered to 
help us at the rate of $35 a day, we finding pro- 
visions and tools, and could not be brought to 
charge less. We thought this by far too ex- 
travagant and left him, determined to undertake 
the work ourselves. After two days' work of 
seven men they produced two rough cradles 
and found that three men with a cradle or rocker 
could wash out as much gold in a day as six 
could with pans in the same time." 

A rocker or gold cradle had some resemblance 
to a child's cradle with similar rockers and was 
rocked by means of a perpendicular handle 
fastened to the cradle box. The cradle box con- 
sisted of a wooden trough about twenty inches 
wide and forty inches long with sides four or 
five inches high. The lower end was left open. 
On the upper end sat the hopper, a box twenty 
inches square with sides four inches high and 
a bottom of sheet iron or zinc pierced with holes 
one-half inch in diameter. Where zinc or iron 
could not be obtained a sieve of willow rods 
was used. Under the hopper was an apron of 
canvas, which sloped down from the lower end 
of the hopper to the upper end of the cradle 
box. A wooden riffle bar an inch square was 
nailed across the bottom of the cradle box about 
its middle, and another at its lower end. Under 
the cradle box were nailed rockers, and near 



the middle an upright handle by which motion 
was imparted. If water and pay dirt were con- 
venient two men were sufficient to operate the 
machine. Seated on a stooi or rock the operator 
rocked with one hand, while with a long handled 
dipper he dipped water from a pool and poured 
it on the sand and gravel in the hopper. When 
the sand and earth had been washed through 
the holes in the sieve the rocks were emptied 
and the hopper filled again from the buckets of 
pay dirt supplied by the other partner. The gold 
was caught on the canvas apron by the riffle 
bars, while the thin mud and sand were washed 
out of the machine by the water. 

In the dry diggings a method of separating 
the gold from the earth was resorted to prin- 
cipally by Sonorans. The pay dirt was dug and 
dried in the sun, then pulverized by pounding 
into fine dust. With a batea or bowl-shaped 
Indian basket filled with this dust, held in both 
hands, the Mexican skillfully tossed the earth 
in the air, allowing the wind to blow away the 
dust and catching the heavier particles and the 
gold in the basket, repeating the process until 
there was little left but the gold. 

The Long Tom was a single sluice with a 
sieve and a box underneath at the end and rif- 
fle bars to stop the gold. The pay dirt was shov- 
eled in at the upper end and a rapid current of 
water washed away the sand and earth, the gold 
falling into the receptacle below. Ground sluic- 
ing was resorted to where a current of water 
from a ditch could be directed against a bank oi 
earth or hill with a sloping bedrock. The stream 
of water washing against the upper side of the 
bank caved it down and carried the loose earth 
through a string of sluices, depositing the gold 
in the riffle bars in the bottom of the sluices. 

In the creeks and gulches where there was 
not much fall, sluice mining was commonly re- 
sorted to. A string of sluice boxes was laid, 
each fitting into the upper end of the one below, 
and in the lower ones riffle bars were placed 
to stop the gold. The sluice boxes were placed 
on trestles four feet from the ground and given 
an incline of five or six inches to the rod. The 
gravel from the bedrock up as far as there was 
any pay dirt was shoveled into the upper boxes 
and a rapid current of water flowing through the 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



171 



boxes carried away the gravel and rocks, the 
gold remaining in the riHles. Quicksilver was 
placed between the riftks to catch the fine gold. 
The gold amalgamated with quicksilver was 
cleaned out of the boxes at the end of the day's 
work and separated from the quicksilver in a re- 
tort. These were the principal methods of mining 
used by the argonauts. The machinery and ap- 
pliances were simple and inexpensive. Hy- 
draulic mining came in later, when larger cap- 
ital was required and the mines had fallen into 
the hands of corporations. 

When the news spread throughout the states 
of the wonderful "finds" of gold in California, 
llie crudest ideas prevailed in regard to how 
tlie precious metal was to be extracted from 
the earth. Gold mining was an almost un- 
known industry in the United States. Only 
in a few obscure districts of North Caro- 
lina and Georgia had gold been found, and 
but very few people outside of these dis- 
tricts had ever visited the mines. Not one in 
ten thousand of those who joined the rush 
to California in 1849 ^^^ ^v^"" ^^^^ ^ grain of 
virgin gold. The idea prevailed among the gold 
seekers that the gold being found in grains it 
could be winnowed from the sand and earth in 
which it was found like wheat is separated from 
chaff. Imbued with this idea Yankee ingenuity 
set to work to invent labor-saving machines 
that would accomplish the work quickly and 
enrich the miner proportionally. The ships that 
bore the argonauts from their native land car- 
ried out a variety of these gold machines, all 
guaranteed to wrest from the most secret re- 
cesses the auriferous deposits in nature's 
treasure vaults. These machines were of all 
varieties and patterns. They were made of cop- 
per, iron, zinc and brass. Some were operated 
by means of a crank, others had two cranks, 
while others were worked with a treadle. Some 
required that the operator should stand, others 
allowed the miner to sit in an arm chair and 
work in comfort. 

Haskins, in his "Argonauts of California," 
describes one of these machines that was 
brought around the Horn in the ship he came 
on: "It was in the shape of a huge fanning 
mill, with sieves properly arranged for sorting 



the gold ready for bottling. All chunks too 
large for the bottle would be consigned to the 
pork barrel." (The question of bringing home 
the gold in bottles or barrels had been seriously 
discussed and decided in favor of barrels be- 
cause these could be rolled and thus save cost 
of transportation from the mines.) 

"This immense machine which, during our 
passage, e.xcited the envy and jealousy of all 
who had not the means and opportunity of se- 
curing a similar one required, of course, the 
services of a hired man to turn the crank, whilst 
the proprietor would be busily engaged in shov- 
eling in pay dirt and pumping water; the greater 
portion of the time, however, being required, 
as was firmly believed, in corking the bottles 
and fitting the heads in the barrels. This ma- 
chine was owned by a Mr. Allen of Cambridge, 
Mass., who had brought with him a colored 
servant to manage and control the crank por- 
tion of the invaluable institution. 

"Upon landing we found lying on the sand 
and half buried in the mud hundreds of similar 
machines, bearing silent witness at once to the 
value of our gold saving machines without the 
necessity of a trial." 

Nor was it the argonaut alone who came by 
sea that brought these machines. Some^of 
these wonderful inventions were hauled across 
the plains in wagons, their owners often sacri- 
ficing the necessities of life to save the prized 
machine. And, when, after infinite toil and trou- 
Ijle, they had landed their prize in the mines, 
they were chagrined to find it the subject of jest 
and ridicule by those who had some experience 
in mining. 

The gold rush came early in the history of 
California placer mining. The story of a rich 
strike would often depopulate a mining camp in 
a few hours. Even a bare rumor of rich dig- 
gings in some indefinite locality would send 
scores of miners tramping off on a wild goose 
chase into the mountains. Some of these 
rushes originated through fake stories circu- 
lated for sinister purpose; others were caused 
liy exaggerated stories of real discoveries. 

One of the most famous fakes of early days 
was the Gold Lake rush of 1850. This wonder- 
ful lake was supposed to be located about two 



172 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



hundred miles northeast of Marysvihe, on the 
divide between the Feather and the Yuba rivers. 
The Sacramento Transcript of June 19, 1850, 
says: "We are informed by a gentleman from 
Marysville that it is currently reported there that 
the Indians upon this lake use gold for their 
commonest purposes; that they have a ready 
way of knocking out square blocks, which they 
use for seats and couches upon which to place 
their beds, which are simply bundles of wild 
oats, which grow so profusely in all sections of 
the state. According to report also they use for 
fishhooks crooked pieces of gold and kill their 
game with arrows made of the same material. 
They are reported to be thunderstruck at the 
movements of the whites and their eagerness 
to collect and hoard the materials of the very 
ground upon which they tread. 

"A story is current that a man at Gold Lake 
saw a large piece of gold floating on the lake 
which he succeeded in getting ashore. So 
clear are the waters that another man saw a 
rock of gold on the bottom. After many ef- 
forts he succeeded in lassoing the rock. Three 
days afterward he was seen standing holding on 
to his rope." 

The Placer Times of Marysville reports that 
the specimens brought into Marysville are of a 
value from $1,500 down. Ten ounces is re- 
ported as no unusual yield to the pan. The 
first party of sixty which started out under 
guidance of one who had returned successful 
were assured that they would not get less than 
$500 each per day. We were told that two hun- 
dred had left town with a full supply of pro- 
visions and four hundred mules. Mules and 
horses have doubled in value. Many places of 
business are closed. The diggings at the lake 
are probably the best ever discovered." The 
Times of June 19 says: "It is reported that up 
to last Thursday two thousand persons had 
taken up their journey. Many who were work- 
ing good claims deserted them for the new dis- 
covery. Mules and horses were about impos- 
sible to obtain. Although the truth of the re- 
port rests on the authority of but two or three 
who have returned from Gold Lake, yet few 
are found who doubt the marvelous revelations. 
.\ party of Kanakas are said to have wintered 



at Gold Lake, subsisting chiefly on the flesh of 
their animals. They are said to have taken out 
$75,000 the first week. When a conviction takes 
such complete possession of a whole com- 
munity, w'ho are fully conversant with all the 
exaggerations that have had their day, it is 
scarcely prudent to utter even a qualified dissent 
from what is universally believed." 

The denouement of the Gold Lake romance 
may be found in the Transcript of July i, 1850. 
"The Gold Lake excitement, so much talked of 
and acted upon of late, has almost subsided. 
A crazy man comes in for a share of the re- 
sponsibility. Another report is that they have 
found one of the pretended discoverers at 
Marysville and are about to lynch him. In- 
deed, we are told that a demonstration against 
the town is feared by many. People who have 
returned after traveling some one hundred and 
fifty to two hundred miles say that they left vast 
numbers of people roaming between the sources 
of the Yuba and the Feather rivers." 

Scarcely had the deluded argonauts returned 
from a bootless search for the lake of gold when 
another rumored discovery of gold fields of 
fabulous richness sent them rushing off toward 
the sea coast. Now it was Gold Bluff that lured 
them away. On the northwest coast of Califor- 
nia, near the mouth of the Klamath river, 
precipitous bluffs four hundred feet high mark 
the coast line of the ocean. A party of pros- 
pectors in the fall of 1850, who had been up 
in the Del Norte country, were making their 
way down to the little trading and trapping sta- 
tion of Trinidad to procure provisions. On 
reaching the bluffs, thirty miles above Trinidad, 
they were astonished to find stretching out be- 
fore them a beach glittering with golden sands. 
They could not stop to gather gold; they were 
starving. So, scraping up a few handfuls of the 
glittering sands, they hastened on. In due 
time they reached San Francisco, where they 
exhibited their sand, which proved to be nearly 
half gold. The report of the wonderful find was 
spread by the newspapers and the excitement 
began. Companies were formed and claims lo- 
cated at long range. One company of nine 
locators sent an expert to examine their claims. 
He, by a careful mathematical calculation, as- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



173 



ccrtained that the claim would yield forty-tliree 
million dollars to each partner. As there were 
fifteen miles of gold beach, the amount of gold 
in the sands was sufficient to demonetize the 
precious metal. A laudable desire to benefit 
the human race possessed some of the claim 
owners. They formed joint stock companies with 
shares at $ioo each. Gold Blufif mining stock 
went off like the proverbial hot cakes and pros- 
pectors went of! as rapidly. Within two days 
after the expert's wonderful story was spread 
abroad nine ships were fitted out for Gold Bluf?. 
The first to arrive ofT the Bluff was the vessel 
containing a party of the original discoverers. 
In attempting to land in a boat, the boat was 
upset in the breakers and five of the six occu- 
pants were drowned, Bertram, the leader of the 
party making the discovery, alone escaping. 
The vessel put back to Trinidad and the gold 
hunters made their way up the coast to the 
Bluff. But alas for their golden dreams! 
Where they had hoped to gather gold by the 
ship load no gold was found. Old ocean had 
gathered it back into his treasure vaults. 

The bubble burst as suddenly as it had ex- 
panded. And yet there was gold at Gold Bluff 
and there is gold there yet. If the ocean could 
be drained or coffer dammed for two hundred 
miles along the gold coast of northern Califor- 
nia and Oregon, all the wealth of Alaska would 
be but the panning out of a prospect hole com- 
pared to the richness that lies hidden in the 
sands of Gold Beach. For years after the 
bursting of the Gold BlufT bubble, when the 
tide was low, the sands along Gold Beach were 
mined with profit. 

The Kern river excitement in the spring of 
1855 surpassed everything that had preceded it. 
Seven years of mining had skimmed the rich- 
ness of the placers. The northern and central 
gold fields of California had been thoroughly 
prospected. The miners who had been accus- 
tomed to the rich strikes of early years could 
not content themselves with moderate returns. 
They were on the qui vive for a rich strike and 
ready for a rush upon the first report of one. 
The first discoveries on the Kern river were 
made in the summer of 1854, but no excitement 
followed immediately. During the fall and win- 



ter rumors were set aHoat of rich strikes on the 
head waters of that stream. The stories grew 
as they traveled. One that had a wide circula- 
tion and was readily accepted ran about as fol- 
lows : "A Mexican doctor had appeared in Mari- 
posa loaded down with gold nuggets. He re- 
ported that he and four companions had found 
a region paved with gold. cThe very hills were^ 
yellow with outcroppings. While gloating over 
their wealth and loading it into sacks the Irt^ 
dians attacked them and killed his four com- 
panions. He escaped with one sack of gold. He 
proposed to organize a company large enough 
to exterminate the Indians and then bring out 
the gold on pack mules." This as well as other 
stories as improbable were spread broadcast 
throughout the state. Many of the reports of 
wonderful strikes were purposely magnified by 
merchants and dealers in mining supplies who 
were overstocked with unsalable goods; and 
by transportation companies with whom busi- 
ness was slack. Their purpose was accom- 
plished and the rush w'as on. It began in Jan- 
uary, 1855. Every steamer down the coast to 
Los Angeles was loaded to the guards with 
adventurers for the mines. The sleepy old 
metropolis of the cow counties waked up to 
find itself suddenly transformed into a bustling 
mining camp. The Southern Calif ornian of Feb- 
ruary 8, 1855, thus describes the situation: "The 
road from our valley is literally thronged with 
people on their way to the mines. Hundreds 
of people have been leaving not only the city, 
but every portion of the' "county. Every descrip- 
tion of vehicle and animal has been brought 
into requisition to take the exultant seekers 
after wealth to the goal of their hopes. Im- 
mense ten-mule wagons strung out one after 
another; long trains of pack mules and men 
mounted and on foot, with picks and shovels; 
boarding-house keepers with their tents; mer- 
chants with their stocks of miners' necessaries 
and gamblers with their 'papers' are constantly 
leaving for the Kern river mines. The wildest 
stories are afloat. If the mines turn out $10 
a day to the man everybody ought to be satis- 
fied. The opening of these mines has been a 
Godsend to all of us, as the business of the en- 
tire country was on the point of taking to a 



174 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Irec. The great scarcity of money is seen in 
tlie present exorbitant rates of interest which it 
commands; 8, lo and even 15 per cent a month 
is freely paid and the supply even at these rates 
is too meager to meet the demands." As the 
rush increased our editor grows more jubilant. 
In his issue of March 7, he throws out these 
headlines: "Stop the Press! Glorious News 
from Kern River! Bring Out the Big Gun! 
There are a thousand gulches rich with gold 
and room for ten thousand miners. Miners 
averaged $50 a day. One man with his own 
hands took out $160 in a day. Five men in ten 
days took out $4,500." 

Another stream of miners and adventurers 
was pouring into the mines by way of the San 
Joaquin valley. From Stockton to the Kern 
river, a distance of three hundred miles, the 
road was crowded with men on foot, on stages, 
on horseback and on every form of convey- 
ance that would take them to the new El Do- 
rado. In four months five or six thousand men 
had found their way into the Kern river basin. 
There was gold there, but not enough to go 
around. A few struck it rich, the many struck 
nothing but "hard luck" and the rush out began. 
Those who had ridden into the valley footed it 
out, and those who had footed it in on sole 
leather footed it out on their natural soles. 

After the wild frenzy of Kern river, the press 
of the state congratulated the public with the 
assurance that the era of wild rushes was past — 
"what had been lost in money had been gained 
in experience." As if prospectors ever profited 
by experience! Scarcely had the victims of Kern 
river resumed work in the old creeks and caiions 
they had deserted to join in the rush when a 
rumor came, faint at first, but gathering 
strength at each repetition, that rich diggings 
had been struck in the far north. This time 
it is Frazer river. True, Frazer river is in the 
British possessions, but what of that? There 
are enough miners in California to seize the 
country and hold it until the cream of the mines 
has been skimmed. Rumors of the richness 
of mines increased with every arrival of a 
steamer from the north. Captains, pursers, 
mates, cooks and waiters all confirmed the sto- 
ries of rich strikes. Doubters asserted that the 



dust and nuggets exhibited had made the trip 
from San Francisco to Victoria and back. But 
they were silenced by the assurance that the 
transportation company was preparing to double 
the number of its vessels on that route. Com- 
modore Wright was too smart to run his steam- 
ers on fake reports, and thus the very thing that 
^lould have caused suspicion was used to con- 
firm the truth of the rumors. The doubters 
doubted no more, but packed their outfits for 
P>azer river. California was played out. Where 
could an honest miner pan out $100 a day 
in California now? He could do it every day 
in Frazer; the papers said so. The first notice 
of the mines was published in March, 1858. The 
rush began the latter part of April and in four 
months thirty thousand men, one-sixth of the 
voting population of the state, had rushed to 
the mines. 

The effect of the craze was disastrous to busi- 
ness in California. Farms were abandoned and 
crops lost for want of hands to harvest them. 
Rich claims in old diggings were sold for a trifle 
of their value. Lots on Montgomery street that 
a few years later were worth $1,500 a front foot 
were sold for $100. Real estate in the interior 
towns was sacrificed at 50 to 75 per cent less 
than it was worth before the rush began. But 
a halt was called in the mad rush. The returns 
were not coming in satisfactorily. By the mid- 
dle of July less than $100,000 in dust had 
reached San Francisco, only about $3 for each 
man who had gone to the diggings. There was 
gold there and plenty of it, so those interested 
in keeping up the excitement said: "The Frazer 
river is high; wait till it subsides." But it did 
not subside, and it has not subsided since. If 
the Frazer did not subside the excitement did, 
and that suddenly. Those who had money 
enough or could borrow from their friends got 
away at once. Those who had none hung 
around Victoria and New Westminster until 
they were shipped back at the government's ex- 
])ense. The Frazer river craze was the last of the 
mad, unreasoning "gold rushes." The Washoe 
excitement of '59 and the "Ho! for Idaho of 
1863-64" had some of the characteristics of the 
carlv gold rushes, but they soon settled down to 
steady business and the yield from these fairly 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



17o 



recompensed those who were frugal and indus- 
trious. 

Never before perhaps among civilized people 
was there witnessed such a universal levehng 
as occurred in the first years of the mining ex- 
citement in Cahfornia. "As the labor required 
was physical instead of mental, the usual supe- 
riority of head workers over hand workers dis- 
appeared entirely. Men who had been gov- 
ernors and legislators and judges in the old 
states worked by the side of outlaws and con- 
victs; scholars and students by the side of men 
who could not read or write; those who had 
been masters by the side of those who had been 
slaves; old social distinctions were obliterated; 
everybody did business on his own account, and 
not one man in ten was the employe and much 
less the servant of another. Social distinctions 
appeared to be entirely obliterated and no man 
was considered inferior to another. The hard- 
fisted, unshaven and patch-covered miner was 
on terms of perfect ecjuality with the well- 
dressed lawyer, surgeon or merchant; and in 
general conferences, discussions and even con- 



versations the most weather-beaten and strongly 
marked face, or, in other words, the man who 
had seen and experienced the most, notwith- 
standing his wild and tattered attire, was lis- 
tened to with more attention and respectful con- 
sideration than the man of polished speech and 
striking antithesis. One reason of this was that in 
those days the roughest-looking man not infre- 
Cjuently knew more than anybody else of what 
was wanted to be known, and the raggedest man 
not infrequently was the most influential and 
sometimes the richest man in the locality."* 

This independent spirit was characteristic of 
the men of '48 and '49. Then nearly everybody 
was honest and theft was almost unknown. 
With the advent of the criminal element in 
1850 and later there came a change. Before that 
a pan of gold dust could be left in an open tent 
unguarded, but with the coming of the Sydney 
ducks from Australia and men of their class it 
became necessary to guard property with sedu- 
lous care. 



* Hittell's History of California, Vol. III. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



IN 1835 Capt. William A. Richardson built 
the first house on the Yerba Buena cove. 
It was a shanty of rough board, which he 
replaced a year later with an adobe building. 
He was granted a lot in 1836 and his building 
stood near what is now the corner of Dupont 
and Clay streets. Richardson had settled at 
Sausalito in 1822. He was an Englishman by 
birth and was one of the first foreigners to settle 
in California. 

Jacob P. Leese, an American, in partnership 
with Spear & Hinckley, obtained a lot in 1836 
and built a house and store near that of Captain 
Richardson. There is a tradition that Mr. Leese 
began his store building on the first of July and 
finished it at ten o'clock on the morning of 
July 4, and for a house warming celebrated the 
glorious Fourth in a style that astonished the 
natives up and down the coast. The house was 
sixty feet long and twenty-five broad, and, if 



completed in three days, Mr. Leese certainly de- 
serves the credit of having eclipsed some of 
the remarkable feats in house building that were 
performed after the great fires of San Francisco 
in the early '50s. Mr. Leese and his neighbor. 
Captain Richardson, invited all the high-toned 
Spanish families for a hundred miles around to 
the celebration. The Mexican and American 
flags floated over the building and two six- 
pounders fired salutes. At five o'clock the 
guests sat down to a sumptuous dinner which 
lasted, toasts and all, till 10 o'clock, and then 
came dancing; and, as Mr. Leese remarks in his 
diary : "Our Fourth ended on the evening of 
the fifth." Mr. Leese was an energetic person. 
He built a house in three days, gave a Fourth of 
July celebration that lasted tv^'o days, and inside 
of a week had a store opened and was doing a 
thriving business with his late guests. He fell 
in love with the same energy that he did busi- 



176 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ness. Among the guests at his 4th of July 
celebration were the Vallejos, the nabobs of 
Sonoma. Leese courted one of the girls and in 
a few months after the celebration married her. 
Their daughter, Rosalie Leese, was the first 
child born in Yerba Buena. Such was the be- 
ginning of San Francisco. 

This settlement was on a crescent-shaped cove 
lliat lay between Clark's Point and the Rincon. 
The locality was known as Yerba Buena (good 
herb), a species of mint to which the native Cal- 
ifornians attributed many medicinal virtues. 
The peninsula still bore the name that had been 
applied to it when the mission and presidio 
were founded, San Francisco. Yerba Buena 
was a local appellation and applied only to the 
little hamlet that had grown up on the cove. 
This settlement, although under the Mexican 
government, was not a Mexican town. The 
foreign element, the American predominating, 
had always been in the ascendency. At the time 
of the conquest, among its two hundred inhab- 
itants, were representatives of almost every civ- 
ilized nation on the globe. It was a cosmopol- 
itan town. In a very short time after the con- 
quest it began to take on a new growth and was 
recognized as the coming metropolis of Califor- 
nia. The curving beach of the cove at one 
point (Jackson street) crossed the present line 
of Montgomery street. 

Richardson and Leese had built their stores 
and warehouses back from the beach because of 
a Mexican law that prohibited the building of a 
house on the beach where no custom house ex- 
isted. All houses had to be built back a certain 
number of varas from high-water mark. This 
regulation was made to prevent smuggling. Be- 
tween the shore line of the cove and anchorage 
there was a long stretch of shallow water. This 
made transportation of goods from ship to 
shore very inconvenient and expensive. With 
the advent of the Americans and the inaugura- 
tion of a more progressive era it became neces- 
sary for the convenient landing of ships and for 
the discharging and receiving of their cargoes 
that the beach front of the town should be im- 
proved by building wharves and docks. The dif- 
ficulty was to find the means to do this. The 
general government of the LInited States could 



not undertake it. The war with Mexico was 
still in progress. The only available way was 
to sell ofif beach lots to private parties, but who 
was to give title was the question. Edwin Bry- 
ant, February 22, 1847, l^ad succeeded Wash- 
ington Bartlett as alcalde. Bryant was a pro- 
gressive man, and, recognizing the necessity of 
improvement in the shipping facilities of the 
town, he urged General Kearny, the acting 
governor, to relinquish, on the part of the gen- 
eral government, its claim to the beach lands in 
front of the town in favor of the municipality 
under certain conditions. General Kearny 
really had no authority to relinquish the claim 
of the general government to the land, for the 
simple reason that the general government had 
not perfected a claim. The country was held 
as conquered territory. Mexico had made no 
concession of the land by treaty. It was not 
certain that California would be ceded to the 
United States. Under Mexican law the gov- 
ernor of the territory, under certain conditions, 
had the right to make grants, and General Kear- 
ny, assuming the power given a Mexican gov- 
ernor, issued the following decree: "I, Brig.- 
Gen. S. W. Kearny, Governor of California, 
by virtue of authority in me vested by the Pres- 
ident of the United States of America, do hereby 
grant, convey, and release unto the Town of San 
Francisco, the people or corporate authorities 
thereof, all the right, title and interest of the 
Government of the United States and of the 
Territory of California in and to the Beach and 
Water Lots on the East front of said Town of 
San Francisco included between the points 
known as the Rincon and Fort Montgomery, 
excepting such lots as may be selected for the 
use of the United States Government by the 
senior officers of the army and navy now there; 
provided, the said ground hereby ceded shall 
be divided into lots and sold by public auction to 
the highest bidder, after three months' notice 
previously given; the proceeds of said sale to 
be for the benefit of the town of San Francisco. 
Given at Monterey, capital of California, this 
loth day of March, 1847, ^"d the seventy-first 
year of the independence of the United States." 

S. W. Kearny, 
Brig.-Gen'l & Gov. of California. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



177 



In pursuance of this decree, Alcalde Bryant 
advertised in the Californian that the ground 
described in the decree, known as Water Lots, 
would be surveyed and divided into convenient 
building lots and sold to the highest bidder on 
the 29th of June (1847). He then proceeds in 
the advertisement to boom the town. "The site 
of the town of San Francisco is known by all 
navigators and mercantile men acquainted with 
the subject to be the most commanding com- 
mercial position on the entire western coast of 
the Pacific ocean, and the Town itself is no 
doubt destined to become the commercial em- 
porium of the western side of the North Ameri- 
can continent."' The alcaldes' assertions must 
have seemed rather extravagant to the dwellers 
in the little burgh on the cove of Yerba Buena. 
But Bryant was a far-seeing man and proved 
himself in this instance to be a prophet. 

It will be noticed that both General Kearny 
and Alcalde Bryant call the town San Francisco. 
Alcalde Bartlett, the predecessor in ofifice of 
Alcalde Bryant, had changed its name just be- 
fore he was recalled to his ship. He did not 
like the name Yerba Buena, so he summarily 
changed it. He issued a proclamation setting 
forth that hereafter the town should be known 
as San Francisco. Having proclaimed a change 
of name, he proceeded to give his reasons: 
Yerba Buena was a paltry cognomen for a cer- 
tain kind of mint found on an island in the 
bay; it was a merely local name, unknown be- 
yond the district, while San Francisco had long 
been familiar on the maps. "Therefore it is 
hereby ordained, etc." Bartlett builded better 
than he knew. It would have been a sad mis- 
take for the city to have carried the "outlandish 
name which Americans would mangle in pro- 
nouncing," as the alcalde said. 

The change was made in the latter part of 
January, 1847, but it was some time before the 
new name was generally adopted. 

The California Star, Sam Brannan's paper, 
which had begun to shine January 9, 1847, i" 
its issue of ^larch 20, alluding to the change, 
says: "We acquiesce in it, though we prefer 
the old name. When the change was first at- 
tempted we viewed it as a mere assumption of 
authority, without law of precedent, and there- 
12 



fore we adhered to the old name — Yerba 
Buena." 

"It was asserted by the late alcalde, Washing- 
ton Bartlett, that the place was called San 
I'Vancisco in some old Spanish paper which he 
professed to have in his possession; but how 
could we believe a man even about that which 
it is said 'there is nothing in it,' who had so 
often evinced a total disregard for his own honor 
and character and the honor of the country 
which gave him birth and the rights of his fel- 
low citizens in the district?" Evidently the edi- 
tor had a grievance and was anxious to get even 
with the alcalde. Bartlett demanded an inves- 
tigation of some charges made against his ad- 
ministration. He was cleared of all blame. He 
deserves the thanks of all Californians in sum- 
marily suppressing Yerba Buena and preventing 
it from being fastened on the chief city of the 
state. 

There was at that time (on paper) a city of 
Francisca. The city fathers of this budding me- 
tropolis were T. O. Larkin and Robert Semple. 
In a half-column advertisement in the Califor- 
nian of April 20, 1847, and several subsequent 
issues, headed "Great Sale of City Lots," they set 
forth the many advantages and merits of 
Francisca. The streets are eighty feet wide, the 
alleys twenty feet wide, and the lots fifty yards 
front and forty yards back. The whole city 
comprises five square miles." 

"Francisca is situated on the Straits of Car- 
(|uinez, on the north side of the Bay of San 
Francisco, about thirty miles from the mouth 
of the bay and at the head of ship navigation. 
In front of the city is a commodious bay, large 
enough for two hundred ships to ride at anchor, 
safe from any wind." * * * "The entire 
trade of the great Sacramento and San Joaquin 
valleys, a fertile country of great width and near 
seven hundred miles long from north to south, 
must of necessity pass through the narrow chan- 
nel of Carquinez and the bay and country is 
so situated that every person who passes from 
one side of the bay to the other will find the 
nearest and best way by Francisca." Francisca, 
with its manifold natural advantages, ought to 
have been a great city, the metropolis of Cali- 
fornia, but the Fates were against it. Alcalde 



ITS 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Bartlett, probably without any design of doing 
so, dealt it a fearful blow when he dubbed the 
town of the good herb, San Francisco. Two 
cities with names so nearly alike could not live 
and thrive in the same state. Francisca became 
Benicia. The population of San Francisco (or 
Yerba Buena, as it was then called) at the time 
that Captain Montgomery raised the stars and 
stripes and took possession of it probably did 
not exceed two hundred. Its change of masters 
accelerated its growth. The Calif ornian of Sep- 
tember 4, 1847 (fourteen months after it came 
under the flag of the United States), gives the 
following statistics of its population and prog- 
ress: Total white male population, 247; female, 
123; Indians, male, 26; female, 8; South Sea 
Islanders, male, 39; female i; negroes, male, 
9; female i; total population, 454. 

Nearly every country on the globe had repre- 
sentatives in its population, and the various vo- 
cations by which men earn a living were 
well represented. Minister, one; doctors, three; 
lawyers, three; surveyors, two; agriculturists, 
eleven; bakers, seven; blacksmiths, six; brew- 
er, one; butchers, seven; cabinetmakers, two; 
carpenters, twenty-six; cigarmaker, one; coop- 
ers, three; clerks, thirteen; gardener, one; 
grocers, five; gunsmiths, two; hotel-keepers, 
three; laborers, twenty; masons, four; mer- 
chants, eleven; miner, one; morocco case 
maker, one; navigators (inland), six; navigator 
(ocean), one; painter, one; printer, one; sol- 
dier, one; shoemakers, four; silversmith, one; 
tailors, four; tanners, two; watchmaker, one; 
weaver, one. Previous to April i, 1847, accord- 
ing to the Calif ornian, there had been erected in 
the town seventy-nine buildings, classified as 
follows: Shanties, twenty-two; frame buildings, 
thirty-one; adobe buildings, twenty-six. Since 
April I, seventy-eight buildings have been 
erected, viz.: Shanties, twenty; frame buildings, 
forty-seven; adobe buildings, eleven. "Within 
five months last past," triumphantly adds the 
editor of the Californian, "as many buildings 
have been built as were erected in all the pre- 
vious years of the town's existence." 

The town continued to grow with wonderful 
rapidity throughout the year 1847, considering 
that peace had not yet been declared and the 



destiny of California was uncertain. According 
to a school census taken in March, 1848, by 
the Board of Trustees, the population , was: 
Males, five hundred and seventy-five; females, 
one hundred and seventy-seven; and "children 
of age to attend school," sixty, a total of eight 
hundred and twelve. Building kept pace with 
the increase of population until the "gold fever" 
became epidemic. Dr. Brooks, writing in his 
diary May 17, says: "Walking through the town 
to-day, I observed that laborers were employed 
only upon about half a dozen of the fifty new 
buildings which were in the course of being 
run up." 

The first survey of lots in the town had been 
made by a Frenchman named Vioget. No 
names had been given to the streets. This sur- 
vey was made before the conquest. In 1847, 
Jasper O'Farrell surveyed and platted the dis- 
trict extending about half a mile in the different 
directions from the plaza. The streets were 
named, and, with a very few changes, still retain 
the names then given. In September the coun- 
cil appointed a committee to report upon the 
building of a wharf. It was decided to con- 
struct two wharves, one from the foot of Clay 
street and the other from the foot of Broadway. 
Money was appropriated to build them and they 
had been extended some distance seaward when 
the rush to the mines suspended operations. 
After considerable agitation by the two news- 
papers and canvassing for funds, the first school- 
house was built. It was completed December 
4, 1847, tii^'t. for lack of funds, or, as the Star 
savs, for lack of energy in the council, school 
was not opened on the completion of the house. 
In March the council appropriated $400 and 
April I, 1848, Thomas Douglas, a graduate of 
Yale College, took charge of the school. San 
Francisco was rapidly developing into a pro- 
gressive American city. Unlike the older towns 
of California, it had but a small Mexican popu- 
lation. Even had not gold been discovered, it 
would have grown into a commercial city of con- 
siderable size. 

The first effect of the gold discovery and the 
consequent rush to the mines was to bring 
everything to a standstill. As Kenible. of the 
Star, puts it, it was "as if a curse had arrested 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGILAPHICAL RECORD. 



17!) 



our onward course of enterprise; everything 
wears a desolate and sombre look; everywhere 
all is dull, monotonous, dead." The return of 
the inhabitants in a few months and the influx 
of new arrivals gave the town a boom in the 
fall of 184S. Building was only limited by the 
lack of material, and every kind of a makeshift 
was resorted to to provide shelter against win- 
ter rains. From the many attempts at describ- 
ing the town at this stage of its development. I 
select this from "Sights in the Gold Regions," a 
book long since out of print. Its author, T. T. 
Johnson, arrived at San Francisco April i, 1849. 
"Proceeding on our survey, we found the 
streets, or, properly, the roads, laid out reg- 
ularly, those parallel with the water being a 
succession of terraces, and these ascending the 
hills or along their sides being in some instances 
cut down ten or twelve feet below the surface. 
Except a portion of the streets fronting upon 
the cove, they are all of hard-beaten, sandy clay, 
as solid as if macadamized. About three hun- 
dred houses, stores, shanties and sheds, with a 
great many tents, composed the town at that 
period. The houses were mostly built of rough 
boards and unpainted ; brown cottons or calico 
nailed against the beams and joists answered for 
wall and ceiling of the better class of tenements. 
With the exception of the brick warehouse of 
Howard and Melius, the establishments of the 
commercial houses of which we had heard so 
much were inferior to the outhouses of the 
country seats on the Hudson; and yet it would 
puzzle the New York Exchange to produce 
merchant princes of equal importance." * * * 
"We strolled among the tents in the outskirts 
of the town. Here was 'confusion worse con- 
founded,' chiefly among Mexicans, Peruvians 
and Chilians. Every kind, size, color and shape 
of tent pitched helter-skelter and in the most 
awkward manner were stowed full of everything 
under the sun." 

In the first six months of 1849 fifteen thou- 
sand souls were added to the population of San 
Francisco; in the latter half of that year about 
four thousand arrived every month by sea alone. 
At first the immigrants were from Mexico, 
Chile, Peru and the South American ports gen- 
erally; but early in the spring the Americans 



began to arrive, coming by way of Panama and 
Cape Horn, and later across the plains. Europe 
sent its contingent by sea via Cape Horn ; and 
Chma, Australia and the Hawaiian Islands 
added to the city's population an undesirable 
element. A large majority of those who came 
by sea made their way to the mines, but many 
soon returned to San Francisco, some to take 
their departure for home, others to become resi- 
dents. At the end of the year San Francisco 
had a population of twenty-five thousand. The 
following graphic description of life in San 
Francisco in the fall of '49 and spring of '50 I take 
from a paper, "Pioneer Days in San Francisco," 
written by John Williamson Palmer, and pub- 
lished in the Century Magazine (1890): "And 
how did they all live? In frame houses of one 
story, more commonly in board shanties and 
canvas tents, pitched in the midst of sand or 
mud and various rubbish and strange filth and 
fleas; and they slept on rude cots or on soft 
planks, under horse blankets, on tables, coun- 
ters, floors, on trucks in the open air, in bunks 
braced against the weather-boarding, forty of 
them in one loft; and so they tossed and 
scratched and swore and laughed and sang and 
skylarked, those who were not tired or drunk 
enough to sleep. And in the working hours 
they bustled, and jostled, and tugged, and 
sweated, and made money, always made money. 
They labored and they lugged; they worked on 
lighters, drove trucks, packed mules, rang bells, 
carried messages, 'waited' in restaurants, 
'marked' for billiard tables, served drinks in 
bar rooms, 'faked' on the plaza, 'cried' at auc- 
tions, toted lumber for houses, ran a game of 
faro or roulette in the El Dorado or the Bella 
Union, or manipulated three-card monte on 
the head of a barrel in front of the Parker 
House; they speculated, and, as a rule, gam- 
bled. 

"Clerks in stores and offices had munificent 
salaries. Five dollars a day was about the small- 
est stipend even in the custom house, and one 
Baptist preacher was paid $10,000 a year. La- 
borers received $1 an hour; a pick or a shovel 
was worth $10; a tin pan or a wooden bowl 
$5, and a butcher knife $30. .At one time car- 
penters who were getting $12 a day struck 



180 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



for $i6. Lumber rose to $500 per thou- 
sand feet, and every brick in a house cost 
a dollar one way or another. Wheat, flour 
and salt pork sold at $40 a barrel; a small 
loaf of bread was fifty cents and a hard-boiled 
egg a dollar. You paid $3 to get into the cir- 
cus and $55 for a private box at the theater. 
I'orty dollars was the price for ordinary coarse 
boots, and a pair that came above the knees 
and would carry you gallantly through the quag- 
mires brought a round hundred. When a shirt 
became very dirty the wearer threw it away and 
bought a new one. Washing cost $15 a dozen 
in 1849. 

"Rents were simply monstrous; $3,000 a 
month in advance for a 'store' hurriedly built of 
rough boards. Wright & Co. paid $75,000 for 
the wretched little place on the corner of the 
plaza that they called the Miners' Bank, and 
$36,000 was asked for the use of the Old Adobe 
as a custom-house. The Parker House paid 
$120,000 a year in rents, nearly one-half of that 
amount being collected from gamblers who held 
the second floor; and the canvas tent next door 
used as a gambling saloon, and called the El 
Dorado, was good for $40,000 a year. From 
10 to 15 per cent a month was paid in advance 
for the use of money borrowed on substantial 
security. The prices of real estate went up 
among the stars; $8,000 for a fifty-vara lot that 
liad been bought in 1849 for $20. A lot pur- 
chased two years before for a barrel of aguar- 
liiente sold for $18,000. Yet, for all that, every- 
body made money. 

"The aspect of the streets of San Francisco at 
this time was such as one may imagine of an 
unsightly waste of sand and mud churned by 
the continual grinding of heavy wagons and 
trucks and the tugging and floundering of 
horses, mules and oxen; thoroughfares irregu- 
lar and uneven, ungraded, unpaved, unplanked, 
obstructed by lumber and goods, alternate 
humps and holes, the actual dumping-places of 
the town, handy receptacles for the general 
sweepings and rubbish and indescribable offal 
and filth, the refuse of an indiscriminate popu- 
lation 'pigging' together in shanties and tents. 
And these conditions extended beyond the 
actual settlement into the chaparral and under- 



brush that covered the sand hills on the north 
and west. 

"The flooding rains of winter transformed 
what should have been thoroughfares into 
treacherous quagmires set with holes and traps 
fit to smother horse and man. Loads of brush- 
wood and branches of trees cut from the hills 
were thrown into these swamps ; but they served 
no more than a temporary purpose and the in- 
mates of tents and houses made such bridges 
and crossings as they could with boards, boxes 
and barrels. Men waded through the slough 
and thought themselves lucky when they sank 
no deeper than their waists." 

It is said that two horses mired down in the 
mud of Alontgomery street were left to die of 
starvation, and that three drunken men were 
suffocated between Washington and Jackson 
streets. It was during the winter of '49 that the 
famous sidewalk of flour sacks, cooking stoves 
and tobacco boxes was built. It extended from 
Simmons, Hutchinson & Co.'s store to Adams 
Express office, a distance of about seventy-five 
yards. The first portion was built of Chilean 
flour in one hundred pound sacks, next came the 
cooking stoves in a long row, and then followed 
a double row of tobacco boxes of large size, 
and a yawning gap of the walk was bridged by 
a piano. Chile flour, cooking stoves, tobacco 
and pianos were cheaper material for building 
v.alks, owing to the excessive supply of these, 
than lumber at $600 a thousand. 

In the summer of '49 there were more than 
three hundred sailing vessels lying in the harbor 
of San Francisco, from which the sailors had 
deserted to go to the mines. Some of these ves- 
sels rotted where they were moored. Some 
were hauled up in the sand or mud flats and 
used for store houses, lodging houses and sa- 
loons. As the water lots were filled in and built 
upon, these ships sometimes formed part of 
the line of buildings on the street. The brig 
Euphemia was the first jail owned by the city; 
the store ship Apollo was converted into a 
lodging house and saloon, and the Niantic Hotel 
at the corner of Sansome and Clay streets was 
built on the hull of the ship Niantic. As the 
wharves were extended out into the bay the 
space between was filled in from the sand hills 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



181 



and liuuses built along the wharves. In this 
way the cove was gradually filled in. The high 
price of lumber and the great scarcity of houses 
brought about the importation from New York, 
Boston, Philadelphia and London of houses 
ready framed to set up. For a time im- 
mense profits were made in this, but an e.x- 
cessive shipment like that of the articles of 
which the famous sidewalk was made brought 
down the price below cost, and the business 
ceased. 

The first of the great fires that devastated San 
Francisco occurred on Christmas eve, 1849. It 
started in Denison's Exchange, a gambling 
house on the east side of the plaza. It burned 
the greater part of the block between Wash- 
ington and Clay streets and Kearny and Mont- 
gomery streets. The loss was estimated at a 
million and a quarter dollars. The second great 
fire occurred on May 4, 1850. It burned over 
the three blocks between Montgomery and 
Dupont streets, bounded by Jackson and Clay 
streets, and the north and east sides of Ports-^ 
mouth square. The loss was estimated at 
$4,000,000. It started in the United States Ex- 
change, a gambling den, at four o'clock in the 
morning, and burned for seven hours. The fire 
was believed to be of incendiary origin and sev- 
eral suspicious characters were arrested, but 
nothing could be proved against them. A num- 
ber of the lookers-on refused to assist in arrest- 
ing the progress of the flames unless paid for 
their labor ; and $3 an hour was demanded and 
paid to some who did. 

On the 14th of June, 1850, a fire broke out in 
the Sacramento House, on the east side of Kear- 
ny street, between Clay and Sacramento. The 
entire district from Kearny street between Clay 
and California to the water front was burned 
over, causing a loss of $3,000,000. Over three 
hundred houses were destroyed. The fourth 
great fire of the fateful year of 1850 occurred 
September 17. It started on Jackson street and 
destroyed the greater part of the blocks be- 
tween Dupont and Montgomery streets from 
Washington to Pacific streets. The loss in this 
was not so great from the fact that the district 
contained mostly one-story houses. It was esti- 
mated at half a million dollars. December 14 



of the same year a fire occurred on Sacramento 
street below Montgomery. Although the dis- 
trict burned over was not extensive, the loss 
was heavy. The buildings were of corrugated 
iron, supposed to be fireproof, and were filled 
with valuable merchandise. The loss amounted 
to $1,000,000. After each fire, building was re- 
sumed almost before the embers of the fire that 
consumed the former buildings were extin- 
guished. After each fire better buildings were 
constructed. A period of six months' exemp- 
tion had encouraged the inhabitants of the fire- 
afflicted city to believe that on account of the 
better class of buildings constructed the danger 
of great conflagrations was past, but the worst 
was yet to come. At 11 p. m. May 3, 1851, a 
fire, started by incendiaries, broke out on the 
south side of the plaza. A strong northwest 
wind swept across Kearny street in broad 
sheets of flame, first southeastward, then, the 
wind changing, the flames veered to the north 
and east. All efforts to arrest them were use- 
less; houses W'cre blown up and torn down in 
attempts to cut ofif communication, but the en- 
gines were driven back step by step, while some 
of the brave firemen fell victims to the fire fiend. 
The flames, rising aloft in whirling volumes, 
swept away the frame houses and crumbled up 
with intense heat the supposed fireproof struc- 
tures. After ten hours, whenjhe fire abated for 
want of material to burn, all that remained of 
the city were the sparsely settled outskirts. All 
of the business district between Pine and Pa- 
cific streets, from Kearny to the Battery on 
the water front, was in ruins. Over one thou- 
sand houses had been burned. The loss of prop- 
erty was estimated at $10,000,000. an amount 
greater than the aggregate of all the preceding 
fires. A number of lives were lost. During the 
progress of the fire large quantities of goods 
were stolen by bands of thieves. The sixth and 
last of the great conflagrations that devastated 
the city occurred on the 22d of June, 1851. The 
fire started in a building on Powell street and 
ravaged the district between Clay and Broadway, 
from Powell to .Sansome. Four hundred and 
fifty houses were burned, involving a loss of 
$2,500,000. An improved fire department, 
more stringent building regulations and a bet- 



182 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ter water supply combined to put an end to the 
era of great fires. 

After the great fires of 1851 had swept over 
the city there was practically nothing left of 
the old metropolis of the early gold rush. The 
hastily constructed wooden shanties were gone; 
the corrugated iron building imported from 
New York and London, and warranted to be 
fireproof, had proved to be worthless to with- 
stand great heat; the historic buildings had dis- 
appeared; the new city that, Phoenix-like, arose 
from the ashes of the old was a very dififerent 
city from its predecessor that had been wiped 
from the earth by successive conflagrations. 
Stone and brick buildings covered the former 
site of wooden structures. The unsightly mud 
flats between the wharves were filled in from the 
sand hills and some of the streets paved. The 
year 1853 was memorable for the rapid progress 
of the city. Assessed property values increased 
from $18,000,000 to $28,000,000. Real estate 
values went soaring upward and the city was on 
the high tide of prosperity; but a reaction came 
in 1855. The rush to the mines had ceased, im- 
migration had fallen ofT, and men had begun to 
retrench and settle down to steady business 
habits. Home productions had replaced im- 
ports, and the people were abandoning mining 
for farms. The transition from gold mining to 
grain growing had begun. All these afifected 
the city and real estate declined. Lots that sold 
for $8,000 to $10,000 in 1853 could be bought 
for half that amount in 1855. Out of one thou- 
sand business houses, three hundred were va- 
cant. Another influence that helped to bring 
about a depression was the growing political 



corruption and the increased taxation from pec- 
ulations of dishonest officials. 

The defalcations and forgeries of Harry 
Meigs, which occurred in 1854, were a terrible 
blow to the city. Meigs was one of its most 
trusted citizens. He was regarded as the em- 
bodiment of integrity, the stern, incorruptible 
man, the watch-dog of the treasury. By his 
upright conduct he had earned the sobriquet of 
Honest Harry Meigs. Over-speculation and 
reaction from the boom of 1853 embarrassed 
him. He forged a large amount of city scrip 
and hypothecated it to raise money. His forger- 
ies were suspected, but before the truth was 
known he made his escape on the barque 
America to Costa Rica and from there he made 
his way to Peru. His forgeries amounted to 
$1,500,000, of which $1,000,000 was in comp- 
troller's warrants, to which he forged the names 
of Mayor Garrison and Controller Harris. The 
vigilance committee of 1856 cleared the political 
atmosphere by clearing the city, by means of 
hemp and deportation, of a number of bad 
characters. The city was just beginning to re- 
gain its former prosperity when the Frazer river 
excitement brought about a temporary depres- 
sion. The wild rush carried away about one- 
sixth of its population. These all came back 
again, poorer and perhaps wiser; at least, their 
necessities compelled them to go to work and 
weaned them somewhat of their extravagant 
habits and their disinclination to work except for 
the large returns of earlier days. Since 1857 the 
growth of the city has been steady, unmarked 
by real estate booms; nor has it been retarded 
by long periods of financial depression. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



CRIME, CRIMINALS AND 

THERE was but little crime in California 
among its white inhabitants during the 
Spanish and Mexican eras of its history. 
The conditions were not conducive to the de- 
velopment of a criminal element. The inhabit- 
ants were a pastoral people, pursuing an out- 
door vocation, and there were no large towns 
or cities where the viciouslv inclined could con- 



VIGILANCE COMMITTEES. 

gregate and find a place of refuge from justice. 
"From 1819 to 1846, that is, during the entire 
period of Mexican domination under the Repub- 
lic," says Bancroft, "there were but six murders 
among the whites in all California." There were 
no lynchings, no mobs, unless some of the rev- 
olutionary uprisings might be called such, and 
but one vigilance committee. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRArHlCAL RECORD. 



183 



San Francisco is credited with the origin of 
that form of popular tribunal known as the vigi- 
lance committee. The name "vigilance com- 
mittee" originated with the uprising, in 1851, of 
the people of that city against the criminal ele- 
ment; but, years before there was a city of San 
Francisco, Los Angeles had originated a tri- 
bunal of the people, had taken criminals from 
the lawfully constituted authorities and had tried 
and executed them. The causes which called 
into existence the first vigilance committee in 
California were similar to those that created the 
later ones, namely, laxity in the administration 
of the laws and distrust in the integrity of 
those chosen to administer them. During the 
"decade of revolutions," that is, between 1830 
and 1840, the frequent change of rulers and the 
struggles of the different factions for power en- 
gendered in the masses a disregard, not only 
for their rulers, but for law and order as well. 
Criminals escaped punishment through the 
law's delays. No court in California had power 
to pass sentence of death on a civilian until its 
findings had been approved by the superior tri- 
bunal of Mexico. In the slow and tedious proc- 
esses of the different courts, a criminal stood a 
good show of dying of old age before his case 
reached final adjudication. The first committee 
of vigilance in California was organized at Los 
Angeles, in the house of Juan Temple, April 7, 
1836. It was called "Junta Defensora de La 
Seguridad Publica," United Defenders of the 
Public Security (or safety). Its motto, which ap- 
pears in the heading of its "acta," and is there 
credited as a quotation from Montesquieu's Ex- 
position of the Laws, Book 26, Chapter 23, was, 
"Salus populi suprema lex est" (The safety of 
the people is the supreme law). There is a 
marked similarity between the proceedings of 
the Junta Defensora of 1836 and the San Fran- 
cisco vigilance committee of 1856; it is not 
probable, however, that any of the actors in the 
latter committee participated in the former. 
Although there is quite a full account of the 
proceedings of the Junta Defensora in the Los 
Angeles city archives, no historian heretofore 
except Bancroft seems to have found it. 

The circumstances which brought about the 
organization of the Junta Defensora are as fol- 



lows: The wife of Domingo Feliz (part owner 
of the Los Feliz Rancho), who bore the poet- 
ical name of Maria del Rosario Villa, became 
infatuated with a handsome but disreputable 
Sonoran vac|uero, Gervacio Alispaz by name. 
She abandoned her husband and lived with Alis- 
paz as his mistress at San Gabriel. Feliz sought 
to reclaim his erring w^ife, but was met by in- 
sults and abuse from her paramour, whom he 
once wounded in a personal altercation. Feliz 
finally invoked the aid of the authorities. The 
woman was arrested and brought to town. A 
reconciliation was effected between the husband 
and wife. Two days later they left town for the 
rancho, both riding one horse. On the way 
they were met by Alispaz, and in a personal en- 
counter F"eliz was stabbed to death by the wife's 
paramour. The body was dragged into a ra- 
vine and covered with brush and leaves. Next 
day, March 29, the body was found and brought 
to the city. The murderer and the woman were 
arrested and imprisoned. The people were filled 
with horror and indignation, and there were 
tlireats of summary vengeance, but better coun- 
sel prevailed. 

On the 30th the funeral of Feliz took place, 
I'lul, like that of James King of William, twenty 
years later, was the occasion for the renewal of 
the outcry for vengeance. The attitude of the 
people became so threatening that on the 1st 
of April an extraordinary session of the ayun- 
tamiento was held. A call was made upon the 
citizens to form an organization to preserve the 
peace. A considerable number responded and 
were formed into military patrols under the 
command of Don Juan B. Leandry. The illus- 
trious ayuntamiento resolved "that whomsoever 
shall disturb the public tranquillity shall be pun- 
ished according to law." The excitement ap- 
parently died out, but it was only the calm that 
precedes the storm. The beginning of the 
Easter ceremonies was at hand, and it was 
deemed a sacrilege to execute the assassins in 
holy week, so all further attempts at punishment 
were deferred until April 7, the Monday after 
Easter, when at dawn, by previous understancl- 
ing, a number of the better class of citizens met 
at the house of Juan Temple, which stood on 
the present site of the Downev Block. An or- 



i 



184 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ganization was effected. Victor Prudon, a na- 
tive of Breton, France, but a naturalized citizen 
of California, was elected president; Manuel 
Arzaga, a native of California, was elected sec- 
retary, and Francisco Araujo, a retired arm)' 
officer, was placed in command of the armed 
force. Speeches were made by Prudon, and by 
the military commandant and others, setting 
' forth the necessity of their organization and jus- 
tifying their actions. It was unanimously de- 
cided that both the man and the woman should 
be shot; their guilt being evident, no trial was 
deemed necessary. 

An address to the authorities and the people 
was formulated. A copy of this is preserved in 
the city archives. It abounds in metaphors. 
It is too long for insertion here. I make a few 
extracts: "* * * Believing that immorality 
has reached such an extreme that public secur- 
ity is menaced and will be lost if the dike of a 
solemn example is not opposed to the torrent 
of atrocious perfidy, we demand of you that you 
execute or deliver to us for immediate execution 
the assassin, Gervacio Alispaz, and the unfaith- 
ful Maria del Rosario Villa, his accomplice. 
* * * Nature trembles at the sight of these 
venomous reptiles and the soil turns barren in 
its refusal to support their detestable existence. 
Let the infernal pair perish! It is the will of the 
people. We will not lay down otir arms until our 
petition is granted and the murderers are exe- 
cuted. The proof of their guilt is so clear that 
justice needs no investigation. Public vengeance 
demands an example and it must be given. The 
blood of the Alvarez, of the Patinos, of the 
Jenkins, is not vet cold — thev, too, being- the 
unfortunate victims of the brutal passions of 
their murderers. Their bloody ghosts shriek 
for vengeance. Their terrible voices re-echo 
from their graves. The afflicted widow, the for- 
saken orphan, the aged father, the brother in 
mourning, the inconsolable mother, the public 
— all demand speedy punishment of the guilty. 
We swear that outraged justice shall be avenged 
to-day or we shall die in the attempt. The blood 
of the murderers shall be shed to-day or ours 
will be to the last drop. It will be published 
throughout the world that judges in Los An- 
geles tolerate murderers, but that there are 



virtuous citizens who sacrifice their lives in 
order to preserve those of their countrymen." 

"A committee will deliver to the First Consti- 
tutional Alcalde a copy of these resolutions, 
that he may decide whatever he finds most con- 
venient, and one hour's time will be given him 
in which to do so. If in that time no answer has 
been received, then the judge will be responsible 
before God and man for what will follow. Death 
to the murderers! 

"God and liberty. Angeles, April 7, 1836." 

Fifty-five signatures are attached to this doc- 
ument; fourteen of these are those of natural- 
ized foreigners and the remainder those of na- 
tive Californians. The junta was made up of 
the best citizens, native and foreign. An extraor- 
dinary session of the ayuntamiento was called. 
The members of the junta, fully armed, marched 
to the city hall to await the decision of the 
authorities. The petition was discussed in the 
council, and, in the language of the archives: 
"This Illustrious Body decided to call said 
Breton Prudon to appear before it and to com- 
pel him to retire with the armed citizens so that 
this Illustrious Body may deliberate at liberty." 

"This was done, but he declined to appear 
before this body, as he and the armed citizens 
were determined to obtain Gervacio Alispaz and 
Maria del Rosario Villa. The ayuntamiento 
decided that as it had not sufficient force to 
compel the armed citizens to disband, they 
being in large numbers and composed of the 
best and most respectable men of the town, to 
send an answer saying that the judges could 
not accede to the demand of the armed citi- 
zens." 

The members of the Junta Defensora then 
marched in a body to the jail and demanded the 
keys of the guard. These were refused. The 
keys were secured by force and Gervacio Alispaz 
taken out and shot. The following demand was 
then sent to the first alcalde, Manuel Requena: 

"It is absolutely necessary that you deliver 
to this junta the key of the apartment where 
Maria del Rosario \^illa is kept. 
"God and liberty. 

"Victor Prudon, President. 
"Manuel Arzaga, Secretary." 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



185 



To this the alcalde rephed: "Maria del Rosa- 
rio Villa is incarcerated at a private dwelling, 
whose owner has the key, with instructions not 
to deliver the same to any one. The prisoner is 
left there at the disposition of the law only. 

"God and liberty. 

"M.VNUEL Requena, Alcalde." 

The key was obtained. The wretched Maria 
was taken to the place of execution on a car- 
reta and shot. The bodies of the guilty pair 
were brought back to the jail and the following 
communication sent to the alcalde: 

"Junta of the Defenders of Public Safety. 

"To the ist Constitutional Alcalde: 
"The dead bodies of Gervacio Alispaz and 
Maria del Rosario \illa are at your disposal. 
We also forward you the jail keys that you may 
deliver them to whomsoever is on guard. In 
case you are in need of men to serve as guards, 
we are all at your disposal. 

"God and liberty. Angeles, April 7, 1836. 
"Victor Prudon, Pres. 
"Manuel Arzaga, Sec." 

A few days later the Junta Defensora de La 
Seguridad Publica disbanded; and so ended the 
only instance in the seventy-five years of Span- 
ish and Mexican rule in California, of the people, 
by popular tribunal, taking the administration of 
justice out of the hands of the legally consti- 
tuted authorities. 

The tales of the fabulous richness of the gold 
fields of California were quickly spread through- 
out the world and drew to the territory all 
classes and conditions of men, the bad as well 
as the good, the vicious as well as the virtuous; 
the indolent, the profligate and the criminal 
came to prey upon the industrious. These con- 
glomerate elements of society found the Land 
of Gold practically without law, and the vicious 
among them were not long in making it a land 
without order. With that inherent trait, which 
makes the Anglo-Saxon wherever he may be 
an organizer, the American element of the gold 
seekers soon adjusted a form of government to 
suit the exigencies of the land and the people. 
There may have been too much lynching, too 
much vigilance committee in it and too little 



respect for lawfully constituted authorities, but 
it was effective and was suited to the social 
conditions existing. 

In 1851 the criminal element became so dom- 
inant as to seriously threaten the existence of 
the chief city, San Francisco. Terrible conflagra- 
tions had swept over the city in May and June 
of that year and destroyed the greater part of 
the business portion. The fires were known to 
be of incendiary origin. The bold and defiant 
attitude of the vicious classes led to the or- 
ganization by the better element, of that form 
of popular tribunal called a committee of vigi- 
lance. The law abiding element among the cit- 
izens disregarding the legally constituted 
authorities, who were either too weak or too 
corrupt to control the law-defying, took the 
power in their own hands, organized a vigilance 
committee and tried and executed by hanging 
four notorious criminals, namely: Jenkins, 
Stuart, Whitaker and McKenzie. 

During the proceedings of the vigilance com- 
mittee a case of mistaken identity came near 
costing an innocent man his life. About 8 
o'clock in the evening of February 18, two men 
entered the store of a ^Ir. Jansen on Mont- 
gomery street and asked to see some blankets. 
-As the merchant stooped to get the blankets 
one of the men struck him with a sling shot and 
both of them beat him into insensibility. They 
then opened his desk and carried away all the 
gold they could find, about $2,000. The police 
arrested two men on suspicion of being the rob- 
bers. One of the men was identified as James 
Stuart, a noted criminal, who had murdered 
Sheriff ]\Ioore at Auburn. He gave the name of 
Thomas Burdue, but this was believed to be one 
of Stuart's numerous aliases. The men were 
identified by Mr. Jansen as his assailants. They 
were put on trial. When the court adjourned 
over to the next day a determined effort was 
made by the crowd to seize the men and hang 
them. They were finally taken out of the hands 
of the officers and given a trial by a jury selected 
bv a committee of citizens. The jury failed to 
agree, three of the jury being convinced that 
the men were not Jansen's assailants. Then the 
mob made a rush to hang the jury, but were 
kept back by a show of revolvers. The prison- 



186 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ers were turned over to the court. One of 
them, Wildred, broke jail and escaped. Burdue 
was tried, convicted and sentenced to fourteen 
years' imprisonment. Before the sentence of 
the court was executed he was taken to Marys- 
ville and arraigned for the murder of Sheriff 
Moore. A number of witnesses swore positively 
that the man was Stuart; others swore even more 
positively that he was not. A close examination 
revealed that the prisoner bore every distin- 
guishing mark on his person by which Stuart 
could be identified. He was convicted and sen- 
tenced to be hanged in thirty days. In the mean- 
time the vigilance committee of 1856 was or- 
ganized and the real Stuart accidentally fell into 
the hands of the vigilantes at San Francisco. 
He was arrested for a theft he had not com- 
mitted and recognized by one of the committee's 
guards that he had formerly employed in the 
mines. By adroit questioning he was forced to 
confess that he was the real Stuart, the murderer 
of Sheriff Aloore and the assailant of Jansen. 
His confederate in the robbery was Whitaker, 
one of the four hanged by the committee. Bur- 
due was finally released, after having twice 
stood under the shadow of the gallows for the 
crimes of his double. The confessions of Stuart 
and Whitaker implicated a number of their pals. 
Some of these were convicted and sent to prison 
and others fled the country; about thirty were 
banished. Nearly all of the criminals were ex- 
convicts from Australia and Tasmania. 

The vigorous measures adopted by the com- 
mittee purified the city of the vicious class that 
had preyed upon it. Several of the smaller 
towns and some of the mining camps organized 
vigilance committees and a number of the 
knaves who had fled from San Francisco met a 
deserved fate in other places. 

In the early '50s the better elements of San 
Francisco's population were so engrossed in 
business that they had no time to spare to look 
after its political affairs; and its government 
gradually drifted into the hands of vicious and 
corrupt men. Many of the city authorities had 
obtained their offices by fraud and ballot stuf- 
fing and "instead of protecting the communitv 
against scoundrels they protected the scoundrels 
against the community." James King of Will- 



iam, an ex-banker and a man of great courage 
and persistence, started a small paper called 
the Daily Ez'cning Bulletin. He vigorously as- 
sailed the criminal elements and the city and 
county officials. His denunciations aroused pub- 
lic sentiment. The murder of L'nited States 
Marshal Richardson by a gambler named Cora 
still further inflamed the public mind. It was 
feared that by the connivance of some of the 
corrupt county officials Cora would escape pun- 
ishment. His trial resulted in a hung jury. 
There was a suspicion that some of the jury- 
men were bribed. King continued through the 
Bulletin to hurl his most bitter invectives against 
the corrupt officials. They determined to silence 
him. He published the fact that James Casey, 
a supervisor from the twelfth ward, was an ex- 
convict of Sing Sing prison. Casey waylaid 
King at the corner of Alontgomery and Wash- 
ington streets and in a cowardly manner shot 
him down. The shooting occurred on the 14th 
of May, 1856. Casey immediately surrendered 
himself to a deputy sheriff, Lafayete M. Byrne, 
who was near. King was not killed, but an ex- 
amination of the wound by the physicians de- 
cided that there was no hopes of his recovery. 
Casey was conducted to the city prison and as 
a mob began to gather, for greater safety he 
was taken to the county jail. A crowd pursued 
him crying, "Hang him," "kill him." At the 
jail the mob was stopped by an array of deputy 
sheriffs, police officers and a number of Casey's 
friends, all armed. The excitement spread 
throughout the city. The old vigilance com- 
mittee of 1 85 1, or rather a new organization out 
of the remnant of the old, was formed. Five 
thousand men were enrolled in a few days. 
Arms were procured and headquarters estab- 
lished on Sacramento street between Davis and 
Front. The men were divided into companies. 
William T. Coleman, chairman of the vigilance 
committee of 1851, was made president or No. i, 
and Isaac Bluxome, Jr., the secretary, was No. 
;^;^. Each man was known by number. Charles 
Doane was elected chief marshal of the military 
division. 

The San Francisco Herald (edited by John 
Nugent), then the leading paper of the city, came 
out with a scathing editorial denouncing the 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



187 



vigilance committee. The merchants at once 
withdrew their advertising patronage. Next 
morning the paper appeared reduced from forty 
cohnnns to a single page, but still hostile to the 
committee. It finally died for want of patron- 
age. 

On Sunday, ^Nlay i8, 1856, the military di- 
vision was ready to storm the jail if necessary to 
obtain possession of the prisoners, Casey and 
Cora. The different companies, marching from 
their headquarters by certain prescribed routes, 
all reached the jail at the same time and com- 
pletely invested it. They had with them two 
pieces of artillery. One of these guns was 
planted so as to command the door of the jail. 
There were fifteen hundred vigilantes under 
arms. A demand was made on Sheriff Scannell 
for the prisoners, Cora and Casey. The prison 
guard made no resistance, the prisoners were 
surrendered and taken at once to the vigilantes' 
headquarters. 

On the 20th of May the murderers were put 
on trial; while the trial was in progress the 
death of King was announced. Both men were 
convicted and sentenced to be hanged. King's 
funeral, the largest and most imposing ever seen 
in San Francisco, took place on the 23d. While 
the funeral cortege was passing through the 
streets Casey and Cora were hanged in front of 
the windows of the vigilance headquarters. 
About an hour before his execution Cora was 
married to a notorious courtesan, Arabella 
Ryan, but commonly called Belle Cora. A 
Catholic priest, Father Accolti, performed the 
ceremony. 

Governor J. Xeely Johnson, who at first 
seemed inclined not to interfere with the vig- 
ilantes, afterwards acting under the advice of 
David S. Terry, Vohiey E. Howard and others 
of dominant pro-slavery faction, issued a proc- 
lamation commanding the committee to disband, 
to which no attention was paid. The governor 
then appointed William T. Sherman major-gen- 
eral. Sherman called for recruits to suppress 
the uprising. Seventy-five or a hundred, mostly 
gamblers, responded to his call. General Wool, 
in command of the troops in the department of 
the Pacific, refused to loan Governor Johnson 
arms to equip his "law and order" recruits and 



General Sherman resigned. Volney E. Howanl 
was then appointed major-general. His princi- 
l)al militar}' service consisted in proclaiming 
what he would do to the "pork merchants" who 
constituted the committee. He did nothing ex- 
cept to bluster. A squad of the vigilance po- 
lice attcm])ted to arrest a man named Alaloney. 
Alaloney was at the time in the company of 
David S. Terry (then chief justice of the state) 
and several other members of the "law and or- 
der" party. They resisted the police and in the 
melee Terry stabbed the sergeant of the squad, 
Sterling A. Hopkins, and then he and his as- 
sociates made their escape to the armory of the 
San Francisco Blues, one of their strongholds. 

When the report of the stabbing reached 
headquarters the great bell sounded the alarm 
and the vigilantes in a very brief space of time 
surrounded the armory building and had their 
cannon planted to batter it down. Terry, Ma- 
loney, and the others of their party in the build- 
ing, considering discretion the better part of 
valor, surrendered and were at once taken to 
Fort Gunnybags,* the vigilantes' headquarters. 
The arms of the "law and order" party at their 
various rendezvous were surrendered to the vig- 
ilantes and the companies disbanded. 

Terry was closely confined in a cell at the 
headquarters of the committee; Hopkins, after 
lingering some time between life and death, 
finally recovered. Terry was tried for assault 
on Hopkins and upon several other persons, was 
found guilty, but, after being held as a prisoner 
for some time, was finally released. He at once 
joined Johnson and Howard at Sacramento, 
where he felt much safer than in San Francisco. 
He gave the vigilantes no more trouble. 

On the 29th of July, Hethrington and Brace 
were hanged from a gallows erected on Davis 
street, between Sacramento and Commercial. 
Both of these men had committed murder. 
These were thfe last e.xecutions by the commit- 
tee. The committee transported from the state 
thirty disreputable characters and a number de- 
ported themselves. A few, and among them the 



*The vigilantes built around the building which they 
used for headquarters a breastwork made of gunny- 
sacks filled with sand. Cannon were planted at the 
corners of the redout. 



188 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



notorious Ned McGowan, managed to keep con- 
cealed until the storm was over. x\ few of the 
expatriated returned after the committee dis- 
solved and brought suit for damages, but failed 
to recover anything. The committee had paid 
the fare of the exiles. It was only the high 
toned rascals who were given a cabin passage 
that brought the suits. The committee finished 
its labors and dissolved with a grand parade on 
the iSth of August (1856). It did a good work. 
For several years after, San Francisco from be- 
ing one of the worst, became one of the best 
governed cities in the United States. The com- 
mittee was made up of men from the northern 
and western states. The so-called "law and 
order" party was mostly composed of the pro- 
slavery office-holding faction that ruled the state 
at that time. 

When the vigilance committees between 185 1 
and 1856 drove disreputable characters from 
San Francisco and the northern mines, many of 
them drifted southward and found a lodgment 
for a time in the southern cities and towns. Los 
Angeles was not far from the Mexican line, and 
any one who desired to escape from justice, 
fleet mounted, could speedily put himself be- 
yond the reach of his pursuers. All these 
causes and influences combined to produce a 
saturnalia of crime that disgraced that city in 
the early '50s. 

Gen. J. H. Bean, a prominent citizen of 
Southern California, while returning to Los An- 
geles from his place of business at San Gabriel 
late one evening in November, 1852, was at- 
tacked by two men, who had been lying in wait 
for him. One seized the bridle of his horse and 
jerked the animal back on his haunches; the 
other seized the general and pulled him from the 
saddle. Bean made a desperate resistance, but 
was overpowered and stabbed to death. The 
assassination of General Bean resulted in the 
organization of a vigilance committee and an 
efifort was made to rid the country of desper- 
adoes. A number of arrests were made. Three 
suspects were tried by the committee for various 
crimes. One, Cipiano Sandoval, a poor cob- 
bler of San Gabriel, was charged with complicity 
in the murder of General Bean. He strenuously 
maintained that he was innocent. He, with the 



other two, were sentenced to be hanged. On 
the following Sunday morning the doomed men 
were conducted to the top of Fort Hill, where 
the gallows stood. Sandoval made a brief 
speech, again declaring his innocence. The 
others awaited their doom in silence. The trap 
fell and all were launched into eternity. Years 
afterward one of the real murderers on his 
deathbed revealed the truth and confessed his 
part in the crime. The poor cobbler was inno- 
cent. 

In 1854 drunkenness, gambling, murder and 
all forms of immorality and crime were ram- 
pant in Los Angeles. The violent deaths, it is 
said, averaged one for every day in the year. It 
was a common question at the breakfast table, 
"Well, how many were killed last night?" Little 
or no attention was paid to the killing of an 
Indian or a half breed; it was only when a gente 
de razon was the victim that the community was 
aroused to action. 

The Kern river gold rush, in the winter of 
1854-55, brought from the northern mines fresh 
relays of gamblers and desperadoes and crime 
increased. The Southern Califoniian of March 
7, 1855, commenting on the general lawlessness 
prevailing, says: "Last Sunday night was a 
brisk night for killing. Four men were shot 
and killed and several wounded in shooting af- 
frays." 

A worthless fellow by the name of David 
Brown, who had, without provocation, killed a 
companion named Clifford, was tried and sen- 
tenced to be hanged with one Felipe Alvitre, a 
Mexican, who had murdered an American 
named Ellington, at El Monte. There was a 
feeling among the people that Brown, through 
quibbles of law, would escape the death penalty, 
and there was talk of lynching. Stephen C. 
Foster, the mayor, promised that if justice was 
not legally meted out to Brown by the law, then 
he would resign his office and head the lynching 
party. January 10, 1855, an order was received 
from Judge Murray, of the supreme court, stay- 
ing the execution of Brown, but leaving Alvitre 
to his fate. January 12 Alvitre was hanged by 
the sheriff in the jail yard in the presence of an 
innnense crowd. The gallows were taken down 
and the guards dismissed. The crowd gathered 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



189 



outside the jail yard. Speeches were made. 
The mayor resigned his office and headed the 
mob. The doors of the jail were broken down; 
Brown was taken across Spring street to a 
large gateway opening into a corral and hanged 
from the crossbeam. Foster was re-elected by 
an almost unanimous vote at a special election. 
The city marshal, who had opposed the action 
of the vigilantes, was compelled to resign. 

During 1855 and 1856 lawlessness increased. 
There was an organized band of about one hun- 
dred Mexicans, who patroled the highways, 
robbing and murdering. They threatened the 
extermination of the Americans and there were 
fears of a race war, for many who were not 
members of the gang sympathized with them. 
In 1856 a vigilance committee was organized 
with Alyron Norton as president and H. N. 
Alexander as secretary. A number of dis- 
reputable characters were forced to leave town. 
The banditti, under their leaders, Pancho Dan- 
iel and Juan Flores, were plundering and com- 
mitting outrages in the neighborhood of San 
Juan Capistrano. 

On the night of January 22, 1857, Sheriff 
James R. Barton left Los Angeles with a posse, 
consisting of William H. Little, Charles K. 
Baker, Charles F. Daley, Alfred Hardy and 
Frank Alexander with the intention of captur- 
ing some of the robbers. At Sepulveda's ranch 
ne.xt morning the sheriff's party was warned that 
the robbers were some fifty strong, well armed 
and mounted, and would probably attack them. 
Twelve miles further the sherifif and his men en- 
countered a detachment of the banditti. A 
short, sharp engagement took place. Barton, 
Baker, Little and Daley were killed. Hardy and 
Alexander made their escape by the fleetness 
of their horses. When the news reached Los 
Angeles the excitement became intense. A 
public meeting was held to devise plans to rid 
the community not only of the roving gang of 
murderers, but also of the criminal classes in 
the city, who were known to be in sympathy 
with the banditti. All suspicious houses were 
searched and some fifty persons arrested. Sev- 
eral companies were organized; the infantry to 
guard the city and the mounted men to scour 
the country. Companies were also formed at 



San Bernardino and El Monte, while the mil- 
itary authorities at Fort Tejon and San Diego 
despatched soldiers to aid in the good work of 
exterminating crime and criminals. 

The robbers were pursued into the mountains 
and nearly all captured. Gen. Andres Pico, 
with a company of native Californians, was most 
efficient in the pursuit. He captured Silvas and 
Ardillero, two of the most noted of the gang, 
and hanged them where they were cap- 
tured. Fifty-two were lodged in the city jail. 
Of these, eleven were hanged for various crimes 
and the remainder set free. Juan Flores, one 
of the leaders, was condemned by popular vote 
and on February 14, 1857, was hanged near the 
top of Fort Hill in the presence of nearly the 
entire population of the town. He was only 
twenty-one years of age. Pancho Daniel, an- 
other of the leaders, was captured on the 19th 
of January, 1858, near San Jose. He was found 
by the sheriff, concealed in a haystack. After 
his arrest he was part of the time in jail and part 
of the time out on bail. He had been tried three 
times, but through law quibbles had escaped 
conviction. A change of venue to Santa Bar- 
bara had been granted. The people determined 
to take the law in their own hands. On the 
morning of November 30, 1858, the body of 
Pancho was hanging from a beam across the 
gateway of the jail yard. Four of the banditti 
were executed by the people of San Gabriel, 
and Leonardo Lopez, under sentence of the 
court, was hanged by the sheriff. The gang was 
broken up and the moral atmosphere of Los 
Angeles somewhat purified. 

November 17, 1862, John Rains of Cuca- 
monga ranch was murdered near Azusa. De- 
cember 9, 1863, the sheriff was taking Manuel 
Cerradel to San Quentin to serve a ten years' 
sentence. When the sheriff went aboard the tug 
boat Cricket at Wilmington, to proceed to the 
Senator, quite a number of other persons took 
passage. On the way down the harbor, the 
prisoner was seized by the passengers, who 
were vigilantes, and hanged to the rigging; after 
hanging twenty minutes the body was taken 
down, stones tied to the feet and it was thrown 
overboard. Cerradel was implicated in the mur- 
der of Rains. 



190 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAI RECORD. 



In the fall of 1863 lawlessness had again be- 
come rampant in Los Angeles; one of the chiefs 
of the criminal class was a desperado by the 
name of Boston Daimwood. He was suspected 
of the murder of a miner on the desert 
and was loud in his threats against the lives 
of various citizens. He and four other well- 
known criminals, Wood, Chase, Ybarra and 
Olivas, all of whom were either murder- 
ers or horse thieves, were lodged in jail. On 
the 2ist of November two hundred armed 
citizens battered down the doors of the jail, 
took the five wretches out and hanged them to 
the portico of the old court house on Spring 
street, which stood on the present site of the 
Phillips block. 

On the 24th of October, 1871, occurred in 
Los Angeles a most disgraceful affair, known 
as the Chinese massacre. It grew out of one 
of those interminable feuds between rival 
tongs of highbinders, over a woman. Desul- 
tory firing had been kept up between the rival 
factions throughout the day. About 5:30 p. m. 
Policeman Bilderrain visited the seat of war, an 
old adobe house on the corner of Arcadia street 
and "Nigger alley," known as the Coronel build- 
ing. Poinding himself unable to quell the dis- 
turbance he called for help. Robert Thompson, 
an old resident of the city, was among the first 
to reach the porch of the house in answer to the 
police call for help. He received a mortal wound 
from a bullet fired through the door of a Chi- 
nese store. He died an hour later in Woll- 
weber's drug store. The Chinese in the mean- 
time barricaded the doors and windows of the 
old adobe and prepared for battle. The news 
of the fight and of the killing of Thompson 
spread throughout the city and an immense 
crowd gathered in the streets around the build- 
ing with the intention of wreaking vengeance on 
the Chinese. 

The first attempt by the mob to dislodge the 
Chinamen was by cutting holes through the flat 
brea covered roof and firing pistol shots into the 
interior of the building. One of the besieged 
crawled out of the building and attempted to 
escape, but was shot down before half wav 
across Negro alley. .Another attempted to es- 
cape into Los .\ngeles street : he was seized. 



dragged lo the gate of Tomlinson's corral on 
New High street, and hanged. 

About 9 o'clock a part of the mob had suc- 
ceeded in battering a hole in the eastern end of 
the building; through this the rioters, with 
demoniac bowlings, rushed in, firing pistols to 
the right and left. Huddled in corners and hid- 
den behind boxes they found eight terror- 
stricken Chinamen, who begged piteously for 
their lives. These were brutally dragged out 
and turned over to the fiendish mob. One was 
dragged to death by a rope around his neck; 
three, more dead than alive from kicking and 
beating, were hanged to a wagon on Los An- 
geles street; and four were hanged to the gate- 
way of Tomlinson's corral. Two of the victims 
were mere boys. While the shootings and hang- 
ings were going on thieves were looting the 
other houses in the Chinese quarters. The 
houses were broken into, trunks, boxes and 
other receptacles rifled of their contents, and 
any Chinamen found in the buildings were 
dragged forth to slaughter. Among the vic- 
tims was a doctor, Gene Tung, a quiet, inof- 
fensive old man. He pleaded for his life in good 
English, offering his captors all his money, 
some $2,000 to $3,000. He was hanged, his 
money stolen and one of his fingers cut off to 
obtain a ring he wore. The amount of money 
stolen by the mob from the Chinese quarters 
was variously estimated at from $40,000 to 
$50,000. 

About 9:30 p. m. the law abiding citizens, 
under the leadership of Henry Hazard, R. M. 
Widney, H. C. Austin, Sheriff Burns and oth- 
ers, had rallied in sufficient force to make an 
attempt to quell the mob. Proceeding to China- 
town they rescued several Chinamen from the 
rioters. The mob finding armed opposition 
quickly dispersed. 

The results of the mob's murderous work 
were ten men hanged on Los Angeles street, 
some to wagons and some to awnings ; five 
hanged at Tomlinson's corral and four shot to 
death in Negro alley, nineteen in all. Of all the 
Chinamen murdered, the only one known to be 
implicated in the highbinder war was Ah Choy. 
All the other leaders escaped to the country 
before the attack was made by the mob. The 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



191 



grand jury, after weeks of investigation, found 
indictments against one hundred and fifty per- 
sons alleged to have been actively engaged in 
the massacre. The jury's report severely cen- 
sured "the ofificers of this county, as well as of 
this city, whose duty it is to preserve peace," 
and declared that they "were deplorably ineffi- 
cient in the performance of their duty during 
the scenes of confusion and bloodshed which 
disgraced our city, and has cast a reproach upon 
the people of Los .-Vngeles county." Of all those 
indicted but six were convicted. These were 
sentenced to from four to six years in the state's 
prison, but through some legal technicality they 
were all released after serving a part of their 
sentence. 

The last execution in Los Angeles by a vig- 
ilance committee was that of Michael Lachenias, 
a French desperado, who had killed five or six 
men. The ofTense for which he was hanged was 
the murder of Jacob Bell, a little inoffensive 
man, who owned a small farm near that of 
Lachenias, south of the city. There had been 
a slight difference between them in regard to 
the use of water from a zanja. Lachenias, with- 
out a word of warning, rode up to Bell, where 
he was at work in his field, drew a revolver and 
shot him dead. The murderer then rode into 
town and boastingly informed the people of 
what he had done and told them where they 
would find Bell's body. He then surrendered 
himself to the officers and was locked up in 
jail. 

Public indignation was aroused. A meeting 
was held m Stearns' hall on Los Angeles street. 
A vigilance committee was formed and the de- 
tails of the execution planned. On the morning 
of the 17th of December, 1870, a body of three 
hundred armed men marched to the jail, took 
Lachenias out and proceeded with him to Tom- 
linson's corral on Temple and New High streets, 
and hanged him. The crowd then quietly dis- 
persed. 

A strange metamorphosis took place in the 
character of the lower classes of the native Cal- 
ifornians after the conquest. (The better classes 
were not changed in character by the changed 
conditions of the country, but throughout were 
true gentlemen and most worthy and honorable 



citizens.) Before the conquest by the Ameri- 
cans they were a peaceful and contented people. 
There were no organized bands of outlaws 
among them. After the discovery of gold the 
evolution of a banditti began and they produced 
some of the boldest robbers and most daring 
highwaymen the world has seen. 

The injustice of their conquerors had much to 
do with producing this change. The Ameri- 
cans not only took possession of their country 
and its government, but in many cases they de- 
spoiled them of their ancestral acres and their 
personal property. Injustice rankles; and it is 
not strange that the more lawless among the 
native population sought revenge and retalia- 
tion. They were often treated by the rougher 
American element as aliens and intruders, who 
had no right in the land of their birth. Such 
treatment embittered them more than loss of 
property. There were those, however, among 
the natives, who, once entered upon a career 
of crime, found robbery and murder congenial 
occupations. The plea of injustice was no ex- 
tenuation for their crimes. 

Joaquin Murieta was the most noted of the 
Mexican and Californian desperadoes of the 
early "50s. He was born in Sonora of good fam- 
ily and received some education. He came to 
California with the Sonoran migration of 1849, 
and secured a rich claim on the Stanislaus. He 
was dispossessed of this by half a dozen Amer- 
ican desperadoes, his wife abused and both 
driven from the diggings. He next took up a 
ranch on the Calaveras, but from this he was 
driven by two Americans. He next tried min- 
ing in the Murphy diggings, but was unsuccess- 
ful. His next occupation was that of a monte 
player. While riding into town on a horse bor- 
rowed from his half-brother he was stopped by 
an American, who claimed that the horse was 
stolen from him. Joaquin protested that the 
horse was a borrowed one from his half-brother 
and offered to procure witnesses to prove it. 
He was dragged from the saddle amid cries of 
"hang the greaser." He was taken to the ranch 
of his brother. The brother was hanged to the 
limb of a tree, no other proof of his crime being 
needed than the assertion of the .'\merican that 
the horse was his. Joaquin was stripped, bound 



192 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



to the same tree and flogged. The demon was 
aroused within him, and no wonder, he vowed 
revenge on the men who had murdered his 
brother and beaten him. Faithfully he carried 
out his vow of vengeance. Had he doomed 
only these to slaughter it would have been but 
little loss, but the implacable foe of every 
American, he made the innocent sufifer with the 
guilty. He was soon at the head of a band of 
desperadoes, varying in numbers from twenty to 
forty. For three years he and his band were the 
terror of the state. From the northern mines 
to the Mexican border they committed robberies 
and murders. Claudio and some of his sub- 
ordinates were killed, but the robber chief 
seemed to bear a charmed life. Large rewards 
were ofifered for him dead or alive and numerous 
attempts were made to take him. Capt. Harry 
Love at the head of a band of rangers August, 
1853, came upon Joaquin and six of his gang 
in a camp near the Tejon Pass. In the tight that 
ensued Joaquin and Three Fingered Jack were 
killed. With the loss of their leaders the or- 
ganization was broken up. 

The last organized band of robbers which 
terrorized the southern part of the state was 
that of Vasquez. Tiburcio Vasquez was born 
in Monterey county, of Mexican parents, in 
1837. Earlv in life he began a career of crime. 
After committing a number of robberies and 
thefts he was captured and sent to San Quentin 
for horse stealing. He was discharged in 1863, 
but continued his disreputable career. He 
united with Procopio and Soto, two noted ban- 
dits. Soto was killed by Sheriff ]\Iorse of Ala- 
meda county in a desperate encounter. \^asquez 
and his gang of outlaws committed robberies 
throughout the southern part of the state, rang- 
ing from Santa Clara and Alameda counties to 
the Mexican line. Early in May, 1874, Sheriff 
William Rowland of Los Angeles county, who 
had repeatedly tried to capture Vasquez, but 
whose plans had been foiled by the bandit's 



spies, learned that the robber chief was mak- 
ing his headquarters at the house of Greek 
George, about ten miles due west of Los An- 
geles, toward Santa Monica, in a canon of the 
Cahnenga mountains. The morning of May 15 
was set for the attack. To avert suspicion 
Sheriff Rowland remained in the city. The at- 
tacking force, eight in number, were under 
command of Under-Sheriff Albert Johnson, the 
other members of the force were Major H. M. 
Mitchell, attorney-at-law; J. S. Bryant, city con- 
stable; E. Harris, policeman; W. E. Rogers, 
citizen; B. F. Hartley, chief of police; and D. 
K. Smith, citizen, all of Los Angeles, and a Mr. 
Beers, of San Francisco, special correspondent 
of the San Francisco Chronicle. 

At 4 a. m. on the morning of the 15th of May 
the posse reached Major Mitchell's bee ranch 
in a small cafion not far from Greek George's. 
From this point the party reconnoitered the 
bandit's hiding place and planned an attack. As 
the deputy sheriff and his men were about to 
move against the house a high box wagon drove 
up the canon from the direction of Greek 
George's place. In this were two natives; the 
sheriff's party climbed into the high wagon box 
and, lying down, compelled the driver to drive 
up to the back of Greek George's house, 
threatening him and his companion with death 
on the least sign of treachery. Reaching the 
house they surrounded it and burst in the door. 
\'asquez, who had been eating his breakfast, at- 
tempted to escape through a small window. 
The party opened fire on him. Being wounded 
and finding himself surrounded on all sides, he 
surrendered. He was taken to the Los Angeles 
jail. His injuries proved to be mere flesh 
wounds. He received a great deal of maudlin 
sympathy from silly women, who magnified him 
into a hero. He was taken to San Jose, tried 
for murder, found guilty and hanged, jMarch 10. 
1875. I^'s band was thereupon broken up and 
dispersed. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



193 



CHAPTER XXVII 



FILIBUSTERS AND FILIBUSTERING. 



THE rush of immigration to California in 
the early '50s had brought to the state 
a class of adventurers who were too 
lazy or too proud to work. They were ready 
to engage in almost any lawless undertaking 
that promised plunder and adventure. The de- 
feat of the pro-slavery politicians in their at- 
tempts to fasten their "peculiar institution" upon 
any part of the territory acquired from Mex- 
ico had embittered them. The more un- 
scrupulous among them began to look around 
for new fields, over which slavery might be ex- 
tended. As it could be made profitable only in 
southern lands, Cuba, Mexico and Central 
America became the arenas for enacting that 
form of piracy called "filibustering." The object 
of these forays, when organized by Americans, 
was to seize upon territory as had been done 
in Texas and erect it into an independent gov- 
ernment that ultimately would be annexed to 
the United States and become slave territory. 
Although the armed invasion of countries with 
which the United States was at peace was a di- 
rect violation of its neutrality laws, yet the fed- 
eral office-holders in the southern states and in 
California, all of whom belonged to the pro- 
slavery faction, not only made no attempt to 
prevent these invasions, but secretly aided them 
or at least sympathized with them to the extent 
of allowing them to recruit men and depart 
without molestation. There was a glamour of 
romance about these expeditions that influenced 
unthinking young men of no fixed principles 
to join them; these were to be pitied. But the 
leaders of them and their abettors were cold, 
selfish, scheming politicians, willing, if need be, 
to overthrow the government of the nation and 
build on its ruins an oligarchy of slave holders. 
The first to organize a filibuster expedition in 
California was a Frenchman. Race prejudices 
were strong in early mining days. The United 

IS 



States had recently been at war with Mexico. 
The easy conquest of that country had bred a 
contempt for its peoples. The Sonoran migra- 
tion, that begun soon after the discovery of 
gold in California, brought a very undesirable 
class of immigrants to the state. Sailing vessels 
had brought from the west coast of South 
America another despised class of mongrel 
Spanish. It exasperated the Americans to see 
these people digging gold and carrying it out 
of the country. This antagonism extended, more 
or less, to all foreigners, but was strongest 
against men of the Latin races. Many French- 
men, through emigration schemes gotten up 
in Paris, had been induced to come to Califor- 
nia. Some of these were men of education and 
good standing, but they fell under the ban of 
prejudices and by petty persecutions were 
driven out of the mines and forced to earn a 
precarious living in the cities. There was a 
great deal of dissatisfaction among the French- 
men with existing conditions in California, and 
they were ready to embark in any scheme that 
promised greater rewards. .Vmong the French 
population of San Francisco was a man of noble 
family. Count Gaston Roaul de Raousset-Boul- 
bon. He had lost his ancestral lands and was 
in reduced circumstances. He was a man of 
education and ability, but visionary. He con- 
ceived the idea of establishing a I'rench colony 
on the Sonora border and opening the mines 
that had been abandoned on account of Apache 
depredations. By colonizing the border he 
hoped to put a stop to American encroachments. 
He divulged his scheme to the French consul, 
Dillon, at San Francisco, who entered heartily 
into it. Raousset was sent to the City of Mex- 
ico, where he obtained from President Arista 
the desired concession of land and the promise 
of financial assistance from a leading banking 
house there on condition that he proceed at 



194 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



once to Sonora with an armed company of 
Frenchmen. Returning to San Francisco he 
quickly recruited from among the French resi- 
dents two hundred and fifty men and with these 
he sailed for Guaymas, where he arrived early 
in June. 1852. He was well received at first, 
but soon found himself regarded with suspicion. 
He was required by the authorities to remain 
at Guaymas. After a month's detention he was 
allowed to proceed through Hermosilla to the 
Arizona border. 

When about one hundred miles from Arispe 
he received an order from General Blanco, then 
at Hermosilla. to report to him. While halting 
at El Caric to consider his next move he re- 
ceived a reinforcement of about eighty French 
colonists, who had come to the country the year 
before under command of Pindray. Pindray 
had met his death in a mysterious manner. It 
was supposed that he was poisoned. The colon- 
ist had remained in the country. Raousset sent 
one of his men, Gamier, to interview Blanco. 
General Blanco gave his ultimatum — First, that 
the Frenchmen should become naturalized citi- 
zens of Mexico; or, secondly, they should wait 
until letters of security could be procured from 
the capital, when they might proceed to Arizona 
and take possession of any mines they found; 
or, lastly, they might put themselves under the 
leadership of a Mexican officer and then proceed. 
Raousset and his followers refused to accede to 
any of these propositions. Blanco began col- 
lecting men and munitions of war to oppose the 
French. Raousset raised the flag of revolt and 
invited the inhabitants to join him in gaining 
the independence of Sonora. After drilling his 
men a few weeks and preparing for hostilities 
he began his march against Hermosilla, distant 
one hundred and fifty miles. He met with no 
opposition, the people along his route welcom- 
ing the French. General Blanco had twelve 
hundred men to defend the city. But instead of 
preparing to resist the advancing army he sent 
delegates to Raousset to offer him money to let 
the city alone. Raousset sent back word that 
at 8 o'clock he would begin the attack; and at 
II would be master of the city. He was as good 
as his word. The Frenchmen charged the Mex- 
icans and although the opposing force num- 



bered four to one of the assailants, Raousset's 
men captured the town and drove Blanco's 
troops out of it. The Mexican loss was two 
hundred killed and wounded. The French loss 
seventeen killed and twenty-three wounded 
Raousset's men were mere adventurers and were 
in the country without any definite purpose. 
Could he have relied on them, he might have 
captured all of Sonora. 

He abandoned Hermosilla. Blanco, glad to 
get rid of the filibusters on any terms, raised 
$11,000 and chartered a vessel to carry them 
back to San Francisco. A few elected to re- 
main. Raousset went to Mazatlan and a few 
months later he reached San Francisco, where 
he was lionized as a hero. Upon an invitation 
from Santa Ana, who had succeeded Arista as 
president, he again visited the Mexican capital 
in June, 1853. Santa Ana was profuse in prom- 
ises. He wanted Raousset to recruit five hun- 
dred Frenchmen to protect the Sonora frontier 
against the Indians, promising ample remunera- 
tion and good pay for their services. Raousset, 
finding that Santa Ana's promises could not be 
relied upon, and that the wiley schemer was 
about to have him arrested, made his escape to 
Acapulco, riding several horses to death to 
reach there ahead of his pursuers. He embarked 
immediately for San Francisco. 

In the meantime another filibuster, William 
Walker, with forty-one followers had landed at 
La Paz November 3, 1853, and proclaimed a 
new nation, the Republic of Lower California. 
Santa Ana, frightened by this new invasion, be- 
gan making overtures through the Mexican con- 
sul, Luis del Valle, at San Francisco to secure 
French recruits for military service on the Mex- 
ican frontier. Del A^alle applied to the French 
consul, Dillon, and Dillon applied to Raousset. 
Raousset soon secured eight hundred recruits 
and chartered the British ship Challenge to take 
them to Guaymas. Then the pro-slavery federal 
officials at San Francisco were aroused to ac- 
tion. The neutrality laws were being violated. 
It was not that they cared for the laws, but they 
feared that this new filibustering scheme might 
interfere with their pet. Walker, who had, in ad- 
dition to the Republic of Lower California, 
founded another nation, the Republic of Sonora, 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



I'Jo 



in both of which he had decreed slavery. The 
ship was seized, but after a short tlctention was 
allowed to sail with three hundred French- 
men. 

Del Valle was vigorously prosecuted by the 
federal authorities for violation of a section of 
the neutrality laws, which forbade the enlistment 
within the United States of soldiers to serve un- 
der a foreign power. Dillon, the French con- 
sul, was implicated and on his refusal to testify 
in court he was arrested. He fell back on his 
dignity and asserted that his nation had been in- 
sulted through him and closed his consulate. 
For a time there were fears of international 
trouble. 

Del Valle was found guilty of violating the 
neutrality laws, but was never punished. The 
pro-slavery pet, Walker, and his gang were 
driven out of ^Mexico and the federal officials 
had no more interest in enforcing neutrality 
laws. Meanwhile Raousset, after great diffi- 
culties, had joined the three hundred French- 
men at Guaymas. A strip of northern Sonora 
had been sold under what is known as the Gads- 
den purchase to the United States. There was 
no longer any opportunity to secure mines there 
from Mexico, but Raousset thought he could 
erect a barrier to any further encroachments of 
the United States and eventually secure Mexico 
for France. His first orders on reaching Guay- 
mas to the commander of the French, Desmaris, 
was to attack the Ale.xican troops and capture 
the city. His order did not reach Desmaris. His 
messenger was arrested and the Mexican au- 
thorities begun collecting forces to oppose 
Raousset. Having failed to receive reinforce- 
ments, and his condition becoming unendurable, 
he made an attack on the Mexican forces, twelve 
hundred strong. After a brave assault he was 
defeated. He surrendered to the French consul 
on the assurance that his life and that of his 
men would be spared. He was treacherously 
surrendered by the French consul to the Mex- 
ican general. He was tried by a court-martial, 
found guilty and sentenced to be shot. On the 
morning of August 12, 1854, he was executed. 
His misguided followers were shipped back to 
San Francisco. So ended the first California 
filibuster. 



The first American born filibuster who or- 
ganized one of these piratical expeditions was 
William Walker, a native of Tennessee. He 
came to California with the rush of 1850. He 
had started out in life to be a doctor, had studied 
law and finally drifted into journalism. He be- 
longed to the extreme pro-slavery faction. He 
located in San Francisco and found employment 
on the Herald. His bitter invective against the 
courts for their laxity in punishing crime raised 
the ire of Judge Levi Farsons, who fined Walker 
$500 for contempt of court antl ordered him 
imprisoned until the fine was paid. Walker re- 
fused to pay the fine and went to jail. He at 
once bounded into notoriety. He was a mar- 
tyr to the freedom of the press. A public in- 
dignation meeting was called. An immense 
crowd of sympathizers called on Walker in jail. 
A wTit of habeas corpus was sued out and he 
was released from jail and discharged. In the 
legislature of 1852 he tried to have Parson im- 
peached, but failed. He next opened a law of- 
fice in ^larysville. 

The success of Raousset-Boulbon in his first 
expedition to Sonora had aroused the ambition 
of Walker to become the founder of a new gov- 
ernment. His first efiforts were directed towards 
procuring from Mexico a grant on the Sonora 
border; this was to be colonized with Americans, 
who would protect the Mexican frontier from 
Apache incursion. This was a mere subterfuge 
and the Mexican authorities were not deceived 
by it — he got no grant. To forestall Raousset- 
Boulbon, who was again in the field with his 
revolutionary scheme, Walker opened a recruit- 
ing office. Each man was to receive a square 
league of land and plunder galore. The bait 
took, meetings were held, scrip sold and re- 
cruits flocked to Walker. The brig Arrow was 
chartered to carry the liberators to their des- 
tination. The pro-slavery officials, who held all 
the offices, winked at this violation of the neu- 
trality laws. There was but one man, General 
Hitchcock, who dared to do his duty. He seized 
the vessel; it was released, and Hitchcock re- 
moved from command. Jefferson Davis was 
secretary of war and Hitchcock was made to feel 
his wrath for interfering w-ith one of Davis' pet 
projects, the extension of slavery. Walker 



I 



196 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



sailed in another vessel, the Caroline, taking 
with him forty-one of his followers, well armed 
with ritles and revolvers to develop the re- 
sources of the country. 

The vessel with Walker and his gang sneaked 
into La Paz under cover of a Mexican flag. He 
seized the unsuspecting governor and other offi- 
cials and then proclaimed the Republic of Lower 
California. He appointed from his following a 
number of officials with high sounding titles. 
He adopted the code of Louisiana as the law of 
the land. This, as far as he was able, introduced 
into the country human slavery, which indeed 
was about the sole purpose of his filibuster- 
ing schemes. Fearing that the ^Mexican gov- 
ernment might send an expedition across the 
gulf to stop his marauding, he slipped out of 
the harbor and sailed up to Todas Santos, so as 
to be near the United States in case the ^lexican 
government should make it uncomfortable for 
him. With this as headquarters he began prepa- 
rations for an invasion of Sonora. His delectable 
followers appropriated to their own use what- 
ever they could find in the poverty-stricken 
country. The news of the great victory at La 
Paz reached San Francisco and created great 
enthusiasm among Walker's sympathizers. His 
vice-president, Watkins, enrolled three hundred 
recruits and sent them to him, "greatly to the 
relief of the criminal calendar." 

Walker began to drill his recruits for the con- 
quest of Sonora. These patriots, who had ral- 
lied to the support of the new republic, under 
the promise of rich churches to pillage and well- 
stocked ranches to plunder, did not take kindly 
to a diet of jerked beef and beans and hard drill- 
ing under a torrid sun. Some rebelled and it 
became necessary for Walker to use the lash 
and even to shoot two of them for the good of 
the cause. The natives rebelled when thev found 
their cattle and frijoles disappearing and the so- 
called battle of La Gualla was fought between 
the natives and a detachment of Walker's forag- 
ers, several of whom were killed. The news of 
this battle reached San Francisco and was mag- 
nified into a great victory. The new republic 
had been baptized in the blood of its martyrs. 

After three months spent in drilling, Walker 
besran his march to Sonora with but one hun- 



dred men, and a small herd of cattle for food. 
Alost of the others had deserted. In his jour- 
ney across the desert the Indians stole some of 
his cattle and more of his men deserted. On 
reaching the Colorado river about half of his 
force abandoned the expedition and marched 
to Fort Yuma, where Major Heintzelman re- 
lieved their necessities. Walker with thirty-five 
men had started back for Santa Tomas. They 
brought up at Tia Juana, where they crossed 
the American line, surrendered and gave their 
paroles to ]\Iajor AIcKinstry of the United 
States army. When Walker and his Falstaffian 
army reached San Francisco they were lionized 
as heroes. All they had done was to kill a few 
inofifensive natives on the peninsula and steal 
their cattle. Their valiant leader had proclaimed 
two republics and decreed (on paper) that slav- 
ery should prevail in them. He had had sev- 
eral of his dupes whipped and two of them shot, 
which w'as probably the most commendable 
thing he had done. His proclamations were 
ridiculous and his officers with their high sound- 
ing titles had returned from their burlesque con- 
quest with scarcely rags enough on them to 
cover their nakedness. Yet, despite all this, 
the attempt to enlarge the area of slave territory 
covered him with glory and his rooms were the 
resort of all the pro-slavery officials of Califor- 
nia. 

The federal officials made a show of prosecut- 
ing the filibusters. Watkins, the vice-president 
of the Republic of Lower California and So- 
nora, was put on trial in the United States dis- 
trict court. The evidence was so plain and the 
proof so convincing that the judge was com- 
pelled to convict against his will. This delightful 
specimen of a pro-slavery justice expressed 
from the bench his sympathy for ''those spirited 
men who had gone forth to upbuild the broken 
altars and rekindle the extinguished fires of lib- 
erty in ^Mexico and Lower California." With 
such men to enforce the laws, it was not strange 
that vigilance committees were needed in Cal- 
ifornia. Watkins and Emory, the so-called sec- 
retary of state, were fined each $1,500. The 
fines were never paid and no effort was ever 
made to compel their payment. The secretary 
of war and the secretary of the navy were put 



HISTORICAL AND RIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ml 



on trial aiul acquiUed. This ended tlie shame- 
ful farce. 

Walker's next expedition was to Nicaragua in 
1855. A revolution was in progress there. He 
joined forces with the Democratic party or anti- 
legitimists. He took but fifty-six men with 
him. These were called the American phalanx. 
His first engagement was an attack upon the 
fortified town of Rivas. Although his men 
fought bravely, they were defeated and two of 
his best officers, Kewen and Crocker, killed. 
His next fight was the battle of Virgin Bay, in 
which, with fifty Americans and one hundred 
and twenty natives, he defeated six hundred 
legitimists. He received reinforcements from 
California and reorganized his force. He 
seized the Accessory Transit Company's lake 
steamer La \'irgin against the protest of the 
company, embarked his troops on board of it 
and by an adroit movement captured the capi- 
tal city, Granada. His exploits were heralded 
abroad and recruits flocked to his support. The 
legitimist had fired upon a steamer bringing pas- 
sengers up the San Juan river and killed several. 
Walker in retaliation ordered Mateo Mazorga, 
the legitimist secretary of state, whom he had 
taken prisoner at Granada, shot. Peace was de- 
clared between the two parties and Patrico 
Rivas made president. Rivas was president only 
in name: Walker was the real head of the gov- 
ernment and virtually dictator. 

He was now at the zenith of his power. By a 
series of arbitrary acts he confiscated the Ac- 
cessory Transit Company's vessels and ■charter. 
This company had become a power in California 
travel and had secured the exclusive transit of 
passengers by the Nicaragua route, then the 
most popular route to California. 

By this action he incurred the enmity of Van- 
derbilt, who henceforth worked for his down- 
fall. The confiscation of the transit company's 
right destroyed confidence in the route, and 
travel virtually ceased by it. This was a blow 
to the prosperity of the country. To add to 
Walker's misfortunes, the other Central Amer- 
ican states combined to drive the hated foreign- 
ers out of the country. He had gotten rid of 
Rivas and had secured the presidency for him- 
self. He had secured the repeal of the Nic- 



aragua laws against slavery and thus paved the 
way for the introduction of his revered institu- 
tion. His army now amounted to about twelve 
hundred men, mostly recruited from California 
and the slave states. The cholera broke out 
among his forces and in the armies of the allies 
and numbers died. His cause was rapidly wan- 
mg. Many of his dupes deserted. A series of 
disasters arising from his blundering and in- 
capacity, resulted in his overthrow. He and 
sixteen of his officers were taken out of the 
country on the United States sloop of war, St. 
Mary's. The governor of Panama refused to 
allow him to land in that city. He was sent 
across the isthmus under guard to Aspinwall 
and from there with his stafif took passage to 
New Orleans. His misguided followers were 
transported to Panama and found their way 
back to the United States. 

LTpon arriving at New Orleans he began re- 
cruiting for a new expedition. One hundred and 
fifty of his "emigrants" sailed from Mobile; the 
pro-slavery federal officials allowing them to 
depart. They were wrecked on Glover's reef, 
about seventy miles from Balize. They were 
rescued by a British vessel and returned to Mo- 
bile. Walker, with one hundred and thirty-two 
armed emigrants, landed at Punta Arenas, No- 
vember 25, 1857, and hoisted his Nicaraguan 
flag and called himself commander-in-chief of 
the army of Nicaragua. He and his men began 
a career of plunder; seized the fort of Cas- 
tillo on the San Juan river; captured steam- 
ers, killed several inhabitants and made 
prisoners of others. Commander Paulding, 
of the United States flagship Wabash, then 
on that coast, regarded these acts as rapine 
and murder, and Walker and his men as out- 
laws and pirates. He broke up their camp, dis- 
armed Walker and his emigrants and sent them 
to the United States for trial. But instead of 
Walker and his followers being tried for piracy 
their pro-slavery abettors made heroes of them. 
Walker's last effort to regain his lost prestige 
in Nicaragua was made in i860. With two hun- 
dred men, recruited in New Orleans, he landed 
near Truxillo, in Honduras. His intention was 
to make his way by land to Nicaragua. He very 
soon found armed opposition. His new recruits 



198 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



were not inclined to sacrifice themselves to make 
him dictator of some country that they had no 
interest in. So they refused to stand up against 
the heavy odds they encountered in every fight. 
Finding his situation growing desperate, he was 
induced to surrender himself to the captain of 
the British man-of-war Icarus. The authorities 
of Honduras made a demand on the captain for 
Walker. That British officer promptly turned 
the filibuster over to them. He was tried by 
a court-martial, hastily convened, found guilty 
of the ofifenses charged, and condemned to die. 
September 25, i860, he was marched out and, 
in accordance with his sentence, shot to death. 

Walker's career is an anomaly in the history 
of mankind. Devoid of all the characteristics of 
a great leader, without a commanding presence, 
puny in size, homely to the point of ugliness, 
in disposition, cold, cruel, selfish, heartless, stol- 
idly indifferent to the suffering of others, living 
only to gratify the cravings of his inordinate 
ambition — it is strange that such a man could 
attract thousands to offer their lives for his 
aggrandizement and sacrifice themselves for a 
cause of which he was the exponent, a cause the 
most ignoble, the extension of human slavery, 
that for such a man and for such a cause thou- 
sands did offer up their lives is a sad commen- 
tary on the political morality of that time. It 
is said that over ten thousand men joined 
Walker in his filibustering schemes and that 
fifty-seven hundred of these found graves in 
Nicaragua. Of the number of natives killed in 
battle or who died of disease, there is no record, 
but it greatly exceeded Walkers losses. 

While Walker was attaining some success in 
Nicaragua, another California filibuster entered 
the arena. This was Henry A. Crabb, a Stock- 
ton lawyer. Like Walker, he was a native of 
Tennessee, and, like him, tc^o, he was a rabid 
pro-slavery advocate. He had served in the 
assembly and one term in the state senate. It 
is said he was the author of a bill to allow slave- 
holders who brought their slaves into California 
before its admission to take their human chattels 
back into bondage. He was originally a Whig, 
but had joined the Know-Nothing party and was 
a candidate of that party for L^nited States sen- 
ator in 1856; but his extreme southern princi- 



ples prevented his election. He had married a 
Spanish wife, who had numerous and influential 
relatives in Sonora. It was claimed that Crabb 
had received an invitation from some of these to 
bring down an armed force of Americans to 
overthrow the government and make himself 
master of the country. Whether he did or did 
not receive such an invitation, he did recruit a 
body of men for some kind of service in Sonora. 
With a force of one hundred men, well armed 
with rifles and revolvers, he sailed, in January, 
1857, on the steamer Sea Bird, from San Fran- 
cisco to San Pedro and from there marched over- 
land. As usual, no attempt was made by the 
federal authorities to prevent him from invading 
a neighboring country with an armed force. 

He entered Sonora at Sonita, a small town 
one hundred miles from Yuma. His men helped 
themselves to what they could find. When ap- 
proaching the town of Cavorca they were fired 
upon by a force of men lying in ambush. The 
fire was kept up from all quarters. They made a 
rush and gained the shelter of the houses. In 
the charge two of their men had been killed and 
eighteen wounded. In the house they had taken 
possession of they were exposed to shots from 
a church. Crabb and fifteen of his men at- 
tempted to blow open the doors of the church 
with gunpowder, but in the attempt, which 
failed, five of the men were killed, and seven, 
including Crabb, wounded. After holding out 
for five days they surrendered to the Mexicans, 
Gabilondo, the Mexican commander, promising 
to spare their lives. Next morning they were 
marched out in squads of five to ten and shot. 
Crabb was tied to a post and a hundred balls 
fired into him; his head was cut off and placed 
in a jar of mescal. The only one spared was a 
boy of fifteen. Charles E. Evans. A party of 
sixteen men whom Crabb had left at Sonita 
was surprised and all massacred. The boy 
Evans was the only one left to tell the fate of the 
ill-starred expedition. This put an end to fili- 
bustering expeditions into Sonora. 

These armed forays on the neighboring coun- 
tries to the south of the United States ceased 
with the beginning of the war of secession. 
They had all been made for the purpose of ac- 
quiring slave territory. The leaders of them 



HISTORICAL AND P.IOGRAPIIICAL RECORD. 



199 



were southern men and the rank and file were 
mostly recruited from natives of the slave states. 
Bancroft truthfully says of these filibustering- 
expeditions : "They were foul robberies, covered 
by the flimsiest of political and social pretenses, 
o-ilclcd by false aphorisms and profane distortion 
of sacred formulas. Liberty dragged in the mud 
for purposes of theft and human enslavement; 
the cause of humanity bandied in filthy mouths 
to promote atrocious butcheries; peacehil. 



blooming valleys given over to devastation and 
ruin; happy families torn asunder, and widows 
and orphans cast adrift to nurse affliction; and 
finally, the peace of nations imperiled, and the 
morality of right insulted. The thought of such 
results should obliterate all romance, and turn 
pride to shame. They remain an ineffaceable 
stain upon the government of the most progres- 
sive of nations, and veil in dismal irony the 
dream of manifest destiny." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



FROM GOLD TO GRAIN AND FRUITS. 



UNDER the Spanish and Mexican jurisdic- 
tions there was but little cultivation of 
the soil in California. While the gardens 
of some of the missions, and particularly those 
of Santa Barbara and San Buenaventura, pre- 
sented a most appetizing display of fruit and 
vegetables, at the ranchos there were but mea- 
ger products. Gilroy says that when he came 
to the country, in 1814, potatoes were not cul- 
tivated and it was a rare thing outside of the 
mission gardens to find any onions or cabbages. 
A few acres of wheat and a small patch of maize 
or corn furnished bread, or, rather, tortillas for 
a family. At the missions a thick soup made of 
boiled wheat or maize and meat was the stand- 
ard article of diet for the neophytes. This was 
portioned out to them in the quantity of about 
three pints to each person. LangsdorfT, who 
witnessed the distribution of soup rations to the 
Indians at Santa Clara, says: "It appeared in- 
comprehensible how any one could three times a 
day eat so large a portion of such nourishing 
food." The neophytes evidently had healthy ap- 
petites. Frijoles (beans) were the staple vege- 
table dish in Spanish families. These were 
served up at almost every meal. The bill of 
fare for a native Californian family was very 
simple. 

A considerable amount of wheat was raised 
at the more favorably located missions. It was 
not raised for export, but to feed the neophytes. 



The wheat fields had to be fenced in, or perhaps 
it would be more in accordance with the facts 
to say that the cattle had to be fenced out. As 
timber was scarce, adobe brick did duty for 
fencing as well as for house building. Some- 
times the low adobe walls were made high and 
safe by placing on top of them a row of the 
skulls of Spanish cattle with the long, curving 
horns attached to them pointing outward. These 
were brought from the matanzas or slaughter 
corrals where there were thousands of them 
lying around. It was almost impossible for 
man or beast to scale such a fence. 

The agricultural implements of the early Cali- 
fornians were few and simple. The Mexican 
plow was a forked stick with an iron point fas- 
tened to the fork or branch that penetrated the 
ground. It turned no furrow, but merely 
scratched the surface of the ground. After sow- 
ing it was a race between the weeds and the 
grain. It depended on the season which won. 
If the season was cold and backward, so that 
the seed did not sprout readily, tlie weeds got 
the start and won out easily. And yet with such 
primitive cultivation the yield was sometimes 
astonishing. At the Mission San Diego the 
crop of wheat one year produced one hundred 
and ninety-five fold. As the agriculturist had 
a large area from which to select his arable land, 
only the richest soils were chosen. Before the 
discovery of gold there was little or no market 



200 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



for grain, and each ranchero raised only enough 
for his own use. For a time there was some 
trade with the Russians in grain to supply their 
settlements in Alaska, but this did not continue 
long. 

When some of the Americans who came in 
the gold rush began to turn their attention to 
agriculture they greatly underrated the produc- 
tiveness of the country. To men raised where 
the summer rains were needed to raise a crop 
it seemed impossible to produce a crop in a 
country that was rainless for six or eight months 
of the year. All attempts at agriculture hitherto 
had been along the rivers, and it was generally 
believed that the plains back from the water 
courses could never be used for any other pur- 
pose than cattle raising. 

The mining rush of '49 found California with- 
out vegetables and fresh fruit. The distance 
was too great for the slow transportation of 
that day to ship these into the country. Those 
who first turned their attention to market gar- 
dening made fortunes. The story is told of an 
old German named Schwartz who had a small 
ranch a few miles below Sacramento. In 1848, 
when everybody was rushing to the mines, he 
remained on his farm, unmoved by the stories 
of the wonderful finds of gold. Anticipating a 
greater rush in 1849, he planted several acres 
in watermelons. As they ripened he took them 
up to the city and disposed of them at prices 
ranging from $i to $5, according to size. He 
realized that season from his melons alone 
$30,000. The first field of cabbages was grown 
by George H. Peck and a partner in 1850. From 
defective seed or some other cause the cabbage 
failed to come to a head. Supposing that the 
defect was in the climate and not in the cabbage, 
the honest rancher marketed his crop in San 
Francisco, carrying a cabbage in each hand 
along the streets until he found a customer. To 
the query why there were no heads to them 
the reply was, "That's the way cabbages grow 
in California." He got rid of his crop at the 
rate of Si apiece for each headless cabbage. 
But all the vegetable growing experiments were 
not a financial success. The high price of po- 
tatoes in 1849 started a tuber-growing epidemic 
in 1850. Hundreds of acres were planted to 



"spuds" in the counties contiguous to San 
Francisco, the agriculturists paying as high as 
fifteen cents per pound for seed. The yield was 
enormous and the market was soon overstocked. 
The growers who could not dispose of their 
potatoes stacked them up in huge piles in the 
fields; and there they rotted, filling the country 
around with their effluvia. The next year no- 
body planted potatoes, and prices went up to 
the figures of '49 and the spring of '50. 

The size to which vegetables grew astonished 
the amateur agriculturists. Beets, when allowed 
to grow to maturity, resembled the trunks of 
trees; onions looked like squash, while a patch 
of pumpkins resembled a tented field; and corn 
grew so tall that the stalks had to be felled to 
get at the ears. Onions were a favorite vege- 
table in the mining camps on account of their 
anti-scorbutic properties as a preventive of 
scurvy. The honest miner was not fastidious 
about the aroma. They were a profitable crop, 
too. One ranchero in the Napa valley was re- 
ported to have cleared $8,000 off two acres of 
onions. 

With the decline of gold mining wheat be- 
came the staple product of central California. 
The nearness to shipping ports and the large 
yields made wheat growing very profitable. In 
the years immediately following the Civil war 
the price ranged high and a fortune was some- 
times made from the products of a single field. 
It may be necessary to explain that the field 
might contain anywhere from five hundred to 
a thousand acres. The grain area was largely 
extended by the discovery that land in the 
upper mesas, which had been regarded as only 
fit for pasture land, was good for cereals. The 
land in the southern part of the state, which 
was held in large grants, continued to be de- 
voted to cattle raising for at least two decades 
after the American conquest. After the dis- 
covery of gold cattle raising became immenselv 
profitable. Lender the Mexican regime a steer 
was worth what his hide and tallow would bring 
or about $2 or $3. The rush of immigration in 
1849 ^^^^ ''^^ price of cattle up until a fat bul- 
lock sold for from $30 to $35. The profit to a 
ranchero who had a thousand or more marketa- 
ble cattle was a fortune. A good, well-stocked 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



201 



caillc ranch was more valuable than a gold 
mine. 

The enormous profits in cattle raising dazed 
the Californians. Had they been thrifty and 
economical, they might have grown rich. But 
the sudden influx of wealth engendered extrava- 
gant habits and when the price of cattle fell, as 
it did in a few years, the spendthrift customs 
were continued. When the cattle market was 
dull it was easy to raise money by mortgaging 
the ranch. With interest at the rate of 5 per 
cent per month, compounded monthly, it did 
not take long for land and cattle both to change 
hands. It is related of the former owner of 
the Santa Gertrudes rancho that he borrowed 
$500 from a money lender, at 5 per cent a 
month, to beat a poker game, but did not suc- 
ceed. Then he borrowed more money to pay 
the interest on the first and kept on doing so 
until interest and principal amounted to $100,- 
000; then the mortgage was foreclosed and 
property to-day worth $1,000,000 was lost for 
a paltry $500 staked on a poker game. 

Gold mining continued to be the prevailing 
industry of northern California. The gold pro- 
duction reached its acme in 1853, when the 
total yield was $65,000,000. From that time 
there was a gradual decline in production and 
in the number of men employed. Many had 
given up the hopes of striking it rich and quit 
the business for something more certain and 
less illusive. The production of gold in 1852 
was $60,000,000, yet the average yield to each 
man of the one hundred thousand engaged in 
it was only about $600, or a little over $2 per 
day to the man, scarcely living wages as prices 
were then. It has been claimed that the cost of 
producing the gold, counting all expenditures, 
was three times the value of that produced. 
Even if it did, the development of the country 
and impulse given to trade throughout the 
world would more than counterbalance the loss. 

At the time of the discovery of gold nearly all 
of the fruit raised in California was produced at 
Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. In Spanish and 
Mexican days, Los Angeles had been the prin- 
cipal wine-producing district of California. Al- 
though wine, as well as other spirituous liquors, 
were in demand, the vineyardists found it more 



jsrofitablc to ship their grapes to San Francisco 
than to manufacture them into wine. Grapes 
retailed in the city of San Francisco at from 
twelve and one-half to twenty-five cents a 
pound. The vineyards were as profitable as 
the cattle ranches. The mission Indians did the 
labor in the vineyards and were paid in aguar- 
diente on Saturday night. By Sunday morning 
they w'ere all drunk; then they were gathered 
up and put into a corral. On Monday morning 
they were sold to pay the cost of their dissipa- 
tion. It did not take many years to kill off the 
Indians. The city has grown over the former 
sites of the vineyards. 

The first orange trees were planted at the 
Mission San Gabriel about the year 181 5 and 
a few at Los Angeles about the same time. But 
little attention was given to the industry by the 
Californians. The first extensive grove was 
planted by William Wolfskill in 1840. The im- 
pression then prevailed that oranges could be 
grown only on the low lands near the river. 
The idea of attempting to grow them on the 
mesa lands was scouted at by the Californians 
and the Americans. The success that attended 
the Riverside experiment demonstrated that 
they could be grown on the mesas, and that the 
fruit produced was superior to that grown on 
the river bottoms. This gave such an impetus 
to the industry in the south that it has distanced 
all others. The yearly shipment to the eastern 
markets is twenty thousand car loads. The cit- 
rus belt is extending every year. 

The Californians paid but little attention to 
the quality of the fruit they raised. The seed 
fell in the ground and sprouted. If the twig 
survived and grew to be a tree, they ate the fruit, 
asking no question whether the quality might 
be improved. The pears grown at the missions 
and at some of the ranch houses were hard and 
tasteless. It was said they never ripened. A 
small black fig was cultivated in a few places, 
but the quantity of fruit grown outside of the 
mission gardens was very small. 

The high price of all kinds of fruit in the early 
'50S induced the importation of apple, peach, 
pear, plum and prune trees. These thrived and 
soon supplied the demand. Before the advent 
of the railroads and the shipment east the quan- 



202 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



tity of deciduous fruit produced had outgrown 
the demand, and there was no profit in its pro- 
duction. All this has been changed by eastern 
shipment. 

Sheep were brought to the country with the 
first missionary expeditions. The Indian in his 
primitive condition did not use clothing. A 
coat of mud was his only garment and he was 
not at all particular about the fit of that. After 
his conversion the missionaries put clothing on 
him, or, rather, on part of him. He was given a 
shirt, which was a shirt of-Nessus, being made of 
the coarse woolen cloth manufactured at the 
mission. It was irritating to the skin and com- 
pelled the poor wretches to keep up a continual 
scratching; at least, that is what Hugo Reid 
tells us. During the Civil war and for several 
years after, the sheep industry was very profit- 
able. The subdivision of the great ranchos and 
the absorption of the land for grain growing and 
fruit culture have contracted the sheep ranges 
until there is but little left for pasture except the 
foothills that are too rough for cultivation. 

Up to 1863 the great Spanish grants that cov- 
ered the southern part of the state had, with a 
few exceptions, been held intact and cattle rais- 
ing had continued to be the principal industry. 
For several seasons previous to the famine years 
of 1863 and 1864 there had been heavy rainfalls 
and consequently abundant feed. With that 
careless indifference that marked the business 
management of the native Californian, the 
ranges had become overstocked. When the 
dry year of 1863 set in, the feed on ranches was 
soon exhausted and the cattle starving. The 
second famine year following, the cattle industry 
was virtually wiped out of existence and the 
cattle-owners ruined. In Santa Barbara, where 
the cattle barons held almost imperial sway, 
and, with their army of retainers, controlled the 
political afifairs of the county, of the two hun- 
dred thousand cattle listed on the assessment 
roll of 1862, only five thousand were alive when 
grass grew in 1865. On the Stearns' ranchos in 
Los Angeles county, one hundred thousand 
head of cattle and horses perished, and the 
owner of a quarter million acres and a large 
amount of city property could not raise money 
enough to pay $1,000 taxes. 



Many of the rancheros were in debt when the 
hard times came, and others mortgaged their 
land at usurious rates of interest to carry them 
through the famine years. Their cattle dead, 
they had no income to meet the interest on the 
cancerous mortgage that was eating up their 
patrimony. The result was that they were com- 
pelled either to sell their land or the mortgage 
was foreclosed and they lost it. This led to the 
subdivision of the large grants into small hold- 
ings, the new proprietors finding that there was 
more profit in selling them off in small tracts 
than in large ones. This brought in an intelli- 
gent and progressive population, and in a few 
years entirely revolutionized the agricultural 
conditions of the south. Grain growing and 
fruit raising became the prevailing industries. 
The adobe ranch house with its matanzas and 
its Golgotha of cattle skulls and bones gave 
place to the tasty farm house with its flower 
garden, lawn and orange grove. 

The Californians paid but little attention to 
improving the breed of their cattle. When the 
only value in an animal was the hide and tallow, 
it did not pay to improve the breed. The hide 
of a long-horned, mouse-colored Spanish steer 
would sell for as much as that of a high-bred 
Durham or Holstein, and, besides, the first 
could exist where the latter would starve to 
death. After the conquest there was for some 
time but little improvement. Cattle were brought 
across the plains, but for the most part these 
were the mongrel breeds of the western states 
and were but little improvement on the Spanish 
stock. It was not until the famine years vir- 
tually exterminated the Spanish cattle that bet- 
ter breeds were introduced. 

As with cattle, so also it was with horses. 
Little attention was given to improving the 
breed. While there were a few fine race horses 
and saddle horses in the country before its 
American occupation, the prevailing equine was 
the mustang. He was a vicious beast, nor was 
it strange that his temper was bad. He had to 
endure starvation and abuse that would have 
killed a more aristocratic animal. He took care 
of himself, subsisted on what he could pick up 
and to the best of his ability resented ill treat- 
ment. Horses during the Mexican regime were 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



203 



used only for riding. Oxen were the draft ani- 
mals. The mustang had one inherent trait that 
did not endear him to an American, and that 
was his propensity to "buck." With his nose 
between his knees, his back arched and his legs 
stiffened, by a series of short, quick jumps, he 
could dismount an inexperienced rider with 
neatness and dispatch. The Californian took 
delight in urging the bronco to "buck" so that 
he (the rider) might exhibit his skillful horse- 
manship. The mustang had some commenda- 
ble traits as well. He was sure-footed as a goat 
and could climb the steep hillsides almost equal 
to that animal. He had an easy gait under the 
saddle and could measure off mile after mile 
without a halt. His power of endurance was 
wonderful. He could live ofif the country when 
apparently there was nothing to subsist on ex- 
cept the bare ground. He owed mankind a debt 
of ingratitude which he always stood ready to 
pay when an opportunity offered. The passing 
of the mustang began with the advent of the 
American farmer. 

The founding of agricultural colonies began 
in the '50s. One of the first, if not the first, was 
the German colony of Anaheim, located thirty 
miles south of Los Angeles. A company of 
Germans organized in San Francisco in 1857 
for the purpose of buying land for the cultiva- 
tion of the wine grape and the manufacture of 
wine. The organization was a stock company. 
Eleven hundred acres were purchased in a 
Spanish grant. This was subdivided into twenty 
and forty acre tracts; an irrigating ditch 
brought in from the Santa Ana river. A por- 
tion of each subdivision was planted in vines 
and these were cultivated by the company until 
they came into bearing, when the tracts were 
divided among the stockholders by lot, a cer- 
tain valuation being fixed on each tract. The 
man obtaining a choice lot paid into the fund 
a certain amount and the one receiving an infe- 
rior tract received a certain amount, so that each 
received the same value in the distribution. The 
colony proved quite a success, and for thirty 
years .\naheim was one of the largest wine- 
producing districts in the United States. In 
1887 a mysterious disease destroyed all the vines 
and the vinevardists turned their attention 



to the cultivation of oranges and English 
walnuts. 

The Riverside colony, then in San Bernardino 
county, now in Riverside county, was founded 
in 1870. The projectors of the colony were 
eastern gentlemen. At the head of the organiza- 
tion was Judge J. W. North. They purchased 
four thousand acres of the Roubidou.x or Jurupa 
rancho and fourteen hundred and sixty acres of 
government land froiu the California .Silk Cen- 
ter Association. This association had been or- 
ganized in 1869 for the purpose of founding a 
colony to cultivate mulberry trees and manu- 
facture silk. It had met with reverses, first in 
the death of its president, Louis Prevost, a man 
skilled in the silk business, next in the revoca- 
tion by the legislature of the bounty for mul- 
berry plantations, and lastly in the subsidence 
of the sericulture craze. To encourage silk cul- 
ture in California, the legislature, in 1866, passed 
an act authorizing the payment 'of a bounty of 
$250 for every plantation of five thousand mul- 
berry trees two years old. This greatly stimu- 
lated the planting of mulberry trees, if it did 
not greatly increase the production of silk. In 
1869 it was estimated that in the central and 
southern portions of the state there were ten 
millions of mulberry trees in various stages of 
growth. Demands for the bounty poured in 
upon the commissioners in such numbers that 
the state treasury was threatened with bank- 
ruptcy. The revocation of the bounty killed 
the silk worms and the mulberry trees; and 
those who had been attacked with the sericulture 
craze quickly recovered. The Silk Center As- 
sociation, having fallen into hard lines, offered 
its lands for sale at advantageous terms, and in 
September, 1870, they were purchased by the 
Southern California Colony Association. Tlie 
land was bought at $3.50 per acre. It was mesa 
or table land that had never been cultivated. 
It was considered by old-timers indifferent sheep 
pasture, and Roubidoux, it is said, had it struck 
from the tax roll because it was not worth tax- 
ing. 

The company had the land subdivided and 
laid off a town which was first named Jurupa, 
but afterwards the name was changed to River- 
side. The river, the Santa Ana, did not flow 



204 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR.A.PHICAL RECORD. 



past the town, but tlie colonists hoped to make 
a goodly portion of its waters do so. The lands 
were put on sale at reasonable prices, a ditch 
at a cost of $50,000 was constructed. Experi- 
ments were made with oranges, raisin grapes 
and deciduous fruits, but the colony finally set- 
tled down to orange producing. In 1877 the 
introduction of the Bahia or navel orange gave 
an additional impetus to orange growing in the 
colony, the fruit of that species being greatly 
superior to any other. This fruit was propa- 
gated by budding from two trees received from 
Washington, D. C, by J. A. Tibbetts, of River- 
side. 



The Indiana colony, which later became Pasa- 
dena, was founded in 1873 by some gentlemen 
from Indiana. Its purpose was the growing of 
citrus fruits and raisin grapes, but it has grown 
into a city, and the orange groves, once the 
pride of the colony, have given place to business 
blocks and stately residences. 

During the early '70s a number of agricul- 
tural colonies were founded in Fresno county. 
These were all fruit-growing and raisin-pro- 
ducing enterprises. They proved successful and 
Fresno has become the largest raisin-pro- 
ducing district in the state. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE CIVIL WAR— LOYALTY AND DISLOYALTY. 



TFIE admission of California into the Union 
as a free state did not, in the opinion of 
the ultra pro-slavery faction, preclude the 
possibility of securing a part of its territory for 
the "peculiar institution" of the south. The 
question of state division which had come up 
in the constitutional convention was again agi- 
tated. The advocates of division hoped to cut 
off from the southern part, territory enough for 
a new state. The ostensible purpose of division 
was kept concealed. The plea of unjust taxa- 
tion w-as made prominent. The native Califor- 
nians who under Mexican rule paid no taxes on 
their land were given to understand that they 
were bearing an undue proportion of the cost 
of government, while the mining counties, pay- 
ing less tax, had the greater representation. The 
native Californians were opposed to slavery, an 
open advocacy of the real purpose would defeat 
the division scheme. 

The leading men in the southern part of the 
state were from the slave states. If the state 
were divided, the influence of these men would 
carry the new state into the Union with a con- 
stitution authorizing slave-holding and thus the 
south would gain two senators. The division 
question came up in some form in nearly every 
session of the legislature for a decade after Cali- 
fornia became a state. 



In the legislature of 1854-55, JefTerson Hunt, 
of San Bernardino county, introduced a bill in 
the assembly to create and establish, "out of 
the territory embraced within the limits of the 
state of California, a new state, to be called the 
state of Columbia." The territory embraced 
within the counties of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, 
San Joaquin, Calaveras, Amador, Tuolumne, 
Stanislaus, Mariposa, Tulare, Monterey, Santa 
Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, San 
liernardino and San Diego, with the islands on 
the coast, were to constitute the new state. 
"The people residing within the above mentioned 
territory shall be and they are hereby author- 
ized, so soon as the consent of the congress of 
the United States shall be obtained thereto, to 
proceed to organize a state government under 
such rules as are prescribed by the constitution 
of the United States." The bill met with oppo- 
sition. It took in some of the mining counties 
whose interests were not coincident with the 
agricultural counties of the south. It died on 
the files. 

At a subsequent session, a bill was introduced 
in the legislature to divide the state into three 
parts, southern, central and northern, the cen- 
tral state to retain the name of California. This 
was referred to a committee and got no farther. 
It was not satisfactory to the pro-slavery ele • 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



205 



ment because tlie gain to tlie south would be 
overbalanced by the gain to the north. 

The success of border ruffianism, backed by 
the Buchanan administration, in forcing the de- 
testable Lecompton pro-slavery constitution on 
the people of Kansas, encouraged the division- 
ists to make another effort to divide the state. 
While California was a free state it had through- 
out its existence, up to 1857, when Broderick 
was elected to the senate, been represented in 
both houses either by slave-holders from the 
south or by northern "dough faces" — men of 
northern birth with southern principles. Most 
of the state offices had been filled by southern 
men who had come to the state to obtain office 
or men who had been imported by their friends 
or relatives to fill positions by appointment. 
Indeed, so notorious had this importation of 
office-holders become that California was often 
referred to as the "Virginia poorhouse." 
Scarcely a legislature had convened in which 
there was not some legislation against free ne- 
groes. A free colored man was as terrible to 
the chivalrous legislators as an army with ban- 
ners. 

The legislature of 1859 was intensely pro- 
slavery. The divisionists saw in it an oppor- 
tunity to carry out their long-deferred scheme. 
The so-called Pico law, an act granting the 
consent of the legislature to the formation of a 
different government for the southern counties 
of this state, was introduced early in the ses- 
sion, passed in both houses and approved by 
the governor April 18, 1859. The boundaries 
of the proposed state w£re as follows: "All of 
that part or portion of the present territory of 
this state lying all south of a line drawn east- 
ward from the west boundary of the state along 
the sixth standard parallel south of the IMount 
Diablo meridian, east to the summit of the 
coast range: thence southerly following said 
summit to the seventh standard parallel: thence 
due east on said standard, parallel to its inter- 
section with the northwest boundary of Los 
Angeles county; thence northeast along said 
boundary to the eastern boundary of the state, 
including the counties of San Luis Obispo, 
Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, San 
Bernardino and a part of Buena Vista, shall be 



segregated from the remaining portion of the 
state for the purpose of the formation by con- 
gress, with the concurrent action of said portion 
(the consent for the segregation of which is 
hereby granted), of a territorial or other gov- 
ernment under the name of the "Territory of 
Colorado," or such other name as may be 
deemed meet and proper." 

Section second provided for the submitting 
the question of "For a Territory" or "Against 
a Territory" to the people of the portion sought 
to be segregated at the next general election; 
"and in case two-thirds of the whole number of 
voters voting thereon shall vote for a change of 
government, the consent hereby given shall be 
deemed consummated." In case the vote was 
favorable the secretary of state was to send a 
certified copy of the result of the election and 
a copy of the act annexed to the president of 
the United States and to the senators and rep- 
resentatives of California in congress. At the 
general election in September, 1859, the ques- 
tion was submitted to a vote of the people of 
the southern counties, with the following result: 

For. Against. 

Los Angeles county i ,407 441 

San Bernardino 441 29 

San Diego 207 24 

San Luis Obispo 10 283 

Santa Barbara 395 51 

Tulare 17 ... 

Total 2,477 828 

The bill to create the county of Buena Vista 
from the southern portion of Tulare failed to 
pass the legislature, hence the name of that 
county does not appear in the returns. The 
result of the vote showed that considerably more 
than two-thirds were in favor of a new state. 

The results of this movement for division and 
the act were sent to the president and to con- 
gress, but nothing came of it. The pro-slavery 
faction that with the assistance of the dough- 
faces of the north had so long dominated con- 
gress had lost its power. The southern senators 
and congressmen were preparing for secession 
and had weightier matters to think of than the 
division of the state of California. Of late years, 
a few feeble attempts have been made to stir up 



206 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the old question of state division and even to 
resurrect tlie old "Pico law." 

For more than a decade after its admission 
into the Union, California was a Democratic 
state and controlled by the pro-slavery wing of 
that party. John C. Fremont and William H. 
Gwin, its first senators, were southern born, 
Fremont in South Carolina and Gwin in Mis- 
sissippi. Politics had not entered into their 
election, but the lines were soon drawn. Fre- 
mont drew the short term and his services in 
the senate were very brief. He confidently 
expected a re-election, but in this he was 
doomed to disappointment. The legislature of 
1851, after balloting one hundred and forty-two 
times, adjourned without electing, leaving Cali- 
fornia with but one senator in the session of 
1850-51. In the legislature of 1852 John B. 
Wilier was elected. He was a northern man 
with southern principles. His chief opponent 
for the place was David Colbert Broderick, a 
man destined to fill an important place in the 
political history of California. He was an Irish- 
man by birth, but had come to America in his 
boyhood. He had learned the stone cutters' 
trade with his father. His early associations 
were with the rougher element of New York 
City. Aspiring to a higher position than that 
of a stone cutter he entered the political field 
and soon arose to prominence. At the age of 
26 he was nominated for Congress, but was de- 
feated by a small majority through a split in the 
party. In 1849 he came to California, where he 
arrived sick and penniless. With F. D. Kohler, 
an assayer, he engaged in coining gold. The 
profit from buying gold dust at $14 an ounce 
and making it into $5 and $10 pieces put him 
in affluent circumstances. 

His first entry into politics in California was 
his election to fill a vacancy in the senate of the 
first legislature. In 1851 he became president 
of the senate. He studied law, history and liter- 
ature and was admitted to the bar. He was ap- 
pointed clerk of the supreme court and had as- 
pirations for still higher positions. Although 
Senator Gwin was a Democrat, he had managed 
to control all the federal appointments of Fill- 
more, the Whig president, and he had filled the 
offices with pro-slavery Democrats. 



No other free state in the Union had such 
odious laws against negroes as had California. 
The legislature of 1852 enacted a law "respect- 
ing fugitives from labor and slaves brought to 
this state prior to her admission to the Union." 
"Under this law a colored man or woman could 
be brought before a magistrate, claimed as a 
slave, and the person so seized not being per- 
mitted to testify, the judge had no alternative 
but to issue a certificate to the claimant, which 
certificate was conclusive of the right of the per- 
son or persons in whose favor granted, and pre- 
vented all molestation of such person or per- 
sons, by any process issued by any court, judge, 
justice or magistrate or other person whomso- 
ever."* Any one who rendered assistance to a 
fugitive was liable to a fine of $500 or imprison- 
ment for two months. Slaves who had been 
brought into California by their masters before 
it became a state, but who were freed by the 
adoption of a constitution prohibiting slavery, 
were held to be fugitives and were liable to 
arrest, although they had been free for several 
years and some of them had accumulated con- 
siderable property. By limitation the law should 
have become inoperative in 1853, but the legis- 
lature of that year re-enacted it, and the suc- 
ceeding legislatures of 1854 and 1855 continued 
it in force. The intention of the legislators 
who enacted the law was to legalize the kid- 
napping of free negroes, as well as the arrest of 
fugitives. Broderick vigorously opposed the 
prosecution of the colored people and by so 
doing called down upon his head the wrath of 
the pro-slavery chivalry. From that time on he 
was an object of their hatred. While successive 
legislatures were passing laws to punish black 
men for daring to assert their freedom and their 
right to the products of their honest toil, white 
villains were rewarded with political preferment, 
provided always that they belonged to the domi- 
nant wing of the Democratic party. The Whig 
party was but little better than the other, for the 
same element ruled in both. The finances of 
the state were in a deplorable condition and 
continually growing worse. The people's money 
was recklessly squandered. Incompetency was 



♦Bancroft's History of California, Vol. VI. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGR-\PHICAL RECORD. 



207 



the rule in office and honesty the exception. 
Ballot box stuffing had been reduced to a me- 
chanical science, jury bribing was one of the 
fine arts and suborning perjury was a recognized 
profession. During one election in San Fran- 
cisco it was estimated that $1,500,000 was spent 
in one way or another to influence voters. Such 
was the state of affairs just preceding the up- 
rising of the people that evolved in San Fran- 
cisco the vigilance committee of 1856. 

At the state election in the fall of 1855 tl^c 
Know Nothings carried the state. The native 
American or Know Nothing party was a party 
of few principles. Opposition to Catholics and 
foreigners was about the only plank in its plat- 
form. There was a strong opposition to for- 
eign miners in the mining districts and the 
pro-slavery faction saw in the increased foreign 
immigration danger to the extension of their 
beloved institution into new territory. The 
most potent cause of the success of the new- 
party in California was the hope that it might 
bring reform to relieve the tax burdened people. 
But in this they were disappointed. It was made 
up from the same element that had so long mis- 
governed the state. 

The leaders of the party were either pro- 
slavery men of the south or northern men with 
southern principles. Of the latter class was J. 
Neely Johnson, the governor-elect. In the leg- 
islature of 1855 the contest between Gwin and 
Broderick, which had been waged at the polls 
the previous year, culminated after thirty-eight 
ballots in no choice and Gvvin's place in the 
senate became vacant at the expiration of his 
term. In the legislature of 1856 the Know Noth- 
ings had a majority in both houses. It was 
supposed that they would elect a senator to 
succeed Gwin. There were three aspirants: H. 
A. Crabb, formerly a Whig; E. C. Marshall and 
Henry S. Foote, formerly Democrats. All were 
southerners and were in the new party for of- 
fice. The Gwin and Broderick influence was 
strong enough to prevent the Know Nothing 
legislature from electing a senator and Califor- 
nia was left with but one representative in the 
upper house of Congress. 

The Know Nothing party was short lived. At 
the general election in 1856 the Democrats 



swept the state. Broderick, by his ability in or- 
ganizing and his superior leadership, had se- 
cured a majority in the legislature and was in a 
position to dictate terms to his opponents. Wel- 
ler's senatorial term would soon expire and 
Gwin's already two years vacant left two places 
to be filled. Broderick, who had heretofore 
been contending for Gwin's place, changed his 
tactics and aspired to fill the long term. Ac- 
cording to established custom, the filling of the 
vacancy would come up first, but Broderick, by 
superior finesse, succeeded in having the caucus 
nominate the successor to Weller first. Ex- 
Congressman Latham's friends were induced to 
favor the arrangement on the expectation that 
their candidate would be given the short term. 
I5roderick was elected to the long term on the 
first ballot, January 9, 1857, and his commission 
was immediately made out and signed by the 
governor. For years he had bent his energies 
to securing the senatorship and at last he had 
obtained the coveted honor. But he was not 
satisfied yet. He aspired to control the federal 
patronage of the state; in this way he could 
reward his friends. He could dictate the elec- 
tion of his colleague for the short term. Both 
Gwin and Latham were willing to concede to 
him that privilege for the sake of an election. 
Latham tried to make a few reservations for 
some of his friends to whom he had promised 
places. Gwin offered to surrender it all with- 
out reservation. He had had enough of it. 
Gwin was elected and next day published an 
address, announcing his obligation to Broderick 
and renouncing any claim to the distribution of 
the federal patronage. 

Then a wail long and loud went up from the 
chivalry, who for years had monopolized all the 
offices. That they, southern gentlemen of aris- 
tocratic antecedents, should be compelled to ask 
favors of a mudsill of the north was too hu- 
miliating to be borne. Latham, too, was indig- 
nant and Broderick found that his triumph was 
but a hollow mockery. But the worst was to 
come. He who had done so much to unite the 
warring Democracy and give the party a glo- 
rious victory in California at the presidential 
election of 1856 fully expected the approbation 
of President Buchanan, but when he called on 



208 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



that old gentleman he was received coldly and 
'Juring Buchanan's administration he was ig- 
nored and Gwin's advice taken and followed in 
making federal appointments. He returned to 
California in April, 1857, to secure the nomina- 
tion of his friends on the state ticket, but in 
this he was disappointed. The Gwin ele- 
ment was in the ascendency and John 
B. Weller received the nomination for gov- 
ernor. He was regarded as a martyr, having 
been tricked out of a re-election to the sen- 
ate b}' Broderick. There were other martyrs of 
the Democracy, who received balm for their 
wounds and sympathy for their sufferings at 
that convention. In discussing a resolution de- 
nouncing the vigilance committee, O'Meara in 
his "History of Early Politics in California," 
says: "Col. Joseph P. Hoge, tlie acknowledged 
leader of the convention, stated that the com- 
mittee had hanged four men, banished twenty- 
eight and arrested two hundred and eighty ; and 
that these were nearly all Democrats. 

On Broderick's return to the senate in the 
session of 1857-58, he cast his lot with Senator 
Douglas and opposed the admission of Kansas 
under the infamous Lecompton constitution. 
This cut him loose from the administration 
wing of the party. 

In the state campaign of 1859 Broderick ral- 
lied his followers under the Anti-Lecompton 
standard and Gwin his in support of the Bu- 
chanan administration. The party was hope- 
lessly divided. Two Democratic tickets were 
placed in the field. The Broderick ticket, with 
John Currey as governor, and the Gwin, with 
Milton Latham, the campaign was bitter. Brod- 
erick took the stump and although not an orator 
his denunciations of Gwin were scathing and 
merciless and in his fearful earnestness he be- 
came almost eloquent. Gwin in turn loosed 
the vials of his wrath upon Broderick and 
criminations and recriminations flew thick and 
fast during the campaign. It was a campaign 
of vituperation, but the first aggressor was 
Gwin. 

Judge Terry, in a speech before the Lecomp- 
ton convention at Sacramento in June, 1859, 
after flinging out sneers at the Republican party, 
characterized Broderick's party as sailing "under 



the flag of Douglas, but it is the banner of the 
black Douglass, whose name is Frederick, not. 
Stephen." This taunt was intended to arouse 
the wrath of Broderick. He read Terry's speech 
while seated at breakfast in the International 
hotel at San Francisco. Broderick denounced 
Terry's utterance in forcible language and 
closed by saying: "I have hitherto spoken of 
him as an honest man, as the only honest 
man on the bench of a miserable, corrupt su- 
preme court, but now I find I was mistaken. I 
take it all back." A lawyer by the name of Per- 
ley, a friend of Terry's, to whom the remark was 
directed, to obtain a little reputation, challenged 
Broderick. Broderick refused to consider Per- 
ley's challenge on the ground that he was not 
his (Broderick's) equal in standing and beside 
that he had declared himself a few days before 
a British subject. Perley did not stand very 
high in the community. Terry had acted as a 
second for him in a duel a few years before. 

Broderick, in his reply to Perley, said. "1 
have determined to take no notice of attacks 
from any source during the canvass. If I were 
to accept your challenge, there are probably 
many other gentlemen who would seek similar 
opportunities for hostile meetings for the pur- 
pose of accomplishing a political object or to 
obtain public notoriety. I cannot afford at the 
present time to descend to a violation of the 
Constitution and state laws to subserve either 
their or your purposes." 

Terry a few days after the close of the cam- 
paign sent a letter to Broderick demanding a 
retraction of the offensive remarks. Broderick, 
well knowing that he would have to fight some 
representative of the chivalry if not several of 
them in succession, did not retract his remarks, 
He had for several years, in expectation of such 
a result in a contest with them, practiced 
liimself in the use of fire arms until he had be- 
come quite expert. 

A challenge followed, a meeting was arranged 
to take place in San Mateo county, ten miles 
from San Francisco, on the 12th of September. 
Chief of Police Burke appeared on the scene 
and arrested the principals. They were released 
by the court, no crime having been committed. 
They met next morning at the same place: ex- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



20!) 



Congressman McKibben and David D. Colton 
were Broderick's seconds. Calhoun Benham 
and Thomas Hayes were Terry's. The pistols 
selected belonged to a friend of Terry's. Brod- 
erick was ill, weak and nervons, and it was said 
that his pistol was quicker on the trigger than 
Terry's. When the word was given it was dis- 
charged before it reached a level and the ball 
struck the earth, nine feet from where he stood. 
Terry fired, striking Broderick in the breast. 
He sank to the earth mortally wounded and died 
three days afterwards. Broderick dead was a 
greater man than Broderick living. For years 
he had waged a contest against the representa- 
tives of the slave oligarchy in California and the 
great mass of the people had looked on with 
indifference, even urging on his pursuers to the 
tragic end. Now that he was killed, the cry went 
up for vengeance on his murderers. Terry was 
arrested and admitted to bail in the sum of 
$10,000. The trial was put off on some pretext 
and some ten months later he obtained a change 
of venue to ]\larin county on the plea that he 
could not obtain a fair and impartial trial in San 
Francisco. His case was afterwards dismissed 
without trial by a pro-slavery judge named 
Hardy. Although freed by the courts he was 
found guilty and condemned by public opinion. 
He went south and joined the Confederates at 
the breaking out of the Civil war. He some 
time after the close of the war returned to Cal- 
ifornia. In 1880 he was a presidential elector 
on the Democratic ticket. His colleagues on 
the ticket were elected, but he was defeated. 
He was killed at Lathrop by a deputy United 
States marshal while attempting an assault on 
United States Supreme Judge Field. 

In the hue and cry that was raised on the 
death of Broderick, the chivalry read the doom 
of their ascendency. Gwin, as he was about to 
take the steamer on his return to \Vashing;ton, 
"had flaunted in his face a large canvas frame, 
on which was painted a portrait of Broderick 
and this: 'It is the will of the people that the 
murderers of Broderick do not return again to 
California;' and below were also these words 
attributed to Mr. Broderick: 'They have killed 
me because I was opposed to the extension of 
slavery, and a corrupt administration.' " 

14 



Throughout his political career Broderick was 
a consistent anti-slavery man and a friend of 
the common people. Of all the politicians of the 
ante-bellum period, that is, before the Civil war, 
he stands to-day the highest in the estimation of 
the people of California. Like Lincoln, he was 
a self-made man. From a humble origin, 
unaided, he had fought his way up to a lofty po- 
sition. Had he been living during the war 
against the perpetuity of human slavery, he 
would have been a power in the senate or pos- 
sibly a commander on the field of battle. As it 
was, during that struggle in his adopted state, 
his name Isecame a synonyn of patriotism and 
love for the Union. 

Milton S. Latham, who succeeded John B. 
Weller as governor in i860, was, like his pred- 
ecessor, a northern luan with southern prin- 
ciples. Almost from the date of his arrival in 
California he had been an office-holder. He was 
a man of mediocre ability. He was a state di- 
visionist and would have aided in that scheme 
by advocating in the senate of the United States 
(to which body he had been elected three days 
after his inauguration) the segregation of the 
southern counties and their formation into a 
new state with the hopes of restoring the equi- 
librium between the north and the south. But 
the time had passed for such projects. The 
lieutenant-governor, John G. Downey, suc- 
ceeded Latham. Downey gained great popu- 
larity by his veto of the "bulkhead bill." This 
was a scheme of the San Francisco Dock and 
Wharf Company to build a stone bulkhead 
around the city water front in consideration of 
having the exclusive privilege of collecting 
wharfage and tolls for fifty years. Downey lost 
much of his popularity, particularly with the 
Union men, during the Civil war on account of 
his sympathy with the Confederates. 

At the state election in September, 1861, Le- 
land Stanford was chosen governor. He was 
the first Republican chosen to that office. He 
received fifty-six thousand votes. Two years 
before he had been a candidate for that office 
and received only ten thousand votes, so rap- 
idly had public sentiment changed. The news 
of the firing upon Fort Sumter reached San 
Francisco April 24, twelve days after its oc- 



210 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



currence. It came by pony express. The be- 
ginning of hostilities between the north and the 
south stirred up a strong Union sentiment. The 
great Union mass meeting held in San Fran- 
cisco May II, 1861, was the largest and most 
enthusiastic .public demonstration ever held on 
the Pacific coast. The lines were sharply drawn 
between the friends of the government and its 
enemies. Former political alliances were for- 
gotten. Most of the Anti-Lecompton or Doug- 
las Democrats arrayed themselves on the side 
of the Union. The chivalry wing of the Dem- 
ocratic party were either open or secret sym- 
pathizers with the Confederates. Some of them 
were bold and outspoken in their disloyalty. 
The speech of Edmund Randolph at the Dem- 
ocratic convention July 24, 1861, is a sample 
of such utterances. * * * "To me it seems 
a waste of time to talk. For God's sake, tell 
me of battles fought and won. Tell me of 
usurpers overthrown; that Missouri is again a 
free state, no longer crushed under the armed 
heel of a reckless and odious despot. Tell me 
that the state of Maryland lives again; and, oh! 
gentlemen, let us read, let us hear, at the first 
moment, that not one hostile foot now treads 
the soil of Virginia! (Applause and cheers.) 
If this be rebellion, I am a rebel. Do you want 
a traitor, then I am a traitor. For God's sake, 
speed the ball; may the lead go quick to his 
heart, and may our country be free from the 
despot usurper that now claims the name 
of the president of the United States."* (Cheers.) 
Some of the chivalry Democrats, most of whom 
had been holding office in California for years, 
went south at the breaking out of the war to 
fight in the armies of the Confederacy, and 
among these was Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, 
who had been superseded in the command of 
the Pacific Department by Gen. Edwin V. Sum- 
ner. Johnston, with a number of fellow sym- 
pathizers, went south by the overland route and 
was killed a year later, at the battle of Shiloh, 
while in command of the Confederate army. 

One form of disloyalty among the class 
known as "copperheads" (northern men with 
southern principles) was the advocacy of a Pa- 



cific republic. Most prominent among these 
was ex-Governor John B. Weller. The move- 
ment was a thinly disguised method of aiding 
the southern Confederacy. The flag of the 
inchoate Pacific republic was raised in Stock- 
ton January 16, 1861. It is thus described by 
the Stockton Argus: "The flag is of silk of the 
medium size of the national ensign and with 
the exception of the Union (evidently a mis- 
nomer in this case) which contains a lone star 
upon a blue ground, is covered by a painting 
representing a wild mountain scene, a huge 
grizzly bear standing in the foreground and the 
words 'Pacific Republic' near the upper border." 
The flag raising was not a success. At first it 
was intended to raise it in the city. But as it 
became evident this would not be allowed, it was 
raised to the mast head of a vessel in the slough. 
It was not allowed to float there long. The hal- 
yards were cut and a boy was sent up the mast 
to pull it down. The owner of the flag was con- 
vinced that it was not safe to trifle with the 
loyal sentiment of the people. 

At the gubernatorial election in September, 
1863, Frederick F. Low, Republican, was 
chosen over John G. Downey, Democrat, by a 
majority of over twenty thousand. In some parts 
of the state Confederate sympathizers were 
largely in the majority. This was the case in 
Los Angeles and in some places in the San 
Joaquin valley. Several of the most outspoken 
were arrested and sent to Fort Alcatraz, where 
they soon became convinced of the error of 
their ways and took the oath of allegiance. 
When the news of the assassination of Lincoln 
reached San Francisco, a mob destroyed the 
newspaper plants of the Democratic Press, 
edited by Beriah Brown ; the Occidental, edited 
by Zach. Montgomery; the Netus Letter, edited 
by F. Marriott, and the Monitor, a Catholic 
paper, edited by Tliomas A. Brady. These were 
virulent copperhead sheets that had heaped 
abuse upon the martyred president. Had the 
proprietors of these journals been found the 
mob would, in the excitement that prevailed, 
have treated them with violence. After this 
demonstration Confederate sympathizers kept 
silent. 



*Tuthiirs History of California. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



211 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



TRADE, TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



THE beginning of the ocean commerce of 
California was the two mission transport 
ships that came every year to bring sup- 
plies for the missions and presidios and take 
back what few products there were to send. 
The government fixed a price upon each and 
every article of import and export. There was 
no cornering the market, no bulls or bears in 
the wheat pit, no rise or fall in prices except 
when ordered by royal authority. An Arancel 
de Precios (fixed rate of prices) was issued at 
certain intervals, and all buying and selling was 
governed accordingly. These arancels included 
everything in the range of human needs — phys- 
ical, spiritual or mental. According to a tariff 
of prices promulgated by Governor Pages in 
1788, which had been approved by the audencia 
and had received the royal sanction, the price 
of a Holy Christ in California was fixed at 
$1.75, a wooden spoon six cents, a horse $9, a 
deerskin twenty-five cents, red pepper eighteen 
cents a pound, a dozen of quail twenty-five 
cents, brandy seventy-five cents per pint, and 
so on throughout the list. 

In 1785 an attempt was made to open up 
trade between California and China, the com- 
modities for exchange being seal and otter 
skins for quicksilver. The trade in peltries was 
to be a government monopoly. The skins were 
to be collected from the natives by the mission 
friars, who were to sell them to a government 
agent at prices ranging from $2.50 to $10 each. 
The neophytes must give up to the friars all 
the skins in their possession. All trade by citi- 
zens or soldiers was prohibited and any one 
attempting to deal in peltries otherwise than 
the regularly ordained authorities was liable, if 
found out, to have his goods confiscated. 
Spain's attempt to engage in the fur trade was 
not a success. The blighting monopoly of 
church and state nipped it in the bud. It died 



out, and the government bought quicksilver, 
on which also it had a monof>oly, with coin in- 
stead of otter skins. 

After the government abandoned the fur trade 
the American smugglers began to gather up 
the peltries, and the California producer re- 
ceived better prices for his furs than the mis- 
sionaries paid. 

The Yankee smuggler had no arancel of 
prices fixed by royal edict. His price list va- 
ried according to circumstances. As his trade 
was illicit and his vessel and her cargo were in 
danger of confiscation if he was caught, his scale 
of prices ranged high. But he paid a higher 
price for the peltries than the government, and 
that was a consolation to the seller. The com- 
merce with the Russian settlements of the 
northwest in the early years of the century fur- 
nished a limited market for the grain produced 
at some of the missions, but the Russians 
helped themselves to the otter and the seal of 
California without saying "By your leave" and 
they were not welcome visitors. 

During the Mexican revolution, as has been 
previously mentioned, trade sprang up between 
Linaa and California in tallow, but it was of 
short duration. During the Spanish era it can 
hardly be said that California had any com- 
merce. Foreign vessels were not allowed to 
enter her ports except when in distress, and 
their stay was limited to the shortest time pos- 
sible required to make repairs and take on 
supplies. 

It was not until Mexico gained her inde- 
pendence and removed the prescriptive regu- 
lations with which Spain had hampered corn- 
merce that the hide droghers opened up trade 
between New England and California. This 
trade, which began in 1822. grew to consider- 
able proportions. The hide droghers were emi- 
grant ships as well as mercantile vessels. By 



212 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



these came most of the Americans who settled 
in California previous to 1840. The hide and 
tallow trade, the most important item of com- 
merce in the Mexican era, reached its maximum 
in 1834, when the great mission herds were, by 
order of the padres, slaughtered to prevent them 
from falling into the hands of the government 
commissioners. Thirty-two vessels came to the 
coast that year, nearly all of which were en- 
gaged in the hide and tallow trade. 

During the year 1845, tfie last of Mexican 
rule, sixty vessels visited the coast. These 
were not all trading vessels; eight were men- 
of-war, twelve were whalers and thirteen came 
on miscellaneous business. The total amount 
received at the custom house for revenue during 
that year was $140,000. The majority of the 
vessels trading on the California coast during 
the Mexican era sailed under the stars and 
stripes. Mexico was kinder to California than 
Spain, and under her administration commer- 
cial relations were established to a limited ex- 
tent with foreign nations. Her commerce at 
best was feeble and uncertain. The revenue laws 
and their administration were frequently 
changed, and the shipping merchant was never 
sure what kind of a reception his cargo would 
receive from the custom house officers. The 
duties on imports from foreign countries were 
exorbitant and there was always more or less 
smuggling carried on. The people and the 
padres, when they were a power, gladly wel- 
comed the arrival of a trading vessel on the 
coast and were not averse to buying goods that 
had escaped the tarifif if they could do so with 
safety. As there was no land tax, the revenue 
on goods supported the expenses of the govern- 
ment. 

Never in the world's history did any country 
develop an ocean commerce so quickly as did 
California after the discovery of gold. When 
the news spread abroad, the first ships to 
arrive came from Peru, Chile and the South 
Sea islands. The earliest published notice of 
the gold discovery appeared in the Baltimore 
Sun, September 20, 1848, eight months after it 
was made. At first the story was ridiculed, but 
as confirmatory reports came thick and fast, 
preparations began for a grand rush for the 



gold mines. Vessels of all kinds, seaworthy 
and unseaworthy, were overhauled and fitted 
out for California. The American trade with 
California had gone by way of Cape Horn or 
the Straits of Magellan, and this was the route 
that was taken by the pioneers. Then there 
were short cuts by the way of the Isthmus of 
Panama, across Mexico and by Nicaragua. The 
lirst vessels left the Atlantic seaports in No- 
vember, 1848. By the middle of the winter one 
hundred vessels had sailed from Atlantic and 
Gulf seaports, and by spring one hundred and 
fifty more had taken their departure, all of them 
loaded with human freight and with supplies of 
every description. Five hundred and forty- 
nine vessels arrived in San Francisco in nine 
months, forty-five reaching that port in one day. 

April 12, 1848, before the treaty of peace 
with Mexico' had been proclaimed by the Presi- 
dent, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company was 
incorporated with a capital of $500,000. Asto- 
ria, Ore., was to have been the Pacific terminus 
of the company's line, but it never got there. 
The discovery of gold in California made San 
Francisco the end of its route. The contract 
with the government gave the company a sub- 
sidy of $200,000 for maintaining three steamers 
on the Pacific side between Panama and Asto- 
ria. The first of these vessels, the California, 
sailed from New York October 6, 1848, for San 
Francisco and Astoria via Cape Horn. She 
was followed in the two succeeding months by 
the Oregon and the Panama. On the Atlantic 
side the vessels of the line for several years 
were the Ohio, Illinois and Georgia. The ves- 
sels on the Atlantic side were fifteen hundred 
tons burden, while those on the Pacific were a 
thousand tons. Freight and passengers by the 
Panama route were transported across the isth- 
mus by boats up the Chagres river to Gorgona, 
and then by mule-back to Panama. In 1855 the 
Panama railroad was completed. This greatly 
facilitated travel and transportation. The At- 
lantic terminus of the road was Aspinwall, now 
called Colon. 

Another line of travel and commerce between 
the states and California in early days was the 
Nicaragua route. By that route passengers on 
the Atlantic side landed at San Juan del Norte 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



2i:i 



or Greytovvn. From there they look a river 
steamer and ascended the Rio San Juan to Lake 
Nicaragua, then in a larger vessel they crossed 
the lake to La Virgin. From there a distance 
of about twelve miles was made on foot or on 
mule-back to San Juan del Sur, where they re- 
embarked on board the ocean steamer for San 
Francisco. 

The necessity for the speedy shipment of mer- 
chandise to California before the days of trans- 
continental railroads at a minimum cost evolved 
the clipper ship. These vessels entered quite 
early into the California trade and soon displaced 
the short, clumsy vessels of a few hundred tons 
burden that took from six to ten months to 
make a voyage around the Horn. The clipper 
ship Flying Cloud, which arrived at San Fran- 
cisco in August, 185 1, made the voyage from 
Xew York in eighty-nine days. These vessels 
were built long and narrow and carried heavy 
sail. Their capacity ranged from one to two 
thousand tons burden. The overland railroads 
took away a large amount of their business. 

Capt. Jedediah S. Smith, as previously stated, 
was the real pathfinder of the western moun- 
tains and plains. He marked out the route 
from Salt Lake by way of the Rio Virgin, the 
Colorado and the Cajon Pass to Los Angeles 
in 1826. This route was extensively traveled 
by the belated immigrants of the early '50s. 
Those reaching Salt Lake City too late in the 
season to cross the Sierra Nevadas turned 
southward and entered California by Smith's 
trail. 

The early immigration to California came by 
way of Fort Hall. From there it turned south- 
erly. At Fort Hall the Oregon and California 
immigrants separated. The disasters that be- 
fell the Donner party were brought upon them 
by their taking the Hastings cut-off, which was 
represented to them as saving two hundred and 
fifty miles. It was shorter, but the time spent 
in making a wagon road through a rough coun- 
try delayed them until they were caught by the 
snows in the mountains. Lassen's cut-oiT was 
another route that brought disaster and delays 
to many of the nnmigrants who were induced 
to take it. The route up the Platte through the 



South Pass of the Rocky mountains and down 
the Humboldt received by far the larger amount 
of travel. 

The old Santa Fe trail from Independence to 
Santa Fe, and from there by the old Spanish 
trail around the north bank of the Colorado 
across the Rio Virgin down the Mojave river 
and through the Cajon Pass to Los Angeles, 
was next in importance. Another route by 
which much of the southern emigration came 
was what was known as the Gila route. It 
started at Fort Smith, Ark., thence via El Paso 
and Tucson and down the Gila to Yuma, thence 
across the desert through the San Gorgono 
Pass to Los Angeles. In 1852 it was estimated 
one thousand wagons came by this route. There 
was another route still further south than this 
which passed through the northern states ot 
JMexico, but it was not popular on account of 
the hostility of the Mexicans and the Apaches. 

The first overland stage line was established 
in 1857. The route extended from San Antonio 
de Bexar, Tex., to San Diego, via El Paso, Mes- 
sillo, Tucson and Colorado City (now Yuma). 
The service was twice a month. The contract 
was let to James E. Burch, the Postal Depart- 
ment reserving "the right to curtail or discon- 
tinue the service should any route subsequently 
put under contract cover the w^hole or any por- 
tion of the route." The San Diego Herald, 
August 12, 1857, thus notes the departure of the 
first mail by that route: "The pioneer mail 
train from San Diego to San Antonio, Tex., 
under the contract entered into by the govern- 
ment with Mr. James Burch, left here on the 
9th inst. (August 9, 1857) at an early hour in 
the morning, and is now pushing its way for the 
east at a rapid rate. The mail was of course 
carried on pack animals, as will be the case 
until wagons which arc being pushed across will 
have been put on the line. * * * The first 
mail from the other side has not yet arrived, 
although somewhat overdue, and conjecture is 
rife as to the cause of the delay." The eastern 
mail arrived a few days later. 

The service continued to improve, and the 
fifth trip from the eastern terminus to San 
Diego "was made in the extraordinary short 



214 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



time of twenty-six days and twelve hours," and 
the San Diego Herald on this arrival, October 
6, 1857, rushed out an extra "announcing the 
very gratifying fact of the complete triumph of 
the southern route notwithstanding the croak- 
ings of many of the opponents of the adminis- 
tration in this state." But the "triumph of the 
southern route" was of short duration. In 
September, 1858, the stages of the Butterfield 
line began making their semi-weekly trips. 
This route from its western terminus, San Fran- 
cisco, came down the coast to Gilroy, thence 
through Pacheco Pass to the San Joaquin val- 
ley, up the valley and by way of Fort Tejon to 
Los Angeles; from there eastward by Temecula 
and Warner's to Yuma, thence following very 
nearly what is now the route of the Southern 
Pacific Railroad through Arizona and New Mex- 
ico to El Paso, thence turning northward to 
Fort Smith, Ark. There the route divided, one 
branch going to St. Louis and the other to 
Memphis. The mail route from San Antonio 
to San Diego was discontinued. 

The Butterfield stage line was one of the long- 
est continuous lines ever organized. Its length 
was two thousand eight hundred and eighty 
miles. It began operation in September, 1858. 
The first stage from the east reached Los 
Angeles October 7 and San Francisco October 
10. A mass-meeting was held at San Francisco 
the evening of October 11 "for the purpose of 
expressing the sense entertained by the people 
of the city of the great benefits she is to re- 
ceive from the establishment of the overland 
mail." Col. J. B. Crocket acted as president 
and Frank M. Pixley as secretary. The speaker 
of the evening in his enthusiasm said: "In my 
opinion one of the greatest blessings that could 
befall California would be to discontinue at once 
all communication by steamer between San 
Francisco and New York. On yesterday we 
received advices from New York, New Orleans 
and St. Louis in less than twenty-four days via 
El Paso. Next to the discovery of gold this is 
the most important fact yet developed in the 
historv of California." W. L. Ormsby, special 
correspondent of the Nezv York Herald, the 
first and only through passenger by the over- 



land mail coming in three hours less than 
twenty-four days, was introduced to the audi- 
ence and was greeted with terrific applause. He 
gave a description of the route and some inci- 
dents of the journey. 

The government gave the Butterfield com- 
pany a subsidy of $600,000 a year for a service 
of two mail coaches each way a week. In 1859 
the postal revenue from this route was only 
$27,000, leaving Uncle Sam more than half a 
million dollars out of pocket. At the breaking 
out of the Civil war the southern overland mail 
route was discontinued and a contract was made 
with Butterfield for a six-times-a-week mail by 
the central route via Salt Lake City, with a 
branch line to Denver. The eastern terminus 
was at first St. Joseph, but on account of the 
war it was changed to Omaha. The western 
terminus was Placerville, Cal, time twenty 
days for eight months, and twenty-three days 
for the remaining four months. The contract 
was for three years at an annual subsidy of 
$1,000,000. The last overland stage contract 
for carrying the mails was awarded to Wells, 
Fargo & Co., October i, 1868, for $1,750,000 
per annum, with deductions for carriage by rail- 
way. The railway was rapidly reducing the dis- 
tance of stage travel. 

The only inland commerce during the Mexi- 
can era was a few bands of mules sold to New 
Mexican traders and driven overland to Santa 
Fe by the old Spanish trail and one band of 
cattle sold to the Oregon settlers in 1837 and 
driven by the coast route to Oregon City. The 
Californians had no desire to open up an inland 
trade with their neighbors and the traders and 
trappers who came overland were not welcome. 
After the discovery of gold, freighting to the 
mines became an important business. Supplies 
" liad to be taken by pack trains and wagons. 
Freight charges were excessively high at first. 
In 1848, "it cost $5 to carry a hundred pounds 
of goods from Sutter's Fort to the lower 
mines, a distance of twenty miles, and $10 per 
hundred weight for freight to the upper mines, 
a distance of forty miles. Two horses can draw 
one thousand five hundred pounds." In Decem- 
ber, 1849, the roads were almost impassable 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



lil.i 



and teamsters were charging from $40 to $50 a 
hundred pounds for hauhng freight from Sacra- 
mento to Mormon Island. 

In 1855 an inland trade was opened up be- 
tween Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. The 
first shipment was made by Banning and Alex- 
ander. The wagon train consisted of fifteen 
ten-mule teams heavily freighted with merchan- 
dise. The venture was a success financially. 
The train left Los Angeles in May and returned 
in September, consuming four months in the 
journey. The trade increased and became quite 
an important factor in the business of the south- 
ern part of the state. In 1859 sixty wagons 
were loaded for Salt Lake in the month of 
January, and in March of the same year one 
hundred and fifty loaded with goods were sent 
to the Mormon capital. In 1865 and 1866 there 
was a considerable shipment of goods from Los 
Angeles to Idaho and ^Montana by wagon trains. 
These trains went by way of Salt Lake. This 
trade was carried on during the winter months 
when the roads over the Sierras and the Rocky 
mountains were blocked with snow. 

Freighting by wagon train to Washoe formed 
a very important part of the inland commerce 
of California between 1859 and 1869. The im- 
mense freight wagons called "prairie schooners" 
carried almost as much as a freight car. The 
old-time teamster, like the old-time stage driver, 
was a unique character. Both have disappeared. 
Their occupation is gone. We shall never look 
on their like again. 

The pony express rider came early in the his- 
tory of California. Away back in 1775, when 
the continental congress made Benjamin Frank- 
lin postmaster-general of the United Colonies, 
on the Pacific coast soldier couriers, fleet 
mounted, were carrying their monthly budgets 
of mail between Monterey in Alta California, 
and Loreto, near the southern extremity of the 
peninsula of Lower California, a distance of one 
thousand five hundred miles. 

In the winter of 1859-60 a Wall street lobby 
was in Washington trying to get an appropria- 
tion of $5,000,000 for carrying the mails one 
year between New York and San Francisco. 
William II. Russell, of the firm of Russell, Ma- 



jors & Waddell, then engaged in running a 
daily stage line between the Missouri river and 
Salt Lake City, hearing of the lobby's efforts, 
offered to bet $200,000 that he could put on a 
mail line between San Francisco and St. Joseph 
that could make the distance, one thousand nine 
hundred and fifty miles, in ten days. The wager 
was accepted. Russell and his business man- 
ager, A. B. Miller, an old plains man, bought 
the fleetest horses they could find in the west 
and employed one hundred and twenty-five 
riders selected with reference to their light 
weight and courage. It was essential that the 
horses should be loaded as lightly as possible. 
The horses were stationed from ten to twenty 
miles apart and each rider was required to ride 
seventy-five miles. For change of horses and 
mail bag two minutes were allowed, at each 
station. One man took care of the two horses 
kept there. Everything being arranged a start 
was made from St. Joseph, April 3, i860. The 
bet was to be decided on the race eastward. At 
meridian on April 3, i860, a signal gun on a 
steamer at Sacramento proclaimed the hour of 
starting. At that signal Mr. Miller's private 
saddle horse, Border Ruffian, with his rider 
bounded away toward the foothills of the Sierra 
Nevadas. The first twenty miles were covered 
in forty-nine minutes. All went well till the 
Platte river was reached. The river was swollen 
by recent rain. Rider and horse plunged boldly 
into it, but the horse mired in the quicksands 
and was drowned. The rider carrying the mail 
bag footed it ten miles to the next relay sta- 
tion. When the courier arrived at the sixty- 
mile station out from St. Joseph he was one 
hour behind time. The last one had just three 
hours and thirty minutes in which to make the 
sixty miles and win the race. A heavy rain 
was falling and the roads were slippery, but 
with six horses to make the distance he won 
with five minutes and a fraction to spare. And 
thus was finished the longest race for the larg- 
est stake ever run in America. 

The pony express required to do its work 
nearly five hundred horses, about one hundred 
and ninety stations, two hundred station keepers 
and over a hundred riders. Each rider usually 
rode the horses on about seventv-five miles. 



216 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



but sometimes much greater distances were 
made. Robert H. Haslam, Pony Bob, made on 
one occasion a continuous ride of three hundred 
and eighty miles and WilHam F. Cody, now fa- 
mous as Buffalo Bill, in one continuous trip 
rode three hundred and eighty-four miles, 
stopping only for meals, and to change 
horses. 

The pony express was a semi-weekly service. 
Fifteen pounds was the limit of the weight of 
the waterproof mail bag and its contents. The 
postage or charge was $5 on a letter of half an 
ounce. The limit was two hundred letters, but 
sometimes there were not more than twenty in 
a bag. The line never paid. The shortest time 
ever made by the pony express was seven days 
and seventeen hours. This was in March, 1861, 
when it carried President Lincoln's message. 
At first telegraphic messages were received at 
St. Joseph up to five o'clock p. m. of the day 
of starting and sent to San Francisco on the 
express, arriving at Placerville, which was then 
the eastern terminus of the line. The pony ex- 
press was suspended October 27, 1861, on the 
completion of the telegraph. 

The first stage line was established between 
Sacramento and Mormon Island in September, 
1849, fare $16 to $32, according to times. 
Sacramento was the great distributing point for 
the mines and was also the center from which 
radiated numerous stage lines. In 1853 a dozen 
lines were owned there and the total capital in- 
vested in staging was estimated at $335,000. 
There were lines running to Coloma, Nevada, 
Placerville, Georgetown, Yankee Jim's, Jack- 
son, Stockton, Shasta and Auburn. In 185 1 
Stockton had seven daily stages. The first stage 
line between San Francisco and San Jose was 
established in April. 1850, fare $32. A number 
of lines were consolidated. In i860 the Califor- 
nia stage company controlled eight lines north- 
ward, the longest extending seven hundred and 
ten miles to Portland with sixty stations, thirty- 
five drivers and five hundred horses, eleven 
drivers and one hundred and fifty horses per- 
taining to the rest. There were seven indepen- 
dent lines covering four hundred and sixty-four 
miles, chiefly east and south, the longest to Vir- 



ginia City.* These lines disappeared with the 
advent of the railroad. 

The pack train was a characteristic feature of 
early mining days. Many of the mountain 
camps were inaccessible to wagons and the only 
means of shipping in goods was by pack tram. 
A pack train consisted of from ten to twenty 
mules each, laden with from two hundred to 
four hundred pounds. The load was fastened on 
the animal by means of a pack saddle which 
was held in its place by a cinch tightly laced 
around the animal's body. The sure-footed 
nuiles could climb steep grades and wind round 
narrow trails on the side of steep mountains 
without slipping or tumbling over the cliffs. 
Mexicans were the most expert packers. 

The scheme to utiHze camels and dromedaries 
as beasts of burden on the arid plains of the 
southwest was agitated in the early fifties. The 
chief promoter if not the originator of the 
project was Jefferson Davis, afterwards presi- 
dent of the Southern Confederacy. During the 
last days of the congress of 1851, Mr. Davis 
offered an amendment to the army appropria- 
tion bill appropriating $30,000 for the purchase 
of thirty camels and twenty dromedaries. The 
bill was defeated. When Davis was secretary 
of war in 1854, congress appropriated $30,000 
for the purchase and importation of camels and 
in December of that year Major C. Wayne was 
sent to Egypt and Arabia to buy seventy-five. 
He secured the required number and shipped 
them on the naval store ship Supply. They 
were landed at Indianola, Tex., February 10, 
1857. Three had died on the voyage. About 
half of the herd were taken to Albuquerque, 
where an expedition was fitted out under the 
command of Lieutenant Beale for Fort Tejon, 
Cal. ; the other half was employed in packing on 
the plains of Texas and in the Gadsen Purchase, 
as Southern Arizona was then called. 

It very soon became evident that the camel 
experiment would not be a success. The Amer- 
ican teamster could not be converted into an 
Arabian camel driver. From the very first meet- 
ing there was a mutual antipathy between the 



* Sacramento Union. January i, 1861. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



217 



American mule whacker and the beast of the 
l^rophet. The teamsters wlien transformed into 
camel drivers deserted and the troopers refused 
to have anything to do with the misshapen 
beasts. So because there was no one to load 
and navigate these ships of the desert their 
voyages became less and less frequent, until 
finally they ceased altogether; and these desert 
ships were anchored at the different forts in 
the southwest. After the breaking out of the 
Civil war the camels at the forts in Texas and 
New Mexico were turned loose to shift for 
themselves. Those in Arizona and California 
were condemned and sold by the government to 
two Frenchmen who used them for packing, 
first in Nevada and later in Arizona, but tiring 
of the animals they turned them out on the 
desert. Some of these camels or possibly their 
descendants are still roaming over the arid 
plains of southern Arizona and Sonora. 

The first telegraph was completed September 
II, 1853. It extended from the business quar- 
ter of San Francisco to the Golden Gate and 
was used for signalling vessels. The first long 
line connected Marysville, Sacramento, Stock- 
ton and San Jose. This was completed October 
24, 1853. Another line about the same time 
was built from San Francisco to Placerville by 
way of Sacramento. A line was built southward 
from San Jose along the Butterfield overland 
mail route to Los Angeles in i860. The Over- 
land Telegraph, begun in 1858, was completed 
November 7, 1861. 

The first express for the States was sent un- 
der the auspices of the California Star (news- 
paper). The Star of March i, 1848, contained 
the announcement that "We are about to send 
letters by express to the States at fifty cents 
each, papers twelve and a half cents; to start 
Ai)ril 15; any mail arriving after that time will 
be returned to the writers. The Star refused 
to send copies of its rival, The Calif ornian, in its 
express. 

The first local express was started by Charles 
L. Cady in iVugust, 1847. It left San Francisco 
every Monday and Fort Sacramento, its other 
terminus, every Thursday. Letters twenty-five 
cents. Its route was by way of Saucelito, Napa 
and Petaluma to Sacramento. 



Weld & Co.'s express was established in Oc- 
tober, 1849. This express ran from San Fran- 
cisco to Marysville, having its principal ofifices 
in San Francisco, Benicia and Sacramento. It 
was the first express of any consequence estab- 
lished in California. Its name was changed to 
Hawley & Co.'s express. The first trip was 
made in the Mint, a sailing vessel, and took 
sLx days. Afterward it was transferred to the 
steamers Hartford and McKim. The company 
paid these boats $800 per month for the use of 
one state room ; later for the same accommoda- 
tion it paid $1,500 per month. The Alta Cali- 
fornia of January 7, 1850, says : ''There are so 
riiany new express companies daily starting that 
we can scarcely keep the run of them." 

The following named were the principal com- 
panies at that time: Hawley & Co., Angel, 
Young & Co., Todd, Bryan, Stockton Express, 
Henly, McKnight & Co., Brown, Knowlton & 
Co. The business of these express companies 
consisted largely in carrving letters to the 
mines. The letters came through the postofifice 
in San Francisco, but the parties to whom they 
were addressed were in the mines. While the 
miner would gladly give an ounce to hear from 
home he could not make the trip to the Bay at 
a loss of several hundred dollars in time and 
money. The express companies obviated this 
difSculty. The Alta of July 27, 1850, says: "We 
scarcely know what we should do if it were not 
for the various express lines established which 
enable us to hold communication with the mines. 
With the present defective mail communication 
we should scarcely ever be able to hear from 
the towns throughout California or from the 
remote portions of the Placers north or south. 
Hawley & Co., Todd & Bryan and Besford & 
Co. are three lines holding communication with 
different sections of the country. Adams & Co. 
occupy the whole of a large building on Mont- 
gomery street." 

Adams & Co., established in 1850, soon be- 
came the leading express company of the coast. 
It absorbed a number of minor companies. It 
established relays of the fastest horses to carry 
the express to the mining towns. .A.s early as 
1852 the company's lines had penetrated the re- 
mote mining camps. Some of its riders per- 



218 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



formed feats in riding that exceeded the famous 
pony express riders. Isaac W. Elwell made the 
trip between Placerville and Sacramento in two 
hours and fifty minutes, distance sixty-four 
miles; Frank Ryan made seventy-five miles in 
four hours and twenty minutes. On his favorite 
horse, Colonel, he made twenty miles in fifty- 
five minutes. Adams & Co. carried on a bank- 
ing business and had branch banks in all the 
leading mining towns. They also became a po- 



litical power. In the great financial crash of 
1855 they failed and in their failure ruined thou- 
sands of their depositors. Wells, Fargo & Co. 
express was organized in 185 1. It weathered 
the financial storm that carried down Adams & 
Co. It gained the confidence of the people of 
the Pacific coast and has never betrayed it. Its 
business has grown to immense proportions. It 
is one of the leading express companies of the 
world. 



CHAPTER XXXli, 

RAILROADS. 



THE agitation of the Pacific railroad ques- 
tion began only two years after the first 
passenger railway was put in operation 
in the United States. The originator of the 
scheme to secure the commerce of Asia by a 
transcontinental railway from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific was Hartwell Carver, grandson of 
the famous explorer, Jonathan Carver. He 
published articles in the Neiv York Courier and 
Inquirer in 1832 elaborating his idea, and 
memorialized congress on the subject. The 
western terminus was to be on the Columbia 
river. His road was to be made of stone. There 
were to be sleeping cars and dining cars at- 
tached to each train. In 1836, John Plumbe. 
then a resident of Dubuque, Iowa, advocated 
the building of a railroad from Lake Michigan 
to Oregon. At a public meeting held in Du- 
buque, March 26, 1838, which Plumbe ad- 
dressed, a memorial to congress was drafted 
"praying for an appropriation to defray the ex- 
pense of the survey and location of the first link 
in the great Atlantic and Pacific railroad, name- 
ly, from the lakes to the Mississippi." Their 
application was favorably received and an ap- 
propriation being made the same year, which 
was expended under the direction of the secre- 
tary of war, the report being of a very favorable 
character.* 

Plumbe received the indorsement of the Wis- 



♦Bancrofl's History of California, Vol. VII., p. 4g9. 



consin legislature of 1839-40 and a memorial 
was drafted to congress urging the continuance 
of the work. Plumbe went to Washington to 
urge his project. But the times were out of 
joint for great undertakings. The financial 
panic of 1837 had left the government revenues 
in a demoralized condition. Plumbe's plan was 
to issue stock to the amount of $100,000,000 
divided in shares of $5 each. The government 
was to appropriate alternate sections of the 
I)ublic lands along the line of the road. Five 
million dollars were to be called in for the first 
installment. After this was expended in building, 
the receipts from the sale of the lands was to 
continue the building of the road. One hundred 
miles were to be built each year and twenty 
years was the time set for the completion of the 
road. A bill granting the subsidy and authoriz- 
ing the building of the road was introduced in 
congress, but was defeated by the southern 
members who feared that it would foster the 
growth of free states. 

The man best known in connection with the 
early agitation of the Pacific railroad scheme 
is Asa Whitney, of New York. For a time he 
acted with Carver in promulgating the project, 
but took up a plan of his own. Whitney wanted 
a strip of land sixty miles wide along the whole 
length of the road, which would have given 
about one hundred million acres of the public 
domain. Whitney's scheme called forth a great 
deal of discussion. It was feared by some 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



219 



timorous souls that such a monopoly would 
endanger the government and by others that 
it would bankrupt the public treasury. The agi- 
tation was kept up for several years. The 
acquisition of California and New Mexico threw 
the project into politics. The question of de- 
pleting the treasury or giving away the public 
domain no longer worried the pro-slavery poli- 
ticians in congress. The question that agitated 
them now was how far south could the road 
be deflected so that it would enhance the value 
of the lands over which they hoped to spread 
their pet institution — human slavery. 

Another question that agitated the members 
of congress was whether the road should be 
built by the government — should be a national 
road. The route which the road should take 
was fought over year after year in congress. 
The south would not permit the north to have 
the road for fear that freemen would absorb the 
public lands and build up free states. It was 
the old dog-in-the-manger policy so character- 
istic of the southern proslavery politicians. 

The California newspapers early took up the 
discussion and routes were thick as leaves in 
Valambrosa. In the Star of May 13, 1848, Dr. 
John Marsh outlines a route which was among 
the best proposed: "From the highest point on 
the Bay of San Francisco to which seagoing 
vessels can ascend; thence up the valley of the 
San Joaquin two hundred and fifty miles; 
thence through a low pass (Walker's) to the 
valley of the Colorado and thence through Ari- 
zona and New Me.xico by the Santa Fe trail to 
Independence, Mo." 

Routes were surveyed and the reports of the 
engineers laid before conrrress; memorials were 

o o 

received from the people of California praying 
for a road; bills were introduced and discussed, 
but the years passed and the Pacific railroad 
was not begun. Slavery, that "sum of all vil- 
lainies," was an obstruction more impassable 
than the mountains and deserts that intervened 
between the Alissouri and the Pacific. Southern 
politicians, aided and abetted by Gwin of Cali- 
fornia neutralized every attempt. 

One of the first of several local railroad 
projects that resulted in something more than 
resolutions, public meetings and the election of 



a board of directors that never directed any- 
thing was the building of a railroad from San 
I'Vancisco to San Jose. The agitation was be- 
gun early in 1850 and by T'cbruary, 1851, $100,- 
000 had been subscribed. September 6 of that 
year a company was organized and the pro- 
jected road given the high sounding title of the 
Pacific & Atlantic railroad. Attempts were 
made to secure subscriptions for its stock in 
New York and in Europe, but without success. 
Congress was appealed to, but gave no assist- 
ance and all that there was to the road for ten 
years was its name. In 1859 a new organization 
was effected under the name of the San Fran- 
cisco & San Jose railroad company. An at- 
tempt was made to secure a subsidy of $900,- 
000 from the three counties through which the 
road was to pass, but this failed and the corpora- 
tion dissolved. Another organization, the 
fourth, was effected with a capital stock of 
$2,000,000. The construction of the road was 
begun in October, i860, and completed to San 
Jose January 16, 1864. 

The first railroad completed and put into suc- 
cessful operation in California was the Sacra- 
mento Valley road. It was originally intended 
to extend the road from Sacramento through 
Placer and Sutter counties to Mountain City, 
in Yuba county, a distance of about forty miles. 
It came to a final stop at a little over half that 
distance. Like the San Jose road the question 
of building was agitated several years before 
anything was really done. In 1853 the company 
was reorganized under the railroad act of that 
year. Under the previous organization sub- 
scriptions had been obtained. The Sacramento 
Union of September 19, 1852, says: "The books 
of the Sacramento Valley railroad company 
were to have been opened in San Francisco 
Wednesday. Upwards of $200,000 of the neces- 
sary stock has been subscribed from here." 
The Union of September 24 announces, "That 
over $600,000 had already been subscribed at 
San Francisco and Sacramento." Under the re- 
organization a new board was elected November 
12, 1853. C. L. Wilson was made president; 
F. W. Page, treasurer, and W. H. Watson, sec- 
retary. Theodore D. Judah, afterwards famous 
in California railroad building, was employed as 



220 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



engineer and the construction of the road began 
in February, 1855. It was completed to Fol- 
som a, distance of twenty-two miles from Sacra- 
mento and the formal opening of the road for 
business took place February 22, 1856. Accord- 
ing to the secretary's report for 1857 the earn- 
ings of that year averaged $18,000 per month. 
The total earnings for the year amounted to 
$216,000; the expenses $84,000, leaving a profit 
of $132,000. The cost of the road and its equip- 
ment was estmiated at $700,000. From this 
showing it would seem that California's first 
railroad ought to have been a paying invest- 
ment, but it was not. Money then was worth 
5 per cent a month and the dividends from the 
road about 18 per cent a year. The difference 
between one and a half per cent and 5 per cent 
a month brought the road to a standstill. 

Ten 3ears had passed since California had 
become a state and had its representatives in 
congress. In all these years the question of a 
railroad had come up in some form in that body, 
yet the railroad seemingly was as far from a 
consummation as it had been a decade before. 
In 1859 the silver mines of the Washoe were 
discovered and in the winter of 1859-60 the 
great silver rush began. An almost continuous 
stream of wagons, pack trains, horsemen and 
footmen poured over the Sierra Nevadas into 
Carson Valley and up the slopes of Mount 
Davidson to \irginia City. The main line of 
travel was by way of Placerville, through John- 
son's Pass to Carson City. An expensive toll 
road was built over the mountains and monster 
freight wagons hauled great loads of merchan- 
dise and mill machinery to the mines. "In 1863 
the tolls on the new road amounted to $300,000 
and the freight bills on mills and merchandise 
summed up $13,000,000."* 

The rush to Washoe gave a new impetus to 
railroad projecting. A convention of the whole 
coast had been held at San Francisco in Sep- 
tember, 1859, but nothing came of it beyond 
propositions and resolutions. Early in 1861, 
Theodore P. Judah called a railroad meeting at 
the St. Charles hotel in Sacramento. The feasi- 
bility of a road over the mountains, the large 



amount of business that would come to that 
road from the Washoe mines and the necessity 
of Sacramento moving at once to secure that 
trade were pointed out. This road would be the 
beginning of a transcontinental line and Sacra- 
mento had the opportunity of becoming its 
terminus. Judah urged upon some of the lead- 
ing business men the project of organizing a 
company to begin the building of a transconti- 
nental road. The Washoe trade and travel 
would be a very important item in the business 
of the road. 

On the 28th of June, 1861, the Central Pacific 
Railroad company was organized under the 
general incorporation law of the state. Leland 
Stanford was chosen president, C. P. Hunting- 
ton, vice-president, Mark Hopkins, treasurer, 
James Bailey, secretary, and T. D. Judah, chief 
engineer. The directors were those just named 
and E. B. Crocker, John F.Morse, D. W. Strong 
and Charles Marsh. The capital stock of the 
company was $8,500,000 divided into eighty-five 
thousand shares of $100 each. The shares taken 
by individuals were few, Stanford, Huntington, 
Hopkins, Judah and Charles Crocker subscrib- 
ing for one hundred and fifty each; Glidden & 
Williams, one hundred and twenty-five shares; 
Charles A. Lombard and Orville D. Lombard, 
three hundred and twenty shares; Samuel 
Hooper, Benjamin J. Reed, Samuel P. Shaw, 
fifty shares each; R. O. Ives, twenty-five shares; 
Edwin B. Crocker, ten shares; Samuel Bran- 
nan, two hundred shares; cash subscriptions of 
which 10 per cent was required by law to be 
paid down realizing but a few thousand dollars 
with which to begin so important a work as a 
railroad across the Sierra Nevada.* 

The total amount subscribed was $158,000, 
scarcely enough to build five miles of road on 
the level plains if it had all been paid up. None 
of the men in the enterprise was rich. Indeed, 
as fortunes go now, none of them had more than 
a competence. Charles Crocker, who was one 
of the best off, in his sworn statement, placed 
the value of his property at $25,000; C. P. 
Huntington placed the value of his individual 
possessions at $7,222, while Leland Stanford and 



♦Bancroft's History of California, Vol. VII.. p. 541. 



♦Bancroft's History of California, Vol. VII. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



221 



his brother together owned property worth 
$32,950. The incubus that so long had pre- 
vented building a Pacific railroad was removed. 
The war of secession had begun. The southern 
senators and representatives were no longer in 
congress to obstruct legislation. The thirty- 
second and the thirty-fifth parallel roads south- 
ern schemes, were out of the way or rather the 
termini of these roads were inside the confeder- 
ate lines. 

A bill "to aid in the construction of a railroad 
and telegraph line from the Missouri river to 
the Pacific ocean and to secure to the govern- 
ment the use of the same for postal, military and 
other purposes passed both houses and became 
a law July i, 1862. The bill provided for the 
building of the road by two companies. The 
Union Pacific (which was to be a union of 
several roads already projected) was given the 
construction of the road to the eastern boundary 
of California, where it would connect with the 
Central Pacific. Government bonds were to be 
given to the companies to the amount of $16,000 
per mile to the foot of the mountains and 
$48,000 per mile through the mountains when 
forty miles of road had been built and approved 
by the government commissioners. In, addition 
to the bonds the companies were to receive 
"every alternate section of public land desig- 
nated by odd numbers to the amount of five 
alternate sections per mile on each side of the 
railroad on the line thereof and within the limits 
of ten miles on each side of the road not sold, 
reserved or otherwise disposed of by the United 
States." Mineral lands were exempted and any 
lands unsold three years after the completion of 
the entire road were subject to a preemption 
like other public lands at a price not exceeding 
$1.25 per acre, payable to the company. 

The government bonds were a first mortgage 
on the road. The ceremony of breaking ground 
for the beginning of the enterprise took place at 
Sacramento, February 22, 1863, Governor 
Stanford throwing the first shovelful of earth, 
and work was begun on the first eighteen miles 
of the road which was let by contract to be 
finished by August, 1863. The Central Pacific 
company was in hard lines. Its means were not 
sufficient to build forty miles which must be 



completed before the subsidy could be received. 
In October, 1863, Judah who had been instru- 
mental in securing the first favorable legislation 
set out a second time for Washington to ask 
further assistance from congress. At New York 
he was stricken with a fever and died there. To 
him more than any other man is due the credit 
of securing for the Pacific coast its first trans- 
continental railroad. In July, 1864, an amended 
act was passed increasing the land grant from 
six thousand four hundred acres to twelve 
thousand eight hundred per mile and reducing 
the number of miles to be built annually from 
fifty to twenty-five. The company was allowed 
to bond its road to the same amount per mile 
as the government subsidy. 

The Western Pacific, which was virtually a 
continuation of the Central Pacific, was organ- 
ized in December, 1862, for the purpose of 
building a railroad from Sacramento via Stock- 
ton to San Jose. A branch of this line was 
constructed from Niles to Oakland, which was 
made the terminus of the Central Pacific. The 
Union Pacific did not begin construction until 
1865, while the Central Pacific had forty-four 
miles constructed. In 1867 the Central Pacific 
had reached the state line. It had met with 
many obstacles in the shape of lawsuits and 
unfavorable comments by the press. From the 
state line it pushed out through Nevada and 
on the 28th of April, 1869, the two companies 
met with their completed roads at Promontory 
Point in Utah, fifty-three miles west of Ogden. 
The ceremony of joining the two roads took 
place May 10. The last tie, a handsomely fin- 
ished piece of California laurel, was laid and 
Governor Stanford with a silver hammer drove 
a golden spike. The two locomotives, one 
from the east and one from the west, bumped 
noses and the first transcontinental railroad 
was completed. 

The Southern Pacific Railroad company of 
California was incorporated in December, 1865. 
It was incorporated to build a railroad from 
some point on the bay of San Francisco through 
the counties of Santa Clara, Monterey, San 
Luis Obispo, Tulare, Los Angeles to San 
Diego and thence easterly through San Diego 
to the eastern boundary of the state there to 



222 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



connect with a railroad from the Mississippi 
■ river. 

"In July, 1866, congress granted to the At- 
lantic and Pacific Railroad company to aid in 
the construction of its road and telegraph line 
from Springfield, Mo., by the most eligible route 
to Albuquerque in New Mexico and thence by 
the thirty-fifth parallel route to the Pacific, an 
amount of land equal to that granted to the 
Central Pacific. By this act the Southern Pa- 
cific Railroad was authorized to connect with 
the Atlantic and Pacific near the boundary line 
of California, at such point as should be deemed 
most suitable by the companies and should have 
therefore the same amount of land per mile as 
the Atlantic and Pacific."* 

In 1867 the Southern Pacific company de- 
cided to change its route and instead of build- 
mg down through the coast counties to go east- 
ward from Gilroy through Pacheco's pass into 
the upper San Joaquin valley through Fresno, 
Kern and San Bernardino to the Colorado river 
near Fort Mojave. This contemplated change 
left the lower coast counties out in the cold and 
caused considerable dissatisfaction, and an at- 
tempt was made to prevent it from getting a 
land subsidy. Congress, however, authorized 
the change, as did the California legislature of 
1870, and the road secured the land. 

The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad 
came into possession of the Southern Pacific 
company, San Francisco donating three thou- 
sand shares of stock in that road on condition 
that the Southern Pacific company, after it se- 
cured the San Jose road, should extend it to 
the southeastern boundary of the state. In 1869 
a proposition was made to the supervisors of 
San Francisco to donate $1,000,000 in bonds of 
the city to the Southern Pacific company, on 
condition that it build two hundred miles south 
from Gilroy, the bonds to be delivered on the 
completion and stocking of each section of fifty 
miles of road. The bonds were voted by the 
people of the city. The road was built to 
Soledad, seventy miles from Gilroy, and then 
stopped. The different branch roads in the San 
Jose and Salinas valley were all consolidated 



Bancroft. VII.. p. 594. 



under the name of the Southern Pacific. The 
Central Pacific and the Southern Pacific, al- 
though apparently different organizations, were 
really one company. 

The Southern Pacific built southward from 
Lathrop, a station on the Central Pacific's line, 
a railroad up the valley by way of Tehachapi 
Pass to Los Angeles. While this road was in 
course of construction in 1872 a proposition was 
made to the people of Los Angeles through the 
county board of supervisors to vote a subsidy 
equal to 5 per cent of the entire amount of the 
taxable property of the county on condition that 
the Southern Pacific build fifty miles of its main 
line to Yuma in the county. Part of the subsidy 
was to be paid in bonds of the Los Angeles & 
San Pedro Railroad, amounting to $377,000 and 
sixty acres of land for depot purposes. The 
total amount of subsidy to be given was $610,- 
000. The proposition was accepted by the 
people, the railroad company in addition to its 
original offer agreeing to build a branch road 
twenty-seven miles long to Anaheim. This was 
done to head off the Tom Scott road which 
had made a proposition to build a branch road 
from San Diego to Los Angeles to connect with 
the Texas Pacific road which the year before 
had been granted a right of way from Marshall, 
Tex., to San Diego, and was preparing to build 
its road. The Southern Pacific completed its 
road to Los Angeles in September, 1876, and 
reached the Colorado river on its way east in 
April, 1877. It obtained the old franchise of the 
Texas Pacific and continued its road eastward 
to El Paso, Tex., where it made connections 
with roads to New Orleans and other points 
south and east, thus giving California its second 
transcontinental railroad. This road was com- 
pleted to El Paso in 1881. 

The Atlantic & Pacific road with which the 
Southern Pacific was to connect originally, 
suffered from the financial crash of 1873 and 
suspended operations for a time. Later it en- 
tered into a combination with the Atchison, To- 
peka & Santa Fe and St. Louis & San Francisco 
railroad companies. This gave the Atchison 
road a half interest in the charter of the Atlantic 
& Pacific. The two companies built a main line 
jointly from Albuquerque (where the Atchison 



HISTORICAL Ax\D BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



road ended) west to the Colorado river at the 
Xeedles. Their intention was to continue the 
road to Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

The California Southern and the California 
Southern Extension companies were organized 
to extend the Atlantic & Pacific from Barstow 
to San Diego. These companies consoliilated 
and completed a road from San Diego to San 
Bernardino September 13, 1883. The Southern 
Pacific interfered. It attempted to prevent the 
California Southern from crossing its tracks at 
Colton by placing a heavy engine at the point 
of crossing, but was compelled to move the en- 
gine to save it from demolition. It built a branch 
from Mojave station to connect with the At- 
lantic & Pacific in which it had an interest. 
This gave connection for the Atlantic & Pacific 
over the Southern Pacific lines with both Los 
Angeles and San Francisco. This was a serious 
blow to the California Southern, but disasters 
never come singly. The great flood of January, 
1884, swept down through the Temecula Caiion 
and carried about thirty miles of its track out 
to sea. It was doubtful under the circumstances 
whether it would pay to rebuild it. Finally the 
Southern Pacific agreed to sell its extension 
from Barstow to the Needles to the California 
Southern, reserving its road from Barstow to 



Mojave. Construction was begun at once on 
the California Southern line from Barstow to 
San Bernardino and in November, 1885, the 
road was completed from Barstow to San 
Diego. In October, 1886, the road passed un- 
der control of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 
Fe. In the spring of 1887 the road was ex- 
tended westerly from San Bernardino to meet 
the San Gabriel valley road which had been 
built eastward from Los Angeles through Pasa- 
dena. The completed line reached Los Angeles 
in May, 1887, thus giving California a third 
transcontinental line. 

After many delays the gap in the Southern 
Pacific coast line was closed and the first trains 
from the north and the south passed over its 
entire length between Los Angeles and San 
Francisco on the 31st of March, 1901, nearly 
thirty years after the first section of the road 
was built. 

The Oregon & California and the Central 
Pacific were consolidated in 1870. The two 
ends of the road were united at Ashland, Ore., 
in 1887. The entire line is now controlled by 
the Southern Pacific, and, in connection with 
the Northern Pacific and the Oregon Railway 
& Navigation Road at Portland, forms a fourth 
transcontinental line for California. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE INDIAN QUESTION. 



IT IS quite the fashion now with a certain 
school of writers, who take their history of 
California from "Raniona" and their infor- 
mation on the "Indian question" under the rule 
of the mission padres from sources equally fic- 
titious, to draw invidious comparisons between 
the treatment of the Indian by Spain and Mex- 
ico when mission rule was dominant in Cali- 
fornia and his treatment by the United States 
after the conquest. 

That the Indian was brutally treated and un- 
jnercifully slaughtered by the American miners 
and rancheros in the early '50s none will deny; 
that he had fared but little better under the rule 



of Spain and Mexico is equally true. The tame 
and submissive Indians of the sea coast with 
whom the mission had to deal were a very 
different people from the mountain tribes with 
whom the Americans came in conflict. 

W'e know but little of the conquistas or gentile 
hunts that were occasionally sent out from the 
mission to capture subjects for conversion. The 
history of these was not recorded. From "The 
narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Berings 
strait with the Polar expedition; performed in 
his majesty's ship Blossom, under command of 
Capt. F. W. Beechey, R. N.. in the years 
1825-26-27-28, we have the story of one of these 



224 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



conquistas or convert raids. Captain Beechey 
visited California in 1828. While in California 
he studied the missions, or at least those he vis- 
ited, and after his return to England published 
his observations. His observations have great 
value. He was a disinterested observer and 
gave a' plain, straightforward, truthful account 
of what he saw, without prejudice or partiality. 
His narrative dispels much of the romance that 
some modern writers throw around mission life. 
This conquista set out from the Mission San 
Jose. 

"At a particular period of the year also, when 
the Indians can be spared from agricultural con- 
cerns of the establishment, many are permitted 
to take the launch of the mission and make ex- 
cursions to the Indian territory. All are anx- 
ious to go on such occasions. Some to visit 
friends, some to procure the manufactures of 
their barbarian countrymen (which, by the by, 
are often better than their own) and some with a 
secret determination never to return. On these 
occasions the padres desire them to induce as 
many of their unconverted brethren as possible 
to accompany them back to the mission; of 
course, implying that this is to be done only by 
persuasion; but the b.oat being furnished with a 
cannon and musketry and in every respect 
equipped for war, it too often happens that the 
neophytes and the gente de razon, who super- 
intend the direction of the boat, avail them- 
selves of their superiority with the desire of in- 
gratiating themselves with their master and re- 
ceiving a reward. There are besides repeated 
acts of aggression, which it is necessary to pun- 
ish, all of which furnish proselytes. Women and 
children are generally the first objects of cap- 
ture, as their husbands and parents sometimes 
voluntarih' follow them into captivity. These 
misunderstandings and captivities keep up a per- 
petual enmity amongst the tribes whose thirst 
for revenge is insatiable." 

We had an opportunity of witnessing the 
tragical issue of one of these holyday excursions 
of the neophytes of the Mission San Jose. The 
launch was armed, as usual, and placed under 
the superintendence of an alcalde of the mission, 
who appears from one statement (for there are 
several), converted the party of pleasure either 



into an attack for procuring proselytes or ot 
revenge upon a particular tribe for some ag- 
gression in which they were concerned. They 
proceeded up the Rio San Joachin until they 
came to the territory of a particular tribe named 
Consemenes, when they disembarked with the 
gun and encamped for the night near the vil- 
lage of Los Gentiles, intending to make an at- 
tack upon them next morning, but before they 
were prepared the gentiles, who had been ap- 
prised of their intention and had collected a 
large body of their friends, became the assail- 
ants and pressed so hard upon the party that, 
notwithstanding they dealt death in every direc- 
tion with their cannon and musketry and were 
inspired with confidence by the contempt in 
which they held the valor and tactics of their un- 
converted countrymen, they were overpowered 
by numbers and obliged to seek their safety in 
flight and to leave the gun in the woods. Some 
regained the launch and were saved and others 
found their way overland to the mission, but 
thirty-four of the party never returned to tell 
their tale. 

"There were other accounts of the unfortu- 
nate afifair, one of which accused the padre of 
authorizing the attack. The padre was greatly 
displeased at the result of the excursion, as the 
loss of so many Indians to the mission was of 
great consequence and the confidence with 
which the victory would inspire the Indians was 
equally alarming. 

"He therefore joined with the converted In- 
dians in a determination to chastise and strike 
terror into the victorious tribe and in concert 
with the governor planned an expedition against 
them. The mission furnished money, arms, In- 
dians and horses and the presidio troops, headed 
by Alferez Sanches, a veteran, who had been 
frequently engaged with the Indians and was 
acquainted with that part of the country. The 
expedition set out November 19, and we heard 
nothing of it until the 27th, but two days after 
the troops had taken to the field some immense 
columns of smoke rising above the mountains 
in the direction of the Cosemmes bespoke the 
conflagration of the village of the persecuted 
gentiles ; and on the day above mentioned the 
veteran Sanches made a triumphant entry into 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



225 



the Mission of San Jose, escorting forty miser- 
able women and children. The gun which had 
been lost in the first battle was retaken and 
other trophies captured. 

"This victory, so glorious according to the 
ideas of the conquerors, was achieved with the 
loss of only one man on the part of the Chris- 
tians, who was mortally wounded by the burst- 
ing of his own gun ; but on the part of the enemy 
it was considerable, as Sanches the morning 
after the battle counted forty-one men, women 
and children dead. It is remarkable that none 
of the prisoners was wounded and it is greatly 
to be feared that the Christians, who could 
scarcely be prevented from revenging the death 
of their relatives upon those who were brought 
to the mission, glutted their brutal passions on 
all who fell into their hands. 

"The prisoners they had captured were imme- 
diately enrolled in the list of the mission, except 
a nice little boy whose mother was shot while 
running away with him in her arms, and he was 
sent to the presidio and, as I heard, given to 
the Alferez as a reward for his services. The 
poor little orphan had received a slight wound in 
his forehead ; he wept bitterly at first and refused 
to eat, but in time became reconciled to his 
fate. 

"Those who were taken to the mission were 
immediately converted and were daily taught by 
the neophytes to repeat the Lord's prayer and 
certain hymns in the Spanish language. I hap- 
pened to visit the mission about this time and 
saw these unfortunate beings under tuition. 
They were clothed in blankets and arranged in 
a row before a blind Indian, who understood 
their dialect and was assisted by an alcalde to 
keep order. Their tutor began by desiring them 
to kneel, informing them that he was going to 
teach them the names of the persons composing 
the trinity and- they were to repeat in Spanish 
what he dictated. The neophytes being ar- 
ranged, the speaker began: 'Santisima Trini- 
dad, Dios, Jesu Christo, Espiritu Santo,' paus- 
ing between each name to listen if the simple 
Indians, who had never before spoken a word 
of Spanish, pronounced it correctly or anything 
near the mark. After they had repeated these 
names satisfactorily, their blind tutor, after a 

15 



pause, added 'Santos' and recapitulated the 
names of a great many saints, which finished the 
morning's lesson. 

"They did not appear to me to pay much at- 
tention to what was going forward and I ob- 
served to the padre that I thought their teachers 
had an arduous task, but he said they had never 
found any difficulty; that the Indians were ac- 
customed to change their own gods and that 
their conversion was in a measure habitual to 
them. 

"The expenses of the late expedition fell heav- 
ily upon the mission and I was glad to find the 
padre thought it was paying very dear for so 
few converts, as in all probability it will lessen 
his desire to undertake another expedition and 
the poor Indians will be spared the horrors of 
being butchered by their own countrymen or 
dragged from their homes into captivity." 

This conquista and the results that followed 
were very similar to some of the so-called In- 
dian wars that took place after the American 
occupation. The Indians were provoked to hos- 
tilities by outrage and injustice. Then the 
military came down on them and wiped them 
out of existence. 

The vmsanitary condition of the Indian vil- 
lages at some of the missions was as fatal as an 
Indian war. The Indian was naturally filthy, but 
in his native state he had the whole country to 
roam over. If his village became too filthy and 
the vermin in it too aggressive, he purified it 
by fire — burned up his wigwam. The adobe 
houses that took the place of the brush hovel, 
which made up the early mission villages, could 
not be burned to purify them. No doubt the 
heavy death rate at the missions was due largely 
to the uncleanly habits of the neophytes. The 
statistics given in the chapter on the Franciscan 
missions show that in all the missionary estab- 
lishments a steady decline, a gradual extinction 
of the neophyte population, had been in prog- 
ress for two to three decades before the mis- 
sions were secularized. Had secularization been 
delayed or had it not taken place in the course 
of a few decades, at the rate the neophytes were 
dying off the missions would have become de- 
populated. The death rate was greater than the 
birth rate in all of them and the mortality among 



22C 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the children was greater even than among the 
adults. After secularization the neophytes 
drifted to the cities and towns where they could 
more readily gratify their passion for strong 
drink. Their mission training and their Chris- 
tianit)' had no restraining influence upon them. 
Tlieir vicious habits, which were about the only 
thing they had accjuired by their contact with 
the whites, soon put an end to them. 

During the Spanish and Mexican eras North- 
ern California remained practically a terra in- 
cognita. Two missions, San Rafael and San 
Francisco Solano, and the castillo at Sonora, 
had been established as a sort of protection to 
the northern frontier. A few armed incursions 
had been made into the country beyond these 
to punish Indian horse and cattle thieves. Gen- 
eral Vallejo, who was in command of the 
troops on the frontera del norte, had always 
endeavored to cultivate friendly relations with 
the gentiles, but the padres disliked to have 
these near the missions on account of their in- 
fluence on the neophytes. Near the Mission 
San Rafael, in 1833, occurred one of those In- 
dian massacres not uncommon under Spanish 
and Mexican rule. A body of gentiles from the 
rancherias of Pulia, encouraged by Figueroa 
and Vallejo, came to the Mission San Rafael 
with a view to establishing friendly relations. 
The padre put ofi the interview until next day. 
During the night a theft was committed, which 
was charged to the gentiles. Fifteen of them 
were seized and sent as prisoners to San Fran- 
cisco. Padre Mercado, fearing that their coun- 
trymen might retaliate, sent out his major doma 
Molina with thirty-seven armed neophytes, who 
surprised the gentiles in their rancheria, killed 
twenty-one, wounded many more and captured 
twenty men, women and children. Vallejo was 
indignant at the shameful violation of his prom- 
ises of protection to the Indians. He released 
the prisoners at San Francisco and the captives 
at the mission and tried to pacify the wrathful 
gentiles. Padre Mercado was suspended from 
his ministry for a short time, but was afterward 
freed and returned to San Rafael.* 

There was a svstem of Indian slavery in ex- 



Bancroft's History of California, Vol. III. 



istence in California under the rule of Spain and 
Mexico. Most of the wealthier Spanish and 
Mexican families had Indian servants. In the 
raids upon the gentiles the children taken by the 
soldiers were sometimes sold or disposed of to 
families for servants. Expeditions were gotten 
up upon false pretexts, while the main purpose 
was to steal Indian children and sell them to 
families for servants. This practice was carried 
on by the Americans, too, after the concjuest. 

For a time after the discovery of gold the In- 
dians and the miners got along amicably. The 
first miners were mainly old Californians, used 
to the Indians, but with the rush of '49 came 
many rough characters who, by their injustice, 
soon stirred up trouble. Sutter had employed a 
large number of Indians on his ranches and in 
various capacities. These were faithful and hon- 
est. Some of them were employed at his mill 
in Coloma and in the diggings. In the spring 
of '49 a band of desperadoes known as the 
Mountain Hounds murdered eight of these at 
the mill. Marshall, in trying to defend them, 
came near being lynched by the drunken brutes. 

The injustice done the Indians soon brought 
on a number of so-called Indian wars. These 
were costly affairs to the state and in less than 
two years had plunged the young common- 
wealth into a debt of nearly $1,000,000. In a 
copy of the Los Angeles Star for February 28, 
1852, I find this enumeration of the wars and 
the estimated cost of each: The Alorehead ex- 
pedition, $120,000; General Bean's first expedi- 
tion, $66,000; General Bean's second expedition, 
$50,000; the Mariposa war, $230,000; the El 
Dorado war, $300,000. The Morehead war orig- 
inated out of an injustice done the Yuma In- 
dians. These Indians, in the summer of 1849, 
had obtained an old scow and established a ferry 
across the Colorado river near the mouth of the 
Gila, and were making quite a paying business 
out of it by ferrying emigrants across the river. 
A party of Americans, headed by a Dr. Lang- 
don of Louisiana, and a desperado named Jack 
Glanton, dispossessed the Indians of their boat, 
and having obtained a liberal supply of whiskey 
from San Diego set up in business for them- 
selves. The Indians, watching their opportunity, 
while the whites were asleep or stupefied with 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGI^PHICAL RECORD. 



227 



drink, fell upon and massacred the whole party, 
twelve or fifteen in all, and secured some $15,000 
or $20,000 in money. On receipt of the news, 
Governor Burnett ordered Major-General Bean 
of the state militia to march against the Yumas. 
Ikan sent his quartermaster-general, Joseph C. 
-Morehead. Morehead, on Bean's orders, pro- 
vided necessaries for a three months' campaign 
at most extravagant prices, paying for them in 
drafts on the state treasury. Morehead started 
out from Los Angeles with forty men, but by 
the time he reached the Colorado river he had 
recruited his force to one hundred and twenty- 
five men. The liquid supplies taken along doubt- 
less stimulated recruiting. They reached the 
Colorado in the summer of 1850, camped there 
and attacked their rations. After a month's 
siege (of their rations) they were ordered back 
and disbanded. The only loss was one man 
wounded (accidentally). He was sent back to 
Los Angeles for treatment. The doctor who 
treated him charged the state $500. The man 
who boarded him put in a bill of $120; and the 
patriot who housed him wanted $45 for house 
rent. Bean's first and second expeditions were 
very similar in results to the Morehead cam- 
paign. The El Dorado expedition or Rogers' 
war, as it was sometimes called, was another of 
Governor Burnett's fiascos. He ordered Will- 
iam Rogers, sheriff of El Dorado county, to call 
out two hundred men at the state's expense to 
punish the Indians for killing some whites who 
had, in all probability, been the aggressors and 
the Indians had retaliated. It was well known 
that there were men in that part of the country 
who had wantonly killed Indians for the pleas- 
ure of boasting of their exploits. 

Nor were the whites always the aggressors. 
There were bad Indians, savages, who killed 
without provocation and stole whenever an op- 
portunity offered. In their attempts at retalia- 
tion the Indians slaughtered indiscriminately 
and the innocent more often were their victims 
than the guilty. On the side of the whites it 
was a war of extermination waged in many in- 
stances without regard to age or sex; on the 
part of the Indian it was a war of retaliation 
waged with as little distinction. 

The extermination of the aborigines was fear- 



fully rapid. Of over ten thousand Indians in 
Yuba, Placer, Nevada and Sierra counties in 
1849 not more than thirty-eight hundred re- 
mained in 1854. Much of this decrease had been 
brought about by dissipation and disease engen- 
dered by contact with the whites. Reservations 
were established in various parts of the state, 
where Indians abounded, but the large salaries 
paid to agents and the numerous opportunities 
for peculation made these positions attractive 
to politicians, who were both incompetent and 
dishonest. The Indians, badly treated at the 
reservations, deserted them whenever an oppor- 
tunity offered. 

A recital of the atrocities committed upon 
each other in the northwestern part of the state 
during a period of nearly twenty years would fill 
a volume. The Indian with all his fiendishness 
was often outmatched in cruelty by his pale 
faced brother. The Indian Island massacre was 
scarcely ever equaled in the annals of Indian 
cruelties. Indian Island lies nearly opposite 
the city of Eureka in Humboldt Bay. On this 
island, fifty years ago, was a large rancheria 
of inoffensive Indians, who lived chiefly by fish- 
ing. They had not been implicated in any of 
the wars or raids that had disturbed that part 
of the country. They maintained many of their 
old customs and had an annual gathering, at 
which they performed various rites and cere- 
monies, accompanied by dancing. A number of 
the Indians from the mainland joined them at 
these times. Near midnight of February 25, 
i860, a number of boats filled with white men 
sped silently out to the island. The whites 
landed and quietly surrounded the Indians, who 
were resting after their orgies, and began the 
slaughter with axes, knives and clubs, splitting 
skulls, knocking out brains and cutting the 
throats of men, women and children. Of the 
two hundred Indians on the island only four or 
five men escaped by swimming to the mainland. 
The same night a rancheria at the entrance of 
Humboldt Bay and another at the mouth of Eel 
river were attacked and about one hundred 
Indians slaughtered. The fiends who commit- 
ted these atrocities belonged to a secret or- 
ganization. No rigid investigation was ever 
made to find out who thev were. The sfrand 



228 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



jury mildly condemned the outrage and there 
the matter ended. 

The Indians kept up hostilities, rendering 
travel and traffic unsafe on the borders of Hum- 
boldt, Klamath and Trinity counties. Governor 
Stanford in 1863 issued a proclamation for the 
enlistment of six companies of volunteers from 
the six northwestern counties of the state. 
These recruits were organized into what was 
known as the Mountaineer battalion with Lieut. - 
Col. Stephen G. Whipple in command. A num- 
ber of Indian tribes united and a desultory war- 
fare began. The Indians were worsted in nearly 
every engagement. Their power was broken 
and in February, 1865, fragments of the different 
tribes were gathered into the Hoopa Valley 
reservation. The Mountaineer battalion in what 
was known as the "Two Years' War" settled the 
Indian question from Shasta to the sea for all 
time. 

The Modoc war was the last of the Indian 
disturbances in the state. The Modocs inhab- 
ited the country about Rhett Lake and Lost 
river in the northeast part of the state, bordering 
on C)regon. Their history begins with the mas- 
sacre of an immigrant train of sixty-five per- 
sons, men, women and children, on their way 
from Oregon to California. Tliis brought upon 
them a reprisal by the whites in which forty- 
one out of forty-six Indians who had been in- 
vited by Benjamin Wright to a pow wow after 
they had laid aside their arms were set upon bv 
Wright and his companions with revolvers and 
all killed but five. In 1864 a treaty had been 
made with the Modocs by which they were to 
reside on the Klamath reservation. But tiring 
of reservation life, under their leader. Captain 
Jack, they returned to their old homes on Lost 
river. A company of United States troops and 
several volunteers who went along to see the 
fun were sent to bring them back to the reser- 
vation. They refused to go and a fight ensued 
in which four of the volunteers and one of the 
regulars were killed, and the troops retreated. 
The Modocs after kilhng several settlers gath- 
ered at the lava beds near Rhett Lake and 
prepared for war. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Wheaton with about four 
hundred men attacked the Indians in the lava 



beds January 17, 1873. Captain Jack had but 
lifty-one men. When Wheaton retreated he had 
lost thirty-five men killed and a number 
wounded, but not an Indian had been hurt. A 
few days after the battle a peace commission 
was proposed at Washington. A. B. Meacham, 
Jesse Applegate and Samuel Case were ap- 
pointed. Elijah Steele of Yreka, who was on 
friendly terms with the Indians, was sent for. 
He visited the lava beds with the interpreter, 
Fairchild, and had a big talk. He proposed to 
them to surrender and they would be sent to 
Angel Island near San Francisco, fed and cared 
for and allowed to select any reservation they 
wished. Steele, on his return to camp, reported 
that the Indians accepted the terms, but Fair- 
child said they had not and next day on his re- 
turn Steele found out his mistake and barely 
escaped with his life. Interviews continued 
without obtaining anv definite results, some of 
the cominission became disgusted and returned 
home. General Canby, commanding the depart- 
ment, had arrived and taken charge of affairs. 
Commissioner Case resigned and Judge Ros- 
borough was appointed in his place and the Rev. 
E. Thomas, a doctor of divinity in the Metho- 
dist church, was added to the commission. A 
man by the name of Riddle and his wife Toby, 
a Modoc, acted as go-betweens and negotiations 
continued. 

A pow wow was arranged at the council tent 
at which all parties were to meet unarmed, but 
Toby was secretly informed that it was the in- 
tention of the Modocs to massacre the commis- 
sioners as had been done to the Indian com- 
missioners twenty years before by Benjamin 
Wright and his gang. On April 10, while 
Meacham and Dyer, the superintendent of the 
Klamath reservation, who had joined the com- 
missioners, were away from camp, the Rev. 
Dr. Tliomas made an agreement with a dele- 
gation from Captain Jack for the commission 
and General Canby to meet the Indians at the 
council tent. Meacham on his return opposed 
the arrangement, fearing treachery. The doctor 
insisted that God had done a wonderful work 
in the IModoc camp, but ^leacham shocked the 
pious doctor by saying "God had not been in 
the Modoc camp this winter." 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



2l>!) 



Two of the Indian leaders, Boston Charley 
and Bogus Charley, came to headquarters to 
accompany the connnission. Riddle and his 
wife, Toby, bitterly opposed the commissioners' 
going, telling them they would be killed, and 
Toby going so far as to seize Meacham's horse 
to prevent him from going, telling him, "You get 
kill." Canb} and the doctor insisted upon going, 
despite all protests, the doctor saying, "Let us go 
as we agreed and trust in God." Meacham and 
Dyer secured derringers in their side pockets 
before going. When the commissioners, the 
interpreters, Riddle and his wife, reached the 
council tent they found Captain Jack, Schonchin 
John, Black Jim, Shancknasty Jim, Ellen's 
Man and Hooker Jim sitting around a fire at 
the council tent. Concealed behind some 
rocks a short distance away were two young 
Indians with a number of rifles. The two Char- 
leys, Bogus and Boston, who had come with the 
commissioners from headquarters, informed the 
Indians that the commissioners were not armed. 
The interview began. The Indians were very 
insolent. Suddenly, at a given signal, the Indians 
tittered a war whoop, and Captain Jack drew 
a revolver from under his coat and shot Gen- 
eral Canby. Boston Charley shot Dr. Thomas, 
who fell, rose again, but was shot down 
wlijle begging for his life. The young Indians 
had brought up the rifles and a fusillade was 
begun upon the others. All escaped without in- 
jury e.xcept Meacham, who, after running some 
distance, was felled by a bullet fired by Hooker 
Jim, and left for dead. He was saved from being 
scalped by the bravery of Toby. He recovered, 
however, although badly disfigured. While this 



was going on, Curly Haired Doctor and several 
other Modocs, with a white flag, inveigled Lieu- 
tenants Boyle and Sherwood beyond the lines. 
.Seeing the Indians were armed, the officers 
turned to flee, when Curly Haired Jack fired and 
broke Lieutenant Sherwood's thigh. He died a 
few days later. The troops were called to arms 
when the firing began, but the Indians escaped 
to the lava beds. After a few days' preparation, 
Colonel Gillem, who was in command, began an 
attack on the Indian stronghold. Their position 
was shelled by mountain howitzers. In the 
fighting, which lasted four days, sixteen soldiers 
were killed and thirteen wounded. In a recon- 
noissance under Captain Thomas a few days 
later, a body of seventy troops and fourteenWarm 
Spring Indians ran into an ambush of the In- 
dians and thirteen soldiers, including Thomas, 
were killed. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis was placed 
in command. The Indians were forced out of the 
lava beds, their water supply having been cut 
off. They quarreled among themselves, broke 
up into parties, were chased down and all cap- 
tured. Captain Jack and Schonchin John, the 
two leaders, were shackled together. General 
Davis made preparations to hang these and six 
or eight others, but orders from Washington 
stopped him. The leading Indians were tried 
by court-martial. Captain Jack, Schonchin 
John, Black Jim and Boston Charley were hung, 
two others were sentenced to imprisonment for 
life. The other Modocs, men, women and chil- 
dren, were sent to a fort in Nebraska and after- 
wards transferred to the Ouaw Paw Agency in 
Indian Territory. This ended the Modoc war 
and virtually put an end to the Modoc Indians. 




CHAPTER XXXIV. 



SOME POLITICAL HISTORY. 



THE first Chinese emigrants to California 
arrived in the brig Eagle, from Hong 
Kong, in the month of February, 1848. 
They were two men and one woman. This was 
before the discovery of gold was known abroad. 
What brought these waifs from the Flowery 



Kingdom to California does not appear in the 
record. February i, 1849, there were fifty-four 
Chinamen and one Chinawoman in the territory. 
January i, 1850, seven hundred and eighty-nine 
men and two women had arrived. January i, 
1 85 1, four thousand and eighteen men and seven 



230 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



women; a year later their numbers had in- 
creased to eight thousand one hundred and 
twenty-one men and eight women; May 7, 1852, 
eleven thousand seven hundred and eighty men 
and sev>en women had found their way to the 
land of gold. The Alta California, from which 
I take these figures, estimated that between 
seven and ten thousand more would arrive in 
the state before January i, 1853. The editor 
sagely remarks: "No one fears danger or mis- 
fortune from their excessive numbers." There 
was no opposition to their coming; on the con- 
trary, they were welcomed and almost lionized. 
The Alta of April 27, 1851, remarks: "An 
American barque yesterday brought eighty 
worshippers of the sun, moon and many stars. 
These Celestials make excellent citizens and we 
are pleased to notice their daily arrival in large 
numbers." The Alta describes a Great Chinese 
meeting on Portsmouth Square, which took 
place in 185 1. It seems to have been held for 
the purpose of welcoming the Chinese to Cali- 
fornia and at the same time doing missionary 
work and distributing religious tracts among 
them. The report says: "A large assemblage 
of citizens and several ladies collected on the 
plaza to witness the ceremonies. Ah Hee assem- 
bled his division and Ah Sing marched his into 
Kearny street, where the two divisions united 
and then marched to the square. Many carried 
fans. There were several peculiar looking Chi- 
namen among them. One, a very tall, old Celes- 
tial with an extensive tail, excited universal at- 
tention. He had a huge pair of spectacles upon 
his nose, the glasses of which were about the 
size of a telescope lens. He also had a singu- 
larly colored fur mantle or cape upon his shoul- 
ders and a long sort of robe. We presume he 
must be a mandarin at least. 

"Vice Consul F. A. Woodworth, His Honor, 
Major J. W. Geary, Rev. Albert Williams, Rev. 
A. Fitch and Rev. F. D. Hunt were present. 
Ah Hee acted as interpreter. The Rev. Hunt 
gave them some orthodox instruction in which 
they were informed of the existence of a coun- 
try where the China boys would never die; this 
made them laugh quite heartily. Tracts, scrip- 
tural documents, astronomical works, almanacs 
and other useful religious and instructive docu- 



ments printed in Chinese characters were dis- 
tributed among them." 

1 give the report of another meeting of "The 
Chinese residents of San Francisco," taken 
from the Alta of December 10, 1849. ^ quote 
it to show how the Chinese were regarded when 
they first came to California and how they were 
flattered and complimented by the presence of 
distinguished citizens at their meetings. Their 
treatment a few years later, when they were 
mobbed and beaten in the streets for no fault 
of theirs except for coming to a Christian coun- 
try, must have given them a very poor opinion 
of the white man's consistency. "A public 
meeting of the Chinese residents of the town 
was held on the evening of Monday, November 
19, at the Canton Restaurant on Jackson street. 
The following preamble and resolutions were 
presented and adopted: 

" 'Whereas, It becomes necessary for us, 
strangers as we are in a strange land, unac- 
quainted with the language and customs of our 
adopted country, to have some recognized coun- 
selor and advisor to whom we may all appeal 
with confidence for wholesome instruction, and, 

" 'Whereas, We should be at a loss as to what 
course of action might be necessary for us to 
pursue therefore, 

" 'Resolved, That a committee of four be _ap- 
pointed to wait upon Selim E. Woodworth, Esq., 
and request him in behalf of the Chinese resi- 
dents of San Francisco to act in the capacity of 
arbiter and advisor for them.' 

"Mr. Woodworth was waited upon by Ah Hee, 
Jon Ling, Ah Ting and Ah Toon and kindly 
consented to act. The whole affair passed off 
in the happiest manner. Many distinguished 
guests were present, Hon. J. W. Geary, alcalde; 
E. H. Harrison, ex-collector of the port, and 
others." 

At the celebration of the admission of Cali- 
fornia into the LTnion the "China Boys" were a 
prominent feature. One report says: "The 
Celestials had a banner of crimson satin on 
which were some Chinese characters and the in- 
scription 'China Boys.' They numbered about 
fifty and were arrayed in the richest stuff and 
commanded by their chief. Ah Sing." 

While the "China Bovs" were feted and flat- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



231 



tered in San Francisco they were not so enthu- 
siastically welcomed by the miners. The legis- 
lature in 1850 passed a law fixing the rate of 
license for a foreign miner at $Jo per month. 
This was intendetl to drive out and keep out of 
the mines all foreigners, but the rate was so 
excessively high that it practically nullified the 
enforcement of the law and it was repealed in 
1 85 1. As the Chinese were only allowed peace- 
able possession of mines that would not pay 
white man's wages they did not make fortunes 
in the diggings. If by chance the Asiatics 
should happen to strike it rich in ground aban- 
doned by white men there was a class among 
the white miners who did not hesitate to rob the 
Chinamen of their ground. 

As a result of their persecution in the mines 
the Chinese flocked to San Francisco and it was 
not long until that city had more "China Boys" 
than it needed in its business. The legislature 
of 1855 enacted a law that masters, owners or 
consignors of vessels bringing to California 
persons incompetent to become citizens under 
the laws of the state should pay a fine of $50 for 
every such person landed. A suit was brought 
to test the validity of the act; it was declared 
unconstitutional. In 1858 the foreign miner's 
tax was $10 per month and as most of the other 
foreigners who had arrived in California in the 
early '50s had by this time become citizens by 
naturalization the foreigners upon whom the 
tax bore most heavily were the Chinese who 
could not become citizens. As a consequence 
many of them were driven out of the mines and 
this again decreased the revenue of the mining 
counties, a large part of which was made up of 
poll tax and license. 

The classes most bitterly opposed to the Chi- 
nese in the mines were the saloon-keepers, the 
gamblers and their constituents. While the 
Chinaman himself is a most inveterate gambler 
and not averse to strong drink he did not divest 
himself of his frugal earnings in the white man's 
saloon or gambling den, and the gentry who 
kept these institutions were the first, like Bill 
Xye in Bret Hartc's poem, to raise the cry, 
"We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor." 
While the southern politicians who were the 
rulers of the state before the Civil war were 



opposed to the Chinese and legislated against 
them, it was not done in the interest of the white 
laborer, for at one time they had made an at- 
tempt to introduce the coolie system, which was 
to have been a substitute for their beloved in- 
stitution — slavery. They could not endure the 
presence of an inferior race not in bondage. The 
most intolerant and the most bitter opponents 
of the Chinese then and later when opposition 
had intensified were certain servile classes of 
Furopeans who in their native countries had al- 
ways been kept in a state of servility to the aris- 
tocracy, but when raised to the dignity of Amer- 
ican citizens by naturalization proceeded to 
celebrate their release from their former serf- 
dom by persecuting the Chinese, whom they re- 
garded as their inferiors. The outcry these peo- 
ple made influenced politicians, who pandered to 
them for the sake of their votes to make laws 
and ordinances that were often burlesques on 
legislation. 

In 1870 the legislature enacted a law impos- 
ing a penalty of not less than $1,000 nor more 
than $5,000 or imprisonment upon any one 
bringing to California any subject of China or 
Japan without first presenting evidence of his 
or her good character to the commissioner of 
immigration. The supreme court decided the 
law unconstitutional. Laws were passed pro- 
hibiting the employment of Chinese on the pub- 
lic works; prohibiting them from owning real 
estate and from obtaining licenses for certain 
kinds of business. The supervisors of San Fran- 
cisco passed an ordinance requiring that the 
hair of any male prisoner convicted of an of- 
fense should be cut within one inch of his head. 
This, of course, was aimed at Chinese convicts 
and intended to deprive them of their queues 
and degrade them in the estimation of their peo- 
ple. It was known as the Pig Tail Ordinance; 
the mayor vetoed it. Another piece of class 
legislation by the San Francisco supervisors im- 
posed a license of $15 a cpiarler on laundries 
using no horses, while a laundry using a one- 
horse wagon paid but $2 per quarter. The Chi- 
nese at this time (1876) did not use horses in 
their laundry business. The courts decided 
against this ordinance. 

Notwithstanding the laws and ordinances 



232 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



against them the Chinese continued to come 
and they found employment of some kind to 
keep them from starving. They were indus- 
trious and economical; there were no Chinese 
tramps. Although they filled a want in the 
state, cheap and reliable labor, at the beginning 
of its railroad and agricultural development, 
they were not desirable citizens. Their habits 
^ and morals were bad. Their quarters in the 
cities reeked with filth and immorality. They 
maintained their Asiatic customs and despised 
the "white devils" among whom they lived, 
which, by the way, was not strange considering 
the mobbing and maltreatment they received 
from the other aliens. They made merchandise 
of their women and carried on a revolting sys- 
tem of female slavery. 

The Burlingamc treaty guaranteed mutual 
protection to the citizens of China and the 
United States on each other's soil ; to freedom in 
religious opinions; to the right to reside in 
either country at will and other privileges ac- 
corded to civilized nations. Under this treaty 
the Chinese could not be kept out of California 
and agitation was begun for the modification or 
entire abrogation 'of the treaty. 

For a number of years there had been a steady 
decline in the price of labor. Various causes 
had contributed to this. The productiveness of 
the mines had decreased; railroad communica- 
tion with the east had brought in a number of 
W'orkmen and increased competition; the efforts 
of thelabor unions to decrease the hours of labor 
and still keep up the wages at the old standard 
had resulted in closing up some of the manu- 
facturing establishments, the proprietors finding 
it impossible to compete with eastern factories. 
All these and other causes brought about a de- 
pression in business and brought on in 1877-78 
a labor agitation that shook the foundations of 
our social fabric. The hard times and decline in 
wages was charged against the Chinese. No 
doubt the presence of the Mongolians in Cali- 
fornia had considerable to do with it and par- 
ticularly in the lower grades of emplovment 
but the depression was mainly caused from 
over-production and the financial crisis of 1873, 
which had afTected the whole L'^nited States. 
Another cause local to California was the wild 



mania for stock gambling that had prevailed in 
California for a number of years. The bonanza 
kings of the Washoe by getting up corners in 
stocks running up fraudulent values and then 
unloading on outside buyers had impoverished 
thousands of people of small means and enriched 
themselves without any return to their dupes. 

Hard times always brings to the front a class 
of noisy demagogues who with no remedy to 
prescribe increase the discontent by vitupera- 
tive abuse of everybody outside of their sym- 
pathizers. The first of the famous sand lot mass 
meetings of San Francisco was held July 23, 
1877, on a vacant lot on the Market street 
side of the city hall. Harangues were made and 
resolutions passed denouncing capitalists, de- 
claring against subsidies to steamship and rail- 
road lines, declaring that the reduction of wages 
was part of a conspiracy for the destruction of 
the republic and that the military should not be 
employed against strikers. An anti-coolie club 
was formed and on that and the two succeeding 
evenings a number of Chinese laundries were 
destroyed. In a fight between the police (aided 
by the committee of safety) and the rioters sev- 
eral of the latter were killed. Threats were 
made to destroy the railroad property and burn 
the vessels of the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- 
pany unless the Chinese in their employ were 
immediately discharged. 

Among the agitators that this ebullition of dis- 
content threw to the front was an Irish dray- 
man named Dennis Kearney. He was shrewd 
f nough to see that some notoriety and political 
capital could be made by the organization of a 
Workingmen's party. 

On the 5th of October a permanent organiza- 
tion of the Workingmen's party of California was 
effected. Dennis Kearney was chosen president, 
J. G. Day, vice-president, and H. L. Knight, sec- 
retary. The principles of the party were the con- 
densed essence of selfishness. The working 
classes were to be elevated at the expense of 
every other. "We propose to elect none but com- 
petent workingmen and their friends to any of- 
fice whatever." "The rich have ruled us till thev 
have ruined us." "The republic must and shall 
be preserved, and only workingmen will do it." 
"This party will exhaust all peaceable means of 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



23:". 



attaining- its ends, but it will not be denied jus- 
tice when it has the power to enforce it." "It 
will encourage no riot or outrage, but it will 
not volunteer to repress or put down or arrest, 
or prosecute the hungry and impatient who 
manifest their hatred of the Chinamen by a cru- 
sade against John or those who employ him." 
These and others as irrelevant and immaterial 
were the principles of the Workingmen's party 
that was to bring the millennium. The move- 
ment spread rapidly, clubs were formed in every 
ward in San Francisco and there were organiza- 
tions in all the cities of the state. The original 
leaders were all of foreign birth, but when tlie 
movement became popular native born dema- 
gogues, perceiving in it an opportunity to ob- 
tain office, abandoned the old parties and joined 
the new. 

Kearney now devoted his whole time to agi- 
tation, and the applause he received from his 
followers pampered his inordinate conceit. His 
language was highly incendiary. He advised 
every workingman to own a musket and one 
hundred rounds of ammunition and urged the 
formation of military companies. He posed as 
a reformer and even hoped for martyrdom. In 
one of his harangues he said: "If I don't get 
killed I will do more than any reformer in the 
history of the world. I hope I will be assassi- 
nated, for the success of the movement depends 
on that." The incendiary rant of Kearney and 
his fellows became alarming. It was a tame 
meeting, at which no "thieving millionaire, 
scoundrelly official or extortionate railroad mag- 
nate" escaped lynching by the tongues of la- 
borite reformers. The charitable people of the 
city had raised by subscription $20,000 to al- 
leviate the prevailing distress among the poor. 
It was not comforting to a rich man to hear 
himself doomed to "hemp! hemp! hemp!" 
simply because by industry, economy and enter- 
prise he had made a fortune. It became evident 
that if Kearney and his associates were allowed 
to talk of hanging men and burning the city 
some of their dupes would put in practice the 
teachings of their leaders. The supervisors, 
urged on by the better class of citizens, passed 
an ordinance called by the sand-lotters "Gibbs' 
gag law." On the 29th of October, Kearney and 



his fellow agitators, with a mob of two or three 
thousand followers, held a meeting on Nob Hill, 
where Stanford, Crocker, Hopkins and other 
railroad magnates had built palatial residences. 
He roundly denounced as thieves the nabobs of 
Nob Hill and declared that they would soon feel 
the power of the workingmen. When his party 
was thoroughly organized they would march 
through the city and compel the thieves to give 
up their plunder; that he would lead them to the 
city hall, clear out the pohce, hang the pros- 
ecuting attorney, burn every book that had a 
particle of law in it, and then enact new laws 
for the workingmen. These and other utter- 
ances equally inflammatory caused his arrest 
while addressing a meeting on the borders of 
the Barbary coast. Trouble was expected, l:)Ut 
he quietly submitted and was taken to jail and a 
few days later Day, Knight, C. C. O'Donnell and 
Charles E. Pickett were arrested on charges of 
inciting riot and taken to jail. A few days in 
jail cooled them off and they began to "squeal." 
They addressed a letter to the mayor, saying 
their utterances had been incorrectly reported 
by the press and that if released they were will- 
ing to submit to any wise measure to allay the 
excitement. They were turned loose after two 
weeks' imprisonment and their release was cele- 
brated on Thanksgiving Day, November 29, by 
a ffrand demonstration of sand lotters — seven 
thousand of whom paraded the streets. 

It was not long before Kearney and his fel- 
lows were back on the sand lots hurling out 
threats of lynching, burning and blowing up. 
On January 5 the grand jury presented indict- 
ments against Kearney, Wellock, Knight, 
O'Donnell and Pickett. They were all released 
on the rulings of the judge of the criminal court 
on the grounds that no actual riot had taken 
place. 

The first victory of the so-called Working- 
men's party was the election of a state senator in 
Alameda county to fill a vacancy caused by the 
death of Senator Porter. An individual by the 
name of John W. Bones was elected. On ac- 
count of his being long and lean he was known 
as Barebones and sometimes Praise God Bare- 
bones. His onlv services in the senate were the 
perpetration of some doggerel verses and a 



234 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



speech or two on Kearney's theme, "The Chi- 
nese Must Go." At the election held June 19, 
1878, to choose delegates to a constitutional 
convention of the one hundred and fifty-two 
delegates the Workingmen elected fifty-seven, 
thirty-one of whom were from San Francisco. 
The convention met at Sacramento, September 
28, 1878, and continued to sit in all one hundred 
and fifty-seven days. It was a mixed assem- 
blag-e. Tliere were some of the ablest men in 
the state in it, and there were some of the most 
narrow minded and intolerant bigots there. The 
Workingmen flocked by themselves, while the 
non-partisans, the Republicans and Democrats, 
for the most part, acted in unison. Opposition 
to the Chinese, which was a fundamental prin- 
ciple of the Workingmen's creed, was not con- 
fined to them alone; some of the non-partisans 
were as bitter in their hatred of the Mongolians 
as the Kearncyites. Some of the crudities pro- 
posed for insertion in the new constitution were 
laughable for their absurdity. One sand lotter 
proposed to amend the bill of rights, that all men 
are by nature free and independent, to read, "All 
men who are capable of becoming citizens of the 
United States are by nature free and inde- 
pendent." One non-partisan wanted to incor- 
porate into the fundamental law of the state 
Kearney's slogan, "The Chinese Must Go." 

After months of discussion the convention 
evolved a constitution that the ablest men in 
that body repudiated, some of them going so far 
as to take the stump against it. But at the elec- 
tion it carried by a large majority. Kearney 
continued his sand lot harangues. In the sum- 
mer of 1879 he made a trip through the south- 
ern counties of the state, delivering his diatribes 
against the railroad magnates, the land mo- 
nopolists and the Chinese. At the town of Santa 
Ana, now the county seat of Orange county, in 
his harangue he made a vituperative attack 
upon the McFadden Brothers, who a year or 
two before had built a steamer and run it in op- 
position to the regular coast line steamers until 
forced to sell it on account of losses incurred by 
the competition. Kearney made a number of 
false and libelous statements in regard to the 
transaction. \\'hile he was waiting for the stage 
to San Diego in front of the hotel he was con- 



fronted by Rule, an employee of the McFad- 
den's, with an imperious demand for the name of 
Kearney's informant. Kearney turned white 
with fear and blubbered out something about 
not giving away his friends. Rule struck him 
a blow that sent him reeling against the build- 
ing. Gathering himself together he made a rush 
into the hotel, drawing a pistol as he ran. Rule 
pursued him through the dining room and out 
across a vacant lot and into a drug store, where 
he downed him and, holding him down with his 
knee on his breast, demanded the name of his 
informer. One of the slandered men pulled 
Rule off the "martyr" and Kearney, with a face 
resembling a beefsteak, took his departure to 
San Diego. From that day on he ceased his 
vituperative attacks on individuals. He had met 
the only argument that could convince him of 
the error of his ways. He lost caste with his 
fellows. This braggadocio, who had boasted of 
leading armies to conquer the enemies of the 
Workingmen, with a pistol in his hand had 
ignominiously fled from an unarmed man and 
had taken a humiliating punishment without a 
show of resistance. His following began to de- 
sert him and Kearney went if the Chinese did 
not. The Workingmen's party put up a state 
ticket in 1879, but it was beaten at the polls and 
Vifent to pieces. In 1880 James Angell of Mich- 
igan, John F. Swift of California, and William 
H. Trescott of South Carolina were appointed 
commissioners to proceed to China for the pur- 
pose of forming new treaties. An agreement 
was reached with the Chinese authorities by 
which laborers could be debarred for a certain 
period from entering the United States. Those 
in the country were all allowed the rights that 
aliens of other countries had. The senate ratified 
the treaty May 5th, 1881. 

The following is a list of the governors of Cal- 
ifornia, Spanish, Mexican and American, with 
date of appointment or election: Spanish: 
Caspar de Portola, 1767; Felipe Barri, 1771; 
Felipe de Neve, 1774; Pedro Pages, 1790; Jose 
Antonio Romeu, 1790; Jose Joaquin de Ar- 
rillaga, 1792; Diego de Borica, 1794; Jose Joa- 
quin de Arrillaga, 1800; Jose Arguello, 181 4: 
Pablo Vicente de Sola, 181 5. Mexican gov- 
ernors: Pablo Vicente de Sola, 1822; Luis 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



235 



Arguello, 1823; Jose Maria Echeandia, 1825; 
Manuel \ictoria, 1831; Pio Pico, 1832; Jose 
Maria Echeandia, Agustin Zamorano, 1832; 
Jose Figueroa, 1833; Jose Castro, 1835; Nicolas 
Gutierrez, 1836; Mariano Cliico, 1836; Nicolas 
Gutierrez, 1836; Juan B. Alvarado, 1836; Man- 
uel Micheltorena, 1842; Pio Pico, 1845. Amer- 
ican military governors: Commodore Robert 
F. Stockton, 1846; Col. John C. Fremont, Jan- 
uary, 1847; Gen. Stephen W. Kearny, March 
I, 1847; Col. Richard B. Mason, May 31, 1847; 
Gen. Bennet Riley, April 13, 1849. American 
governors elected: Peter H. Burnett, 1849. 
John McDougal, Lieutenant-governor, became 
governor on resignation of P. H. Burnett in 
January, 1851; John Bigler, 1851; John Bigler, 



'^"^53; J- Necly Johnson, 1855; John B. Weller, 
1857; M. S. Latham, 1859; John G. Downey, 
lieutenant-governor, became governor in 1859 
I)y election of Latham to United States senate; 
Leland Stanford, 1861 ; Frederick F. Low, 1863; 
Henry H. Haight, 1867; Newton Booth, 1871 ; 
Romualdo Pacheco, lieutenant governor, be- 
came governor Fei)ruary, 1875, on election of 
Booth to the United States senate; William Ir- 
win, 1875; George C. Perkins, 1879; George 
Stoneman, 1882; Washington Bartlett, 1886; 
Robert W. Waterman, lieutenant-governor, be- 
came governor September 12, 1887, upon the 
death of Governor Bartlett; H. H. Markham, 
i8go: James H. Budd, 1894: Henrv T. Gage, 
1898. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



THE Franciscans, unlike the Jesuits, were 
not the patrons of education. The}' 
bent all their energies towards pros- 
elyting. Their object was to fit their converts 
for the next world. An ignorant soul might 
be as happy in paradise as the most learned. 
Why educate the neophyte? He was converted, 
baptized and when granted absolution had his 
passport to heaven. There were no public 
schools at the missions. A few of the brightest 
of the neophytes, who were trained to sing in 
the church choirs, were taught to read, but the 
great mass of them, even those of the third gen- 
eration, born and reared at the missions, were 
as ignorant of book learning as were their great- 
grandfathers, who ran naked among the oak 
trees of the mesas and fed on acorns. 

Nor was there much attention paid to edu- 
cation among the gcnte de razon of the pre- 
sidios and pueblos. But few of the common 
people could read and write. Their ancestors 
had made their way in the world without book 
learning. Why should the child know more 
than the parent? And trained to have great filial 
regard for his parent, it was not often that 
the progeny aspired to rise higher in the scale 



of intelligence than his progenitor. Of the 
eleven heads of families who founded Los An- 
geles, not one could sign his name to the title 
deed of his house lot. Nor were these an ex- 
ceptionally ignorant collection of hombres. Out 
of fifty men comprising the Monterey company 
in 1785, but fourteen could write. In the com- 
I'any stationed at San Francisco in 1794 not a 
soldier among them could read or write; and 
forty years later of one hundred men at Sonoma 
not one could write his name. 

The first community want the American pio- 
neers supplied was the school house. Wher- 
ever the immigrants from the New England 
and the middle states planted a settlement, there, 
at tlie same time, they planted a school house. 
The first community want that the Spanish 
pabladores (colonists) supplied was a church. 
The school house was not wanted or if wanted it 
v>as a long felt want that was rarely or never 
satisfied. At the time of the acquisition of Cal- 
ifornia by the Americans, seventy-seven years 
from the date of its first settlement, there was 
not a public school house owned by any pre- 
sidio, pueblo or city in all its territory. 

The first public school in California was 



236 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



opened in San Jose in December, 1794, seven- 
teen years after the founding of tliat pueblo. 
The pioneer teaclier of California was Alanuel 
de Vargas, a retired sergeant of infantry. The 
school was opened in the public granary. 
Vargas, in 1795, was ofTered $250 to open a 
school in San Diego. As this was higher wages 
than he was receiving he accepted the offer. 
Jose Manuel Toca, a gainnic or ship boy, ar- 
rived on a Spanish transport in 1795 and the 
same year was employed at Santa Barbara as 
schoolmaster at a yearly salary of $125. Thus 
the army and the navy pioneered education in 
California. 

Governor Borica, the founder of public 
schools in California, resigned in 1800 and was 
succeeded by Arrillaga. Governor Arrillaga, if 
not opposed to, was at least indififerent to the 
education of the common people. He took life 
easy and the schools took long vacations; in- 
deed, it was nearly all vacation during his term. 
Governor Sola, the successor of Arrillaga, made 
an effort to establish public schools, but the in- 
difTerence of the people discouraged him. In 
the lower pueblo, Los Angeles, the first school 
was opened in 18 17, thirty-six years after the 
foundingf of the town. The first teacher there 
was Maximo Piiia, an invalid soldier. He re- 
ceived $140 a year for his services as school- 
master. If the records are correct, his was the 
only school taught in Los Angeles during the 
Spanish regime. One year of schooling to forty 
years of vacation, there was no educational 
cramming in those days. The schoolmasters of 
the Spanish era were invalid soldiers, possessed 
of that dangerous thing, a "little learning;" and 
it was very little indeed. About all they could 
teach was reading, writing and the doctrina 
Christiana. They were brutal tyrants and their 
school government a military despotism. They 
did not spare the rod or the child, either. Tlie 
rod was too mild an instrument of punishment. 
Their implement of torture was a cat-o'-nine- 
tails, made of hempen cords with iron points. 
To fail in learning the doctrina Christiana was 
an unpardonable sin. For this, for laughing 
aloud, playing truant or other offenses no more 
heinous, the guilty boy "was stretched face 
downward uoon a bench with a handkerchief 



thrust into his mouth as a gag and lashed with a 
dozen or more blows until the blood ran down 
his little lacerated back." If he could not im- 
bibe the Christian doctrine in any other way, 
it was injected into him with the points of the 
lash. 

Mexico did better for education in California 
than Spain. The school terms were lengthened 
and the vacation shortened proportionally. Gov- 
ernor Echeandia, a man iiated by the friars, was 
an enthusiastic friend of education. "He be- 
lieved in the gratuitous and compulsory educa- 
tion of rich and poor, Indians and gciitc dc 
racon alike." He held that learning was the 
corner-stone of a people's wealth and it was the 
duty of the government to foster education. 
When the friars heard of his views "they called 
upon God to pardon the unfortunate ruler un- 
able to comprehend how vastly superior a re- 
ligious education was to one merely secular.* 
Echeandia made a brave attempt to establish a 
public school system in the territory. He de- 
manded of the friars that they establish a school 
at each mission for the neophytes; they prom- 
ised, but, with the intention of evading, a show 
was made of opening schools. Soon it was re- 
ported that the funds were exhausted and the 
schools had to close for want of means to sup- 
port them. Nor was Echeandia more successful 
with the people. He issued an order to the 
commanding officers at the presidios to compel 
parents to send their children to school. The 
school at Monterey was opened, the alcalde act- 
ing as schoolmaster. The school furniture con- 
sisted of one table and the school books were 
one arithmetic and four primers. The school 
funds were as meager as the school furniture. 
Echeandia, unable to contend against the enmity 
of the friars, the indifference of the parents and 
the lack of funds, reluctantly abandoned his 
futile fight against ignorance. 

One of the most active and earnest friends of 
the public schools during the Mexican era was 
the much abused Governor Micheltorena. He 
made an earnest effort to establish a public 
school system in California. Through his efforts 
schools were established in all the principal 



*Baiicro{t's California Pastoral. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



237 



towns and a guarantee of $500 from the ter- 
ritorial funds promised to each school. Michel- 
torena promulgated what might be called the 
first school law of California. It was a decree 
issued May i, 1844, and consisted of ten articles, 
which prescribed what should be taught in the 
schools, school hours, school age of the pupils 
and other regulations. Article 10 named the 
most holy virgin of Guadalupe as patroness of 
the schools. Her image was to be placed in 
each school. But, like all his predecessors, 
Micheltorena failed: the funds were soon ex- 
hausted and the schools closed. 

Even had the people been able to read there 
would have been nothing for them to read but 
religious books. The friars kept vigilant watch 
that no interdicted books were brought into the 
country. If any were found they were seized 
and publicly burned. Castro, Alvarado and Val- 
lejo were at one time excommunicated for read- 
ing Rousseau's works, Telemachus and other 
books on the prohibited list. Alvarado having 
declined to pay Father Duran some money he 
owed him because it was a sin to have anything 
to do with an excommunicated person, and 
therefore it would be a sin for the father to take 
money from him, the padre annulled the sen- 
tence, received the money and gave Alvarado 
permission to read anything he wished. 

During the war for the conquest of California 
and for some time afterwards the schools were 
all closed. The wild rush to the gold mines in 
1848 carried away the male population. No one 
would stay at home and teach school for the 
paltry pay given a schoolmaster. The ayunta- 
miento of Los Angeles in the winter of 1849-50 
appointed a committee to establish a school. 
After a three months' hunt the committee re- 
ported "that an individual had just presented 
himself who, although he did not speak English, 
yet could he teach the children many useful 
things; and besides the same person had man- 
aged to get the refusal of Mrs. Pollerena's house 
for school purpose." At the next meeting of the 
ayuntamiento the committee reported that the 
individual who had ofTered to teach had left for 
the mines and neither a school house nor a 
schoolmaster could be found. 

In June, 1850, the ayuntamiento entered into 



a contract with P>ancisco Bustamente, an ex- 
soldier, "to teach to the children first, second 
and third lessons and likewise to read script, to 
write and count and so much as I may be com- 
petent to teach them orthography and good 
morals." Bustamente was to receive $60 per 
month and $20 for house rent. This was the 
first school opened in Los Angeles after the 
conquest. 

"The first American school in San Francisco 
and, we believe, in California, was a merely pri- 
vate enterprise. It was opened by a Mr. Mars- 
ton from one of the Atlantic states in April, 
1847, in a small shanty which stood on the block 
between Broadway and Pacific streets, west of 
Dupont street. There he collected some twenty 
or thirty pupils, whom he continued to teach for 
almost a whole year, his patrons paying for tui- 
tion."* 

In the fall of 1847 a school house was built 
on the southwest corner of Portsmouth square, 
fronting on Clay street. The money to build it 
was raised by subscription. It was a very mod- 
est structure — box shaped with a door and two 
windows in the front and two windows in each 
end. It served a variety of purposes besides that 
of a school house. It was a pubHc hall for all 
kinds of meetings. Churches held service in it. 
The first public amusements were given in it. 
At one time it was used for a court room. The 
first meeting to form a state government was 
held in it. It was finally degraded to a police 
office and a station house. For some time after 
it was built no school was kept in it for want of 
funds. 

On the 2ist of February, 1848, a town meet- 
ing was called for the election of a board of 
school trustees and Dr. F. Fourguard, Dr. J. 
Townsend, C. L. Ross, J. Serrini and William 
H. Davis were chosen. On the 3d of April fol- 
lowing these trustees opened a school in the 
school house under the charge of Thomas 
Douglas, A. M., a graduate of Yale College and 
an experienced teacher of high reputation. The 
board pledged him a salary of $1,000 per an- 
num and fixed a tarifif of tuition to aid towards 
its payment; and the town council, afterwards, 



Annals of San Francisco. 



238 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



to make up any deficiency, appropriated to the 
payment of the teacher of the pubUc school in 
this place $200 at the expiration of twelve 
months from the commencement of the school. 
"Soon after this Mr. Marston discontinued his 
private school and Mr. Douglas collected some 
forty pupils."* 

The school flourished for eight or ten weeks. 
Gold had been discovered and rumors were 
coming thick and fast of fortunes made in a day. 
A thousand dollars a year looked large to Mr. 
Douglas when the contract was made, but in the 
light of recent events it looked rather small. 
A man in the diggings might dig out $1,000 in a 
week. So the schoolmaster laid down the 
pedagogical birch, shouldered his pick and hied 
himself away to the diggings. In the rush for 
gold, education was forgotten. December 12, 

1848. Charles W. H. Christian reopened the 
school, charging tuition at the rate of $10. Evi- 
dently he did not teach longer than it took him 
to earn money to reach the mines. April 23, 

1849, the Rev. Albert Williams, pastor of the 
First Presbyterian church, obtained the use of 
the school house and opened a private school, 
charging tuition. He gave up school teaching 
to attend to his ministerial duties. In the fall 
of '49 John C. Pelton, a Massachusetts school- 
master, arrived in San Francisco and December 
26 opened a school with three pupils in the Bap- 
tist church on Washington street. He fitted up 
the church with writing tables and benches at 
his own expense, depending on voluntary con- 
tributions for his support. In the spring of 
1850 he applied to the city council for relief and 
for his services and that of his wife he received 
$500 a month till the summer of 185 1, when he 
closed his school. 

•Col. T. J. Nevins, in June, 1850, obtained rent 
free the use of a building near the present inter- 
section of Mission and Second streets for school 
purposes. He employed a Mr. Samuel New- 
ton as teacher. The school was opened July 
13. The school passed under the supervision 
of several teachers. The attendance was small 
at first and the school was supported by con- 
tributions, but later the council voted an ap- 



* Annals of San Francisco. 



propriation. The school was closed in 1851. 
Colonel Nevins, in January, 1851, secured a 
fifty-vara lot at Spring Valley on the Presidio 
road and built principally by subscription a 
large school building, employed a teacher and 
opened a free school, supported by contributions. 
The building was afterwards leased to the city 
to be used for a free school, the term of the 
lease running ninety-nine years. This was the 
first school building in which the city had an 
ownership. Colonel Nevins prepared an ordi- 
nance for the establishment, regulation and 
support of free common schools in the city. 
The ordinance was adopted by the city council 
September 25, 185 1, and was the first ordinance 
establishing free schools and providing for their 
maintenance in San Francisco. 

A bill to provide for a public school system 
was introduced in the legislature of 1850, but 
the committee on education reported that it 
would be two or three years before any means 
would become available from the liberal pro- 
visions of the constitution; in the meantime 
the persons who had children to educate could 
do it out of their own pockets. So all action 
was postponed and the people who had children 
l)aid for their tuition or let them run without 
schooling. 

The first school law was passed in 1851. It 
was drafted mainly by G. B. Lingley, John C. 
Pelton and the superintendent of public instruc- 
tion, J. G. Marvin. It was revised and amended 
by the legislatures of 1852 and 1853. The state 
school fund then was derived from the sale and 
rental of five hundred thousand acres of state 
land; the estates of deceased persons escheated 
to the state; state poll tax and a state tax of 
five cents on each $100 of assessed property. 
Congress in 1853 granted to California the i6th 
and 36th sections of the public lands for school 
purposes. The total amount of this grant was 
si.x million seven hundred and sixty-five thou- 
sand five hundred and four acres, of which 
forty-six thousand and eighty acres were to be 
deducted for the founding of a state university 
or college and six thousand four hundred acres 
for public buildings. 

The first apportionment of state funds was 
made in 1854. The amount of state funds for 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



239 



that year was $52,961. The county and mu- 
nicipal school taxes amounted to $157,702. 
These amounts were supplemented by rate bills 
to the amount of $42,557. In 1856 the state 
fund had increased to $69,961, while rate bills 
had decreased to $28,619. That year there were 
thirty thousand and thirty-nine children of 
school age in the state, of these only about 
fifteen thousand were enrolled in the schools. 

In the earlier years, following the American 
conquest, the schools were confined almost en- 
tirely to the cities. The population in the coun- 
try districts was too sparse to maintain a school. 
The first school house in Sacramento was built 
in 1849. It was located on I street. C. H. T. 
Palmer opened school in it in August. It was 
supported by rate bills and donations. He gath- 
ered together about a dozen pupils. The school 
was soon discontinued. Several other parties 
in succession tried school keeping in Sacra- 
mento, but did not make a success of it. It was 
not until 185 1 that a permanent school was es- 
tablished. A public school was taught in Mon- 
terey in 1849 by Rev. Willey. The school was 
kept in Colton Hall. The first public school 
house in Los Angeles was built in 1854. Hugh 
Overns taught the first free school there in 1850. 

The amount paid for teachers' salaries in 1854 
was $85,860; in 1900 it reached $4,850,804. The 
total expenditures for school purposes in 1854 
amounted to $275,606; in 1900 to $6,195,438. 
The first high school in the state was established 
in San Francisco in 1856. In 1900 there were 
one hundred and twenty high scliools with an 
attendance of twelve thousand one hundred and 
seventy-nine students. Two million dollars were 
invested in high school buildings, furniture and 
grounds. Five lumdred teachers were employed 
in these schools. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC. 

This institution was chartered in August, 
185 1, as the California Wesleyan College, which 
name was afterwards changed by act of the leg- 
islature to that it now bears. The charter was 
obtained under the general law of the state as 
it then was, and on the basis of a subscription 
of $27,500 and a donation of some ten acres of 
land adjacent to the village of Santa Clara. A 



school buikling was erected in which the pre- 
paratory department was opened in May, 1852, 
under the charge of Rev. E. Banister as prin- 
cipal, aided by two assistant teachers, and be- 
fore the end of the first session had over sixty 
pupils. Near the close of the following year 
another edifice was so far comjileted that the 
male pupils were transferred to it, and the Fe- 
male Collegiate Institute, with its special course 
of study, was organized and continued in the 
original building. In 1854 the classes of the 
college proper were formed and the requisite 
arrangement with respect to president, faculty, 
and course of study made. In 1858 two young 
men, constituting the first class, received the de- 
gree of A. B., they being the first to receive 
that honor from any college in California. In 
1865 the board of trustees purchased the Stock- 
ton rancho, a large body of land adjoining the 
town of Santa Clara. This was subdivided into 
lots and small tracts and sold at a profit. By 
this means an endowment was secured and an 
excellent site for new college building obtamed. 

THE COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

The question of founding a college or uni- 
versity in California had been discussed early in 
1849, before the assembling of the constitutional 
convention at San Jose. The originator of the 
idea was the Rev. Samuel H. Willey, D. D., of 
the Presbyterian church. At that time he was 
stationed at Monterey. The first legislature 
passed a bill providing for the granting of col- 
lege charters. The bill required that application 
should be made to the supreme court, which was 
to determine whether the property possessed by 
the proposed college was worth $20,000, and 
whether in other respects a charter should be 
granted. A body of land for a college site had 
been offered by James Stokes and Kimball H. 
Dimmick to be selected from a large tract they 
owned on the Guadalupe river, near San Jose. 
When application was made for a college char- 
ter the supreme court refused to give a charter 
to the applicants on the plea that the land 
was unsurveycd and the title nol fully deter- 
mined. 

The Rev. Henry Durant, who had at one time 
been a tutor in Yale College, came to California 



240 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



in 1S53 to engage in teaching. At a meeting 
of the presbytery of San Francisco and the Con- 
gregational Association of California held in 
Nevada City in May, 1853, which ]Mr. Durant 
attended, it was decided to establish an acad- 
emy at Oakland. There were but few houses 
in Oakland then and the only communication 
with San Francisco was by means of a little 
steamer that crossed the bay two or three times 
a day. A house was obtained at the corner of 
Broadway and Fifth street and the academy 
opened with three pupils. A site was selected 
for the school, which, when the streets were 
opened, proved to be four blocks, located be- 
tween Twelfth and Fourteenth, Franklin and 
Harrison streets. The site of Oakland at that 
time was covered with live oaks and the sand 
was knee deep. Added to other discourage- 
ments, titles were in dispute and squatters were 
seizing upon the vacant lots. A building was 
begun for the school, the monev ran out and 
the property was in danger of seizure on a me- 
chanics' lien, but was rescued by the bravery 
and resourcefulness of Dr. Durant. 

In 1855 the College of California was char- 
tered and a search begun for a permanent site. 
A number were offered at various places in the 
state. The trustees finally selected the Berkeley 
site, a tract of one hundred and sixty acres on 
Strawberry creek near Oakland, opposite the 
Golden Gate. The college school in Oakland 
was flourishing. A new building, Academy 
Flail, was erected in 1858. A college faculty 
was organized. The Rev. Henry Durant and 
the Rev. IMartin Kellogg were chosen pro- 
fessors and the first college class was organized 
in June, i860. The college classes were taught 
in the buildings of the college school, which 
were usually called the College of California. 
The college classes were small and the endow- 
ment smaller. The faculty met with many dis- 
couragements. It became evident that the in- 
stitution could never become a prominent one 
in the educational field with the limited means 
of support it could command. In 1863 the idea 
of a state university began to be agitated. A bill 
was passed bv the state legislature in 1866, de- 
voting to the support of a narrow polytechnical 
school, the federal land f^rants to California for 



the support of agricultural schools and a college 
of mechanics. The trustees of the College of 
California proposed in 1867 to transfer to the 
state the college site at Berkeley, opposite the 
Golden Gate, together with all the other assets 
remaining after the debts were paid, on con- 
dition that the state would build a University of 
California on the site at Berkeley, which should 
be a classical and technological college. 

UNIVERSITY OF C.\LIF0RNI.\. 

A bill for the establishing of a state university 
was introduced in the legislature March 5, 1868, 
by Hon. John W. Dwindle of Alameda county. 
After some amendments it was finally passed, 
March 21, and on the 27th of the same month a 
bill was passed making an appropriation for the 
support of the institution. 

The board of regents of the university was 
organized June 9, 1868, and the same day Gen. 
George B. McClellan was elected president of 
the university, but at that time being engaged in 
building Stevens Battery at New York he de- 
clined the honor. September 23, i86g, the 
scholastic exercises of the university were be- 
gun in the buildings of the College of Califor- 
nia in Oakland and the first university class was 
graduated in June, 1873. The new buildings of 
the university at Berkeley were occupied in 
September, 1873. Prof. John Le Conte was act- 
ing president for the first year. Dr. Henry 
Durant was chosen to fill that position and was 
succeeded by D. C. Oilman in 1872. The corner- 
stone of the Agricultural College, called the 
South Hall, was laid in August, 1872, and that 
of the North Hall in the spring of 1873. 

The university, as now constituted, consists 
of Colleges of Letters, Social Science, Agricul- 
ture, Alechanics, Mining, Civil Engineering. 
Chemistry and Commerce, located at Berkeley; 
the Lick Astronomical Department at Mount 
Hamilton: and the professional and affiliated 
colleges in San Francisco, namely, the Hastings 
College of Law, the Medical Department, the 
Post-Graduate Medical Department, the Col- 
lege of Dentistry and Pharmacy, the A^eterinary 
Department and the Mark Hopkins Institute of 
.A.rt. The total value of the property belonging 
to the university at this time is about $5,000,000 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



241 



and the endowment funds nearly $3,000,000. 
The total income in 1900 was $475,254. 

LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY. 

"When the intention of Senator Stanford to 
found a university in memory of his lamented 
son was first announced, it was expected from 
the broad and comprehensive views which he 
was known to entertain upon the subject, that 
his plans, when formed, would result in no ordi- 
nary college endowment or educational scheme, 
but when these plans were laid before the people 
their magnitude was so far beyond the most ex- 
travagant of public anticipation that all were as- 
tonished at the magnificence of their aggregate, 
the wide scope of their detail and the absolute 
grandeur of their munificence. The brief his- 
tory of California as an American state com- 
prises much that is noble and great, but nothing 
in that history will compare in grandeur with 
this act of one of her leading citizens. The 
records of history may be searched in vain for 
a parallel to this gift of Senator Stanford to the 
state of his adoption. * * * By this act 
Senator Stanford will not only immortalize the 
memory of his son, but will erect for himself a 
monument more enduring than brass or marble, 
for it will be enshrined in the hearts of succeed- 
ing generations for all time to come."* 

Senator Stanford, to protect the endowments 
he proposed to make, prepared a bill, which was 
passed by the legislature, approved by the gov- 
ernor and became a law March 9, 1885. It is 
entitled "An act to advance learning, the arts 
and sciences and to promote the public welfare, 
by providing for the conveyance, holding and 
protection of property, and the creation of trusts 
for the founding, endowment, erection and 
maintenance within this state of universities, 
colleges, schools, seminaries of learning, me- 
chanical institutes, museums and galleries of 
art." 

Section 2 specifies how a grant for the above 
purposes may be made: "Any person desiring 
in his lifetime to promote the public welfare by 
founding, endowing and having maintained 
within this state a universitv. college, school. 



■ Monograph of Leland Stanford Junior University. 



seminary of learning, mechanical institute, mu- 
seum or gallery of art or any or all thereof, may, 
to that end, and for such purpose, by grant in 
writing, convey to a trustee, or any number of 
trustees named in such grant (and their suc- 
cessors), any property, real or personal, belong- 
ing to such person, and situated or being within 
this state; provided, that if any such person be 
married and the property be community prop- 
erty, then both husband and wife must join in 
such grant." The act contains twelve sections. 
After the passage of the act twenty-four trus- 
tees were appointed. Among them were judges 
of the supreme and superior courts, a United 
States senator and business men in various 
lines. 

Among the lands deeded to the university by 
Senator Stanford and his wife' were the Palo 
Alto estate, containing seventy-two hundred 
acres. This ranch had been devoted principally 
to the breeding and rearing of thoroughbred 
horses. On this the college buildings were to 
be erected. The site selected was near the town 
of Palo Alto, which is thirty-four miles south 
from San Francisco on the railroad to San Jose, 
in Santa Clara county. 

Another property donated was the \^ina 
rancho, situated at the junction of Deer creek 
with the Sacramento river in Tehama county. 
It consisted of fifty-five thousand acres, of 
which tliirty-six thousand were planted to vines 
and orchard and the remainder used for grain 
growing and pasture. 

The third rancho given to the support of the 
university was the Gridley ranch, containing 
about twenty-one thousand acres. This was sit- 
uated in Butte county and included within its 
limits some of the richest wheat growing lands 
in the state. At the time it was donated its as- 
sessed value was $1,000,000. The total amount 
of land conveyed to the university by deed of 
trust was eighty-three thousand two hundred 
acres. 

The name selected for the institution was Le- 
land Stanford Junior University. The corner- 
stone of the university was laid May 14, 1887, 
bv Senator and Mrs. Leland Stanford. The site 
of the college buildings is about one mile west 
from Palo Alto. In his address to the trustees 



16 



242 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGFL\PHICAL RECORD. 



November 14, 1885, Senator Stanford said: "We 
do not expect to establish a university and fill 
it with students at once. It must be the growth 
of time and experience. Our idea is that in the 
first instance we shall require the establishment 
of colleges for both sexes; then of primary 
schools, as they may be needed; and out of all 
these will grow the great central institution for 
more advanced study." The growth of the uni- 
versity has been rapid. In a very few years after 
its founding it took rank with the best institu- 
tions of learning in the United States. 

NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

The legislature of 1862 passed a bill author- 
izing the establishment of a state normal school 
for the training of teachers at San Francisco or 
at such other place as the legislature may here- 
after direct. The school was established and 
conducted for several years at San Francisco, 
but was eventually moved to San Jose, where a 
site had been donated. A building was erected 
and the school became a flourishing institution. 
The first building was destroyed by fire and the 
present handsome and commodious building 
erected on a new site. The first normal school 
established in the state was a private one, con- 
ducted by George W. Minns. It was started in 



San Francisco in 1857, but was discontinued 
after the organization of the state school in 1863, 
Minns becoming principal. A normal school 
was established by the legislature at Los An- 
geles in 1881. It was at first a branch of the 
state school at San Jose and was under control 
of the same board of trustees and the same prin- 
cipal. Later it was made an independent insti- 
tution with a board and principal of its own. 

Normal schools have been established at 
Chico (1889), San Diego (1897) and San Fran- 
cisco (1899). The total number of teachers em- 
ployed in the five state normal schools in 1900 
was one hundred and one, of whom thirty-seven 
were men and sixty-four women. The whole 
number of students in these at that time was 
two thousand and thirty-nine, of whom two hun- 
dred and fifty-six were men and one thousand 
eight hundred and thirty-nine women. 

The total receipts for the support of these 
schools from all sources were for the year end- 
ing June 30, 1900, $251,217; the total expendi- 
tures for the same time were $206,001 ; the value 
of the normal school property of the state is 
about $700,000. The educational system and 
facilities of California, university, college, nor- 
mal school and public school, rank with the best 
in the United States. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

CITIES OF CALIFORNIA— THEIR ORIGIN AND GROWTH. 



ftLTHOUGH Spain and Mexico possessed 
California for seventy-seven years after 
the date of the first settlement made in 
it, they founded but few towns and but one of 
those founded had attained the dignity of a city 
at the time of the American conquest. In a 
previous chapter I have given sketches of the 
founding of the four presidios and three pueblos 
under Spanish rule. Twenty missions were es- 
tablished under the rule of Spain and one under 
the Mexican Republic. While the country in- 
creased in population under the rule of Mex- 
ico, the onlv new settlement that was formed 
was the mission at Solano. 



Pueblos grew up at the presidios and some of 
the mission settlements developed into towns. 
The principal towns that have grown up around 
the mission sites are San Juan Capistrano, San 
Gabriel, San Buenaventura, San Miguel, San 
Luis Obispo, Santa Clara and San Rafael. 

The creation of towns began after the Ameri- 
cans got possession of the country. Before the 
treaty of peace between the United States and 
Mexico had been made, and while the war was 
in progress, two enterprising Americans, Robert 
Scmple and T. O. Larkin, had created on paper 
an extensive city on the Straits of Carquinez. 
The city of Francisca "comprises five miles," 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



243 



so the proprietors of the embryo metropolis an- 
nounced in the Californian of April 20, 1847, 
and in subsequent numbers. According to the 
theory of its promoters. Francisca had the 
choice of sites and must become the metropolis 
of the coast. "In front of the city," says their 
advertisement, "is a commodious Bay, large 
enough for two hundred ships to ride at anchor 
safe from any wind. The country around the 
city is the best agricultural portion of California 
on both sides of the Bay; the straits being only 
one mile wide, an easy crossing may always be 
made. The entire trade of the great Sacra- 
mento and San Joaquin Valleys (a fertile coun- 
try of great width and nearly seven hundred 
miles long from North to South) must of neces- 
sity pass through the narrow channel of Car- 
quinez and the Bay. and the country is so situ- 
ated that every person who passes from one side 
of the Bay to the other will find the nearest and 
best way by Francisca." 

In addition to its natural advantages the pro- 
prietors offered other attractions and induce- 
ments to settlers. They advertised that they 
would give "seventy-five per cent of the net pro- 
ceeds of the ferries and wharves for a school 
fund and the embellishment of the city" ; "they 
have also laid out several entire squares for 
school purposes and several others for public 
walks" (parks). Yet, notwithstanding all the 
superior attractions and natural advantages of 
Francisca, pyeople would migrate to and locate 
at the wind-swept settlement on the Cove of 
Yerba Buena. And the town of the "good 
lierb"' took to itself the name of San Francisco 
and perforce compelled the Franciscans to be- 
come Benicians. Then came the discoverv of 
gold and the consequent rush to the mines, and 
although Francisca, or Benicia. was on the 
route, or one of the routes, somehow San 
Francisco managed to get all the profits out of 
the trade and travel to the mines. 

The rush to the land of gold expanded the 
little settlement formed by Richardson and Leese 
on the Cove of Yerba Buena into a great city 
that in time included within its limits the mis- 
sion and the presidio. The consolidation of the 
city and county govejrnments gave a simpler 



form of municipal rule and gave the city room 
to expand without growing outside of its mu- 
nicipal jurisdiction. The decennial Federal cen- 
sus from 1850 to the close of the century indi- 
cates the remarkable growth of San Francisco. 
Its population in 1850 was 21,000; in i860, 56,- 
802; in 1870, 149,473; in 1880, 234,000: in 1890, 
298,997 ; in 1900, 342,742. 

In Chapter XX\T, page 175 et seq. of this 
volume, I have given the early history of San 
Francisco, or Yerba Buena, as it was called at 
first. I have there given an account of its 
growth and progress from the little hamlet on 
Yerba Buena cove until it became the metropolis 
of the Pacific coast. In that chapter I have told 
briefly the story of the "Six Great Fires" that, 
between December, 1849, <i"'l July, 1851, devas- 
tated the city. These wiped out of existence 
every trace of the make-shift and nondescript 
houses of the early gold period. After each fire 
the burned district was rebuilt with hastily con- 
structed houses, better than those destroyed, but 
far from being substantial and fire-proof struc- 
tures. The losses from these fires, although 
great at the time, would be considered trivial 
now. In the greatest of these — the fifth — start- 
ing on the night of May 3, 1851, and raging for 
ten hours, the property loss was estimated to be 
between ten and twelve million dollars. There 
were many lives lost. Over one thousand houses 
were destroyed. The brick blocks and corru- 
gated iron houses that by this time had replaced 
the flimsy structures of the earlier period in the 
business quarter of the city were supposed to be 
fire-proof, but the great conflagration of May 
3d and 4th, 1851. disapproved this claim. They 
were consumed or melted down by the excessive 
heat of that great fire. 

It became evident to the business men and 
property holders that a better class of buildings 
must be constructed, more stringent building 
regulations enforced, and a more abundant wa- 
ter supply secured. All these in due time were 
obtained, and the era of great fires apparently 
ended. As it expanded beyond the business 
quarter it became a city of wooden walls. But 
few dwelling houses were built of brick or stone, 
and south of Market street many of the business 



244 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



houses too were built of wood. Ninety per cent, 
of all the buildings in the modern city were frame 
structures. 

After the great fires of the early '50s San Fran- 
cisco seemed to have become practically immune 
from destructive conflagrations. Other large 
cities of its class had suffered from great fires. 
Chicago, in 1871, had been swept out of existence 
bv a fire that destroyed $170,000,000 of property. 
Boston, in 1872, had been forced to give up to the 
fire fiend $75,000,000 of its wealth ; and Balti- 
more, in 1904, had sufifered a property loss of 
$50,000,000. San Francisco for more than half a 
century liad suffered but little loss from fires. 
Those that had started were usually confineTl to 
the building or the block in which they originat- 
ed. The efficiency of its fire fighters, its fire- 
proof business blocks, and the supposed inde- 
structibility of the redwood walls of its dwelling 
houses had engendered in its inhabitants a sense 
of security against destructive fires. 

The emblem on the seal of the city and county 
of San Francisco — the Phoenix rising from the 
flames in front of the Golden Gate — adopted in 
1852, after the last of the "Six Great Fires," had 
little significance to the inhabitants of the modern 
city. The story of the Great Fires was ancient 
history. Nil desperandum — motto of the in- 
vincibles who rebuilt the old city six times — 
had no particular meaning to their descendants 
except as a reminder of the energy, enterprise 
and unconquerable determination of the men of 
the olden, golden days. History would not re- 
peat itself. The day of great fires for San Fran- 
cisco was past. This dream of the immunity of 
their city from destructive conflagrations was to 
receive a rude awakening. 

THE GREAT EARTHQU.VKE AXD FIRE. 

On the morning of April 18, lyofi, at thirteen 
minutes past 5 o'clock, its four hundred thousand 
inhabitants were aroused from their slumbers by 
the terrifying shock of an earthquake. The* 
temblor was not a new visitor to San Francisco. 
Earthquake shocks had shaken it at intervals ever 
since its founding, but these had done little dam- 
age and had come to be regarded more as a bug- 
bear to frighten new arrivals than anything to 



be feared. The earthquake of October, 1868, was 
the most severe of those in the past. Five lives 
were lost in it by falling walls. The walls of 
many buildings were cracked. But one of the 
most dangerous elements of the last great tem- 
blor did not exist then, that is the electric wire. 
The live wire has become one of the most dread- 
ed agents in great fires. 

The impressions produced by the shock and the 
sights witnessed during the progress of the fire 
are thus graphically described by James Hopper 
in "Everybody's Maiia.zine^' for June (1906): 
"Right away it was incredible — the violence of 
the quake. It started with a directness, a savage 
determination that left no doubt of its purpose. 
It pounced upon the earth as some sideral bull- 
dog, with a rattle of hungry eagerness. Tlie 
earth was a rat, shaken in the grinding teeth, 
shaken, shaken, shak^en with periods of slight 
weariness followed by new bursts of vicious rage. 
As far as I can remember my impressions were 
as follows : First for a few seconds a feeling of 
incredulity, capped immediately with one of final- 
ity, of incredulity at the violence of the vibra- 
tions. Tt's incredible, incredible," I think I said 
aloud. Then the feeling of finality: 'It's the 
end — St. Pierre, Samoa, Vesuvius, Formosa, San 
Francisco — this is death.' Simultaneously with 
that a picture of the city swaying beneath the 
curl of a tidal wave foaming to the sky. Then in- 
credulity again at the length of it, at the sullen 
violence of it. Incredulity again at the mere 
length of the thing, the fearful stubbornness of 
it. Then curiosity — I must see it. 

"I got up and walked to the window. I start- 
ed to open it, but the pane obligingly fell out- 
ward and I poked my head out, the floor like a 
geyser beneath my feet. Then I heard the roar 
of the bricks coming down in cataracts and the 
groaning of twisted girders all over the city, and 
at the same time I saw the moon, a calm crescent 
in the green sky of dawn. Below it the skeleton 
frame of an unfinished sky-scraper was swaying 
from side to side with a swing as exaggerated 
and absurd as that of a palm in a stage tempest. 

"Just then the quake, with a sound as of a snarl, 
rose to its climax of rage, and the back wall of 
mv building for three stories above me fell. I 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



U5 



saw the mass pass across my vision swift as a 
shadow. It struck some little wooden houses in 
the alley below. I saw them crash in like emptied 
egg shells and the bricks pass throug'h the roof 
as through tissue paper. 

"The vibrations ceased and I Ijegan to dress. 
Then I noted the ,<;reat silence. Tbroushout the 
long quaking, in this great house full of people 
I had not heard a cry, not a sound, not a sob, not 
a whisper. And now, wlien the roar of crumbling 
buildings was over and only a brick falling here 
and there like the trickle of a spent rain, this 
silence continued, and it was an awful thing. 
But now in the alley some one began to groan. 
It was a woman's groan, soft and low. 

"I went down the stairs and into the streets, 
and they were full of people, half-clad, dishev- 
elled, but silent, absolutely silent, as if suddenly 
they had become speechless idiots. I went into 
the little alley at the back of the building, but it 
was deserted and the crushed houses seemed 
empty. I went down Post street toward the cen- 
ter of town, and in the morning's garish light I 
saw many men and women with gray faces, but 
none spoke. All of them, they had a singular 
hurt expression, not one of physical pain, but 
rather one of injured sensibilities, as if some 
trusted friend, say, had suddenly wronged them, 
or as if some one had said something rude to 
them." * * * * * * * * * * 

He made his way to the Call building, where 
he met the city editor, who said to him : "The 
Brunswick hotel at Sixth and Folsom is down 
with hundreds inside her. You cover that." 

"Going up into the editorial rooms of the Call, 
with water to my ankles, I seized a bunch of copy 
paper and started up Third street. At Tehama 
street I saw the beginning of the fire which was 
to sweep all the district south of Market street. 
It was swirling up the narrow way with a sound 
that was almost a scream. Before it the humble 
population of the district were fleeing, and in its 
path, as far as I could see, frail shanties went 
down like card houses. And this marks the true 
character of the city's agony. Especially in the 
populous districts south of Market street, but 
also throughout the city, hundreds were pinned 
down by the debris, some to a merciful death, 



others to live hideous minutes. The flames swept 
over them while the saved looked on impotently. 
Over the tragedy the fire threw its flaming man- 
tle of hypocrisy, and the full extent of the holo- 
caust will never be known, will remain ever a 
poignant mystery." 

"The firemen there were beginning the tre- 
mendous and hopeless fight which, without inter- 
mission, they were to continue for three days. 
Without water (the mains had been burst by the 
quake) they were attacking the fire with axes, 
with hooks, with sacks, with their hands, re- 
treating sullenly before it only when its feverish 
breath burned their clothing and their skins." 

He secured an automobile at the hire of $50 a 
day to cover the progress of the fire. 

"We started first to cover the fire I had seen on 
its westward course from Tliird street. From 
that time I have only a vague kaleidoscopic vi- 
sion of whirring at whistling speed through a 
city of the damned. We tried to make the fallen 
Brunswick hotel at Si.xth and Folsom streets. 
We could not make it. The scarlet steeple chaser 
beat us to it, and when we arrived the crushed 
structure was only the base of one great flame 
that rose to heaven with a single twist. B\' that 
time we knew that the earthquake had been but 
a prologue, and that the tragedy was to be writ- 
ten in fire. We went westward to get the western 
limit of the blaze." 

"Already we had to make a huge circle to get 
above it. The whole district south of Market 
street was now a pitiful sight. By thousands the 
multitudes were pattering along the wide streets 
leading out, heads bowed, eyes dead, silent and 
stupefied. We stopped in passing at the South- 
ern Pacific hospital. Carts, trucks, express 
wagons, vehicles of all kinds laden with wounded, 
were blocking the gate. Upon the porch stood 
two internes, and their white aprons were red- 
spotted as those of butchers. There were one 
hundred and twenty-five wounded inside and 
fight dead. Among the wounded was Chief Sul- 
livan of the fire department. .\ chimney of the 
California hotel had crushed through his house 
at the first shock of the earth(|uake, and he and 
his wife had been taken out of the debris with 



246 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



incredible difficulty. He was to die two days 
later, spared the bitter, hopeless effort which his 
men were to know." 

^ 't: ^> =i= * 

"At Thirteenth and Valencia streets a policeman 
and a crowd of volunteers were trying to raise 
the debris of a house where a man and women 
were pinned. One block farther we came to a 
place where the ground had sunk six feet. A 
fissure ran along Fourteenth street for several 
blocks and the car tracks had been jammed along 
their length till they rose in angular projections 
three or four feet high. As we were examining 
the phenomenon in a narrow way called Treat 
avaiue a quake occurred. It came upon the far- 
end of endurance of the poor folk crowding the 
alley. Women sank to their knees, drew their 
shawls about their little ones, and broke out in 
piercing lamentations, while men ran up and 
down aimlessly, wringing their hands. An old 
woman led by a crippled old man came wailing 
down the steps of a porch, and she was blind. In 
the center of the street they both fell and all the 
poor encouragement we could give them could 
not raise them. They had made up their minds 
to die." 

^ ^: * * ^ 

"On \'alencia street, between Eighteenth and 
Nineteenth, the \'alencia hotel, a four-story 
wooden lodging-house was down, its four stories 
telescoped to the height of one, its upper rooms 
ripped open with the cross section effect of a 
doll-house. A squa"d of policemen and some fifty 
vohmteers were working with rageful energy at 
the tangle of walls and rafters. Eleven men were 
known to have escaped, eight had been taken out 
dead, and more than one hundred were still in 
the ruins. The street here was sunk six feet, and 
again, as I was to see it many times more, I saw 
that strange angular rise of the tracks as if the 
ground had been pinched between some gigantic 
fingers.'' 

"We went down toward the fire now. We 
met it on Eighth street. From Third it had 
come along in a swath four blocks wide. From 
Market to Eolsom, from Second to Eighth, it 
spread its heaving red sea, and with a roar it was 



monster comber above a flotsam of fleeing hu- 
manity. There were men, women and children. 
Men, women and children — really that is about 
all I remember of them, except that they were 
miserable and crushed. Here and there are still 
little snap-shots in my mind — a woman carrving 
in a cage a green and red parrot, squawking 
incessantly 'Hurry, hurry, hurry ;' a little 
smudge-faced girl with long-lashed brown eves 
holding in her arms a blind puppy; a man with 
naked torso carrying upon his head a hideous 
chromo; another with a mattress and a cracked 
mirror. But by this time the cataclysm itself, its 
manifestation, its ferocious splendor, hypnotized 
the brain, and humans sank into insignificance as 
ants caught in the slide of a mountain. One more 
scene I remember. On Eighth street, between 
Folsom and Howard, was an empty sand lot 
right in the path of the conflagration. It was 
full of refugees, and what struck me was their 
immobility. They sat there upon trunks, upon 
bundles of clothing. On each side, like the claws 
of a crab, the fire was closing in upon them. They 
sat there motionless, as if cast in bronze, as if 
indeed they were wrought upon some frieze rep- 
resenting the Misery of Humanity. The fire 
roared, burning coals showered them, the heat 
rose, their clothes smoked, and they still sat there, 
upon their little boxes, their bundles of rags, their 
goods, the pathetic little hoard which they had 
been able to treasure in their arid lives, a fixed 
determination in their staring eyes not to leave 
again, not to move another step, to die there and 
then, with the treasures for the saving of which 
their bodies had no further strength." 

The vibrations of the first earthquake shock 
had scarcely ceased before the fire broke out in a 
number of different localities. The first alarm 
came from Qay and Drumm streets on the city 
front. Others followed in rapid succession until 
by the afternoon of the first day the fire had al- 
most entirely circled the lower section of the city. 
The firemen made a brave fight at various points 
to stay its progress, but the water mains had been 
broken and their engines were useless. Then the 
only hope to arrest the march of the fire fiend was 
dvnamite. The steadv boom, boom of that ex- 



rushing on, its advance billow curling like aplosive as hour after hour passed and house after 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



247 



house was blown up told of the losing fight that 
was being waged against the destroying element. 

The wooden houses south of lower Market 
street, one of the sections first attacked by the fire 
fiend, were quickly destroyed and the fire swept on 
to the westward. By Wednesday night it had 
swept up to and leaped across Market street. The 
tall buildings of the Call. Chronicle and Examiner 
at Third and Market streets succumbed and the 
great business blocks of the neighborhood were 
gutted by the flames, only their outer shells re- 
mained. By Thursday morning the flames had 
swept over Sansome and Montgomery to Kear- 
ney and in places beyond. 

Jack London, in "Collier's" of May 5th, gives 
the follow-ing dramatic description of the scenes 
in the heart of the business section : 

"At nine o'clock Wednesday evening I walked 
down through the very heart of the city. I 
walked through miles and miles of magnificent 
buildings and towering skyscrapers. Here was 
no fire. All was in perfect order. The police 
patrolled the streets. Every building had its 
watchman at the door. And yet it was doomed, 
all of it. There was no water. The dynamite 
was giving out. And at right angles two diiifer- 
ent conflagrations were sweeping down upon it. 

"At one o'clock in the morning I walked down 
through the same section. Everything still stood 
intact. There was no fire. And yet there was a 
change. A rain of ashes was falling. The 
watchmen at the doors were gone. The police 
had been withdrawn. There were no firemen, no 
fire-engines, no men fighting with dynamite. 
The district had been absolutely abandoned. I 
stood at the corner of Kearney and Market, in 
the very heart of San Francisco. Kearney street 
was deserted. Half a dozen blocks away it was 
burning on both sides. The street was a wall of 
flame. And against this wall of flame, silhouetted 
sharply, were two LTnited States cavalrymen sit- 
ting their horses, calmly watching. That was 
all. Not another person was in sight. In the 
intact heart of the city two troopers sat their 
horses and watched. 

"Surrender was complete. There was no wa- 
ter. The sewers had long since been pumped 
dry. There was no dynamite. Another fire had 



broken out further up-town, and now from three 
sides conflagrations were sweeping down. The 
fourth side had been burned earlier in the day. 
In that direction stood' the tottering walls of the 
Examiner building, the burned-out Call building, 
the smouldering ruins of the Grand hotel, and the 
gutted, devastated, dynamited Palace hotel. The 
following will illustrate the sweep of the flames 
and the inability of men to calculate their speed. 
At eight o'clock Wednesday evening I passed 
through Union Square. It was packed with 
refugees. Thousands of them had gone to bed 
on the grass. Government tents had been set up, 
supfjer was being cooked, and the refugees were 
lining up for free meals. 

"At half-past one in the morning three sides of 
Union Square were in flames. The fourth side, 
where stood the great St. Francis hotel, was still 
holding out. An hour later, ignited from top and 
sides, the St. Francis was flaming heavenward. 
Union Square, heaped high with mountains of 
trunks, was deserted. Troops, refugees, and all 
had deserted. 

"Remarkable as it may seem, Wednesday 
night, while the whole city crashed and roared 
into ruin, was a quiet night. There w^ere no 
crowds. . There was no shouting and yelling. 
There was no hysteria, no disorder. I passed 
Wednesday night in the path of the advancing 
flames, and in all those terrible hours I saw not 
one woman who wept, not one man who was ex- 
cited, not one person who was in the slightest 
degree panic-stricken. 

"Before the flames, throughout the night, fled 
tens of thousands of homeless ones. Some were 
wrapped in blankets. Others carried bundles of 
bedding and dear household treasures. Some- 
times a whole family was harnessed to a carriage 
or delivery wagon that was weighted down with 
their possessions. Baby buggies, toy wagons 
and go-carts were used as trucks, while every 
other person was dragging a trunk. Yet every- 
bo(l\- was gracious. The most perfect courtesy 
obtained. Never, in all San Francisco's history, 
were her people so kind and courteous as on this 
night of terror." 

"All night these tens of thousands fled before 



248 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the flames. Many of them, tlie poor people from 
the labor ghetto, had fled all day as well. They 
had left their homes burdened with possessions. 
Now and again they lightened up, flinging out 
upon the street clothing and treasures they had 
dragged for miles. 

"They held on longest to their trunks, and over 
these trunks many a strong man broke his heart 
that night. The hills of San Francisco are steep, 
and up these hills, mile after mile, were the trunks 
dragged. Everywhere were trunks, with across 
them lying their exhausted owners, men and wo- 
men. Before the march of the flames were flung 
picket lines of soldiers. And a block at a time, as 
the flames advanced, these pickets retreated. One 
of their tasks was to keep the trunk-pullers mov- 
ing. The exhausted creatures, stirred on by the 
menace of bayonets, would arise and struggle up 
the steep pavements, pausing from weakness 
every five or ten feet. 

"Often, after surmounting a heart-breaking 
hill, they would find another wall of flame advanc- 
ing upon them at right angles and be compelled 
to change anew the line of their retreat. In 
the end, completely played out, after toiling for 
a dozen hours like giants, thousands of them were 
compelled to abandon their trunks. 

"It was in Union Square that I saw a man of- 
fering $i,ooo for a team of horses. He was in 
charge of a truck piled high with trunks from 
some hotel. It had been hauled here into what 
was considered safety, and the horses had been 
taken out. The flames were on three sides of the 
Square, and there were no horses." 

"An hour later, from a distance, I saw the 
truck-load of trunks burning merrily in the mid- 
dle of the street." 

j|c * tj: ' :(c :[: 

All day Thursday the fight was waged, the 
flames steadily advancing to the westward. It 
was determined to make the last stand on Van 
Ness avenue, the widest street in the city. It was 
solidly lined with magnificent dwellings, the resi- 
dences of many of the wealthy inhabitants. Here 
the fire fighters rallied. Here all the remaining 
resources for fighting the destroying element 
were collected, dynamite, barrels of powder from 



the government stores and a battery of marine 
guns. The mansions lining the avenue for near- 
ly a mile in length were raked with artillery or 
blown up with dynamite and powder. Here and 
there tlie flames leaped across the line of defense 
and ignited buildings beyond. Two small 
streams of water were secured from unbroken 
pipes and the fires that broke out beyond the line 
of defense were beaten out, principally- by the use 
of wet blankets and rugs. By midnight of the 
19th the fire was under control, and by Friday 
morning the flames were conquered. A change 
of wind during the night had aided the fire fight- 
ers to check its westward march. As the wind 
drove it back, it swept around the base of Tele- 
graph Hill and destroyed all the poor tenement 
houses near the base of that hill that it had spared 
on its first advance, except a little oasis on the 
upper slope that had been saved by a liberal use 
of Italian wine. In the great fire of May 4, 1851, 
De Witt & Harrison saved their warehouse, 
which stood on the west side of Sansome street 
between Pacific and Broadway, scarce a stone's 
throw from Telegraph Hill, by knocking in the 
heads of barrels of vinegar and covering the 
building with blankets soaked in that liquid in 
place of water, which could not be obtained. 
Eightv thousand gallons were used, but the on- 
ward march of the flames in that direction was 
stopped. How many gallons of wine were sac- 
rificed will never be known. 

The earthquake shock had scarcely ceased be- 
fore General Funston, in command of the niil- 
itarv forces at the Presidio, called out the troops 
and sent them down into the stricken city, to aid 
in keeping order and fighting the fire. Mayor 
Schmitz issued a proclamation placing the city 
under martial law. Across the streets were 
thrown cordons of soldiers, who forced the dazed 
and half-crazed crowd to keep away from the 
danger of the advancing fire and falling walls. 
In addition to their other duties the military had 
to undertake the repression of crime. Even amid 
the scenes of suffering, desolation and death, 
thieves looted stores and robbed the dead bodies, 
and ghouls, half-drunk with liquor, committed 
deeds of unspeakable horror. These when 
caught received short shrift. Thev were shot 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



249 



down without trial. Several regiments of the 
National Guard, from different parts of the state, 
were called out and they did efficient service in 
San Francisco, Oakland and Alameda. The Pre- 
sidio, Golden Gate Park and other ])arks w^ere 
converted into refugee camps and rations issued. 
Military organization was prompt and eiTective. 
Four days after the fire there were military 
butchers, blacksmiths, carpenters, chimnev inspec- 
tors and sanitary inspectors. Strict military reg- 
ulations were enforced in the various camps and 
a constant watch was kept up to prevent the 
breaking out of epidemic diseases. Train loads 
of provisions and clothing were hurried from all 
parts of the state and beyond for the immediate 
relief of the sufferers. Contributions of money 
flowed in from all over the country, until the to- 
tal ran up into the millions. The railroads fur- 
nished free transportation to all who had friends 
in other cities of the state. The Red Cross Re- 
lief Society, at the head of which is James D. 
Phelan, ex-mayor of San Francisco, has taken 
up the burden of caring for the destitute until 
they can take care of themselves. 

The actual number of lives lost by the earth- 
quake will never be known : many who were 
pinned down in the wrecked buildings would 
have escaped wdth slight injuries had not the fire 
followed so quickly after the earthquake shock. 
The total number of deaths officially reported 
up to the last of May is three hundred and thirty- 
three. The property loss ranges from two hun- 
dred to two hundred and fifty millions of dol- 
lars. Insurance covers about one hundred and 
twenty millions ; whether all of this will be paid 
is yet to be decided. 

The fire devastated two hundred and sixty-nine 
blocks, covering an area of nearly three thousand 
acres, or about five square miles. In this vast 
fire-swept desert there were tlirce little oases 
that the destroyer had left unscathed. In the 
very heart of this desert stood the mint with its 
accumulated treasure unharmed by fire or earth- 
quake shock. Thirty-five years ago, when Gen. 
( ). H. La Grange was superintendent of the mint, 
he had sunk an artesian well within the inclosure. 
He received neither thanks nor encouragement 
from the government for his work. When the 



fire surge<l around it the employes and ten sol- 
diers were housed within it : for seven hours they 
fought against the onslaught of flames that 
dashed against the building. The courageous 
fighters, aided b\- the thick walls and the water 
supply from the artesian well, won the victory 
and the building with its treasure was saved. 
Throughout the clays and nights that the fire 
raged the tall tower of the Ferry building loomed 
ui> through the smoke of the burning city, the 
hands of the silent clock mutely pointing to 13 
minutes past 5, the moment the temblor began 
its work. 

The post office, with but nominal damages, 
survived the wreck and ruin of the city. The 
palatial homes of the bonanza kings and rail- 
road magnates, built on Nob Hill thirty years 
ago, were wiped out of existence. Of Mark 
Hopkins Art Institute with its treasures of art 
only a chimney is left. Of the Stanford house, 
the Crocker mansion, the Huntington palace and 
the Flood residence only broken pillars, ruined 
arches, heaps of bricks, shattered glass and piles 
of ashes tell how complete a leveler of distinction 
fire is. Chinatown, the plague spot of San Fran- 
cisco and the old time bctc noir of Denis Kearney 
and his followers, has been obliterated from the 
map of the city. Not a vestige is left to mark 
where it was, but is not. Kearney's slogan, ''The 
Chinese must go," is again reiterated; and it is 
questionable whether the almond-eyed followers 
of Confucius will be allowed to relocate in their 
former haunts. 

OAKLAND, ALAMEDA AND BERKELEY. 

The cities across the bay from San Francisco, 
Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley, escaped with 
but slight damage. A number of buildings were 
wrecked and chimneys thrown down, but the fire 
did not follow the shock and the aggregated loss 
of property in all three did not exceed $5,000,000. 
There were five lives lost in Oakland. These 
cities became great camps of refuge for the 
homeless of San Francisco. The hospitality of 
their people was taxed to the utmost to take care 
of the San Francisco sufferers, wdio fled from 
their stricken city as soon as the means of exit 
were available. 



250 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



STANFORD UNIVERSITY. 

With a strange partiality the temblor spared 
the buildings of the State Universit}' at Berkeley. 
Located only a dozen miles from San Francisco, 
scarcely a -brick was displaced from a chimney, 
but it wrought ruin to many of the noble build- 
ings of Stanford University, thirty-four miles dis- 
tant from the metropolis. The Memorial 
Qiurch, the unfinished library, the new gymna- 
sium, part of the art museum, the Stanford resi- 
dence at Palo Alto and the memorial arch were 
badly wrecked. Some of them were hopelessly 
ruined. Encina hall (the men's dormitory) was 
injured by the fall of stone chimneys and one 
student was killed. The loss in all will amount 
to $3,000,000. 

SAN JOSE. 

The city of San Jose seemed to be in the line 
of march chosen by the temblor. The business 
center was wrecked, its court house destroyed 
and many of its dwellings badly damaged. For- 
tunately it escaped a visitation by fire. Nineteen 
lives were lost and the property loss exceeds 
$2,000,000. 

SANTA ROSA. 

The city of Santa Rosa, the capital of Sonoma 
county, in proportion to its wealth and the num- 
ber of its inhabitants, suffered more severely than 
any other city in California. The business por- 
tion of the city, which was closely grouped 
around the Court House Square, was entirely de- 
stroyed. As there were no suburban stores the 
supply of provisions was cut off. The breaking 
off of communication left the outside world ig- 
norant of Santa Rosa's fate. For a time she was 
left entirely to her own resources to aid her suf- 
ferers. As in San Francisco, fire followed the 
temblor, which increased greatly the loss of life 
and property. The water mains were not brok- 
en and within three hours the fire was practically 
under control. 

Among the buildings destroyed by earthquake 
and fire were the court house, the new Masonic 
temple, the public library, six hotels, a five-story 
brewery, a shoe factory, a four-story flour mill, 
two theaters, the Odd Fellows hall, and a num- 



ber of office buildings, flats and apartment 
houses. The number of dead reported was fifty- 
six. The injured and missing numbered eighty- 
seven. 

The business houses in San Mateo, Belmont, 
Palo Alto and Redwood City were nearly all 
wrecked. JNIany of the stately mansions and rose- 
embowered cottages that line the road between 
San Francisco and San Jose on the western side 
of the bay were thrown from their foundations 
and chimneys falling on the roofs had cut their 
way to the ground. 

On the eastern side the towns of San Leandro 
and Haywards that were badly damaged in the 
earthquake of 1868 escaped this last temblor 
unharmed. Santa Clara, Gilroy and Salinas suf- 
fered in about the same proportion as San Jose. 

At Monterey the Del Monte hotel was injured 
by the falling of the chimneys through the roof. 
Two persons, a bridal couple from Arizona, were 
killed by the falling of a chimney. 

Hollister, Napa and Santa Cruz suffered con- 
siderable damage. The greatest loss of life at 
any public institution occurred at the Agnews In- 
sane Asylum. It contained ten hundred and 
eighty-eight patients, besides physicians, nurses 
and attendants ; of these, as nearly as can be as- 
certained, one hundred and ten inmates and em- 
ployes were killed. The buildings were entirely 
destroyed. The inmates who escaped injury 
were housed in tents and guards stationed around 
the inclosure to keep them from running away. 
Temporarv buildings are in the course of con- 
struction. There was no loss of life or property 
south of Monterey. The shock throughout the 
southern part of the state was very slight. 

LOS ANGELES. 

The only settlement under Mexican domina- 
tion that attained the dignity of a ciudad, or city, 
was Los Angeles. Although proclaimed a city 
by the Mexican Congress more than ten years 
before the Americans took possession of the coun- 
try, except in official documents it was usually 
spoken of as el pueblo — the town. Its popula- 
tion at the time of its conquest by the Americans 
numbered about sixteen hundred. The first leg- 
islature gave it a city charter, although fifteen 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



251 



years before it had been raised to the dignity of 
a city ; the lawmakers for some reason cut down 
its area from four square leagues to four square 
miles. This did not affect its right to its pueblo 
lands. After the appointment of a land commis- 
sion, in 1851, it laid claim to sixteen square 
leagues, but failed to substantiate its claim. Its 
pueblo area of four square leagues (Spanish) was 
confirmed to it by the commission. Within the 
past seven years, by annexation, its area has been 
increased from the original four square leagues, 
or about twenty-seven miles, to thirty-seven 
square miles. Its increase in population during 
the past twenty years has been the greatest of anv 
of the large cities of the state. In 1880 it had 
11,183 inhabitants; in 1890, 50,353; in 1900, 
102,429. Its growth since 1900 has exceeded that 
of any similar period in its history. Its estimat- 
ed population January, 1903, is 125,000. 

OAKL.\ND. 

Oakland, the third city in population among 
the cities of California, is the youngest of the 
large cities. It is purely American by birth. 
Its site during Spanish and Mexican rule was 
uninhabited and was covered with oak trees and 
chaparral. The territory which Oakland covers 
was part of a five-league grant made to Luis 
Maria Peralta, a Spanish soldier, who came to 
the presidio of San Francisco in 1790. August 
16, 1820, Governor Sola granted him the Rancho 
San Antonio. His military service had extended 
over a period of forty years. In 1842 he divided 
the grant among his five sons, the portion em- 
braced in Oakland falling to the allotment of 
Vicente. 

The first permanent settlers and the fatliers 
of Oakland were Moore, Carpentier and Adams. 
who squatted on the land in the summer of 1850. 
The Peraltas made an attempt to evict them, 
but failed. This trio of squatters obtained a 
lease from Peralta, laid out a town and sold lots, 
giving quit-claim deeds. They erected houses 
and are considered the founders of the town. 
Other squatters followed their example and pos- 
sessed themselves of the Peraltas' land. This 
involved the settlers in litigation, and it was 
many years before titles were perfected. The 
Peralta litigants finallv won. 



May 4, 1852, the town of Oakland was incor- 
porated. :\rarch 25, 1854, it was incorporated as 
a city, and Plorace W. Carpentier was elected 
the first mayor. The first ferry charter was 
granted in 1853. Defective titles and the water- 
front war between the city authorities and H. W. 
Carpentier retarded its growth for a number 
of years. In i860 its population was about 
1,500. The completion of the overland railroad, 
which made Oakland its western terminus, 
greatly accelerated its growth. The water-front 
war was continued; instead of Carpentier, the 
city now had the Central Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany to contend with. The controversy was 
finally ended in 1882, and the city won. The 
population of Oakland in 1890 was 48,682; in 
1900, 66,960. According to a recent census 
(November, 1902), it exceeds 88,000. 

SACR.MMENTO. 

Sutter built his fort near the junction of the 
Sacramento and American rivers in 1839. It 
was then the most northerly settlement in Cali- 
fornia and became the trading post for the north- 
ern frontier. It was the outpost to which the 
tide of overland immigration flowed before and 
after the discovery of gold. Sutter's settle- 
ment was also known as New Helvetia. After 
the discovery of gold at Coloma it was, during 
1848, the principal supply depot for the mines. 
Sutter had a store at the fort and did a thriving 
business. Sam Brannan, in June, 1848, estab- 
lished a store outside of the fort, in a long adobe 
building. His sales amounted to over $100,000 
a month. His profits were enormous. Gold 
dust was a drug on the market and at one time 
passed for $8 an ounce, less than half its value. 
In September, 1848, Priest, Lee & Co. estab- 
lished a business house at the fort and did an 
immense business. The fort was not well lo- 
cated for a connnercial center. It was too far 
away from the river by which all the freight 
from San Francisco was shipped. The land at 
the embarcadero was subject to overflow and 
was deemed unsuited for the site of a city. Sut- 
terville was laid out on rising ground three miles 
below. A survey of lots was extended from 
the fort to the embarcadero and along the river 
bank. This embryo town at the embarcadero 



252 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



took the name of Sacramento from the river. 
Then began a rivalry between Sutterville and 
Sacramento. The first house in Sacramento, 
corner of Front and I streets, was erected in 
January, 1849. The proprietors of Sutterville, 
McDougall & Co., made an attempt to attract 
trade and building to their town by giving away 
lots, but Sutter beat them at that game, and 
Sacramento surged ahead. Sam Rrannan and 
Priest, Lee & Co. moved their stores into Sac- 
ramento. The fort was deserted and Sutterville 
ceased to contend for supremacy. In four 
months lots had advanced from $50 to $1,000 
and business lots to $3,000. A regular steam- 
boat service on the river was inaugurated in 
August, 1849, and sailing vessels that had come 
around the Horn to avoid trans-shipment worked 
their way up the river and landed their goods at 
the embarcadero. The first number of the 
Placer Times was issued April 28, 1849. The 
steamboat rates of passage between San Fran- 
cisco and Sacramento were: Cabin, $30; steer- 
age, $20 ; freight, $2.50 per one hundred pounds. 
By the winter of 1849 the population of the town 
had reached five thousand and a year later it 
had doubled. Lots in the business section were 
held at $30,000 to $50,000 each. The great flood 
of 1849-50, when four-fifths of the city was 
under water, somewhat dampened the enthusi- 
asm of the citizens, but did not check the growth 
of the city. Sacramento became the trading 
center of the mines. In 1855 its trade, princi- 
pally with the mines, amounted to $6,000,000. 
It was also the center of the stage lines, a dozen 
of which led out from it. 

It became the state capital in 1853, "I'ld al- 
though disastrous floods drove the legislators 
from tlie capital several times, they returned 
when the waters subsided. The great flood of 
1861-62 inundated the city and compelled an 
immense outlay for levees and for raising the 
grades of the streets. Sacramento was made the 
terminus of the Central P'acific Railroad sys- 
tem, and its immense workshops are located 
there. Its growth for the past thirty years has 
been slow but steady. Its population in 1890 
was 26,386; in 1900, 29,282. 

SAN JOSE. 

The early history of San Jose has been given 



in the chapter on Pueblos. After the American 
conquest the place became an important busi- 
ness center. It was the first state capital and 
the removal of the capital for a time checked its 
progress. In 1864 it was connected with San 
Francisco by railroad. The completion of the 
railroad killed off its former port, Alviso, which 
had been laid out as a city in 1849. Nearly all 
the trade and travel before the railroad was built 
had gone by way of Alviso down the bay to 
San I'ranciscO'. San Jose and its suburb, Santa 
Clara, early became the educational centers of 
California. The first American college founded 
in the state was located at Santa Clara and the 
first normal school building erected in the state 
was built at San Jose. The population of San 
Jose in 1880 was 12,570; in 1900, 21,500. 

STOCKTON. 

In T844 the Rancho Campo de los Franceses, 
Camp of the French, or French Camp, on which 
the city of Stockton is located, was granted to 
William Gulnac by Governor Micheltorena. It 
contained eleven leagues of 48,747 acres of land. 
Capt. Charles M. Weber, the founder of Stock- 
ton, was a partner of Gulnac, but not being a 
Mexican citizen, he could not obtain a land 
grant. After Gulnac obtained the grant he con- 
veyed a half interest in it to Weber. Weber 
shortly afterward purchased his partner's inter- 
est and became sole owner of the grant. Some 
attempts were made to stock it with cattle, but 
Indian depredations prevented it. In 1847, after 
the country had come into the possession of the 
Americans, Weber removed from San Jose, 
wdiich had been his place of residence since his 
arrival in California in 1841, and located on his 
ranch at French Camp. He erected some huts 
for his vaqueros and fortified his corral against 
Indians. In 1848 the site of the city was sur- 
veyed and platted under the direction of Captain 
Weber and Maj. R. P. Hammond. The rancho 
was surveyed and sectionized and land ofifered 
on most advantageous terms to settlers. Cap- 
tain Weber was puzzled to find a fitting name 
for his infant metropolis. He hesitated between 
Tnleburgh and Castoria (Spanish for beaver). 
Tules were plentiful and so were beaver, but 
as the town grew both would disappear, so he 
finallv selected Stockton, after Commodore 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



253 



Stockton, who promised to be a godfather to 
the town, but proved to be a very indifferent 
step-father; he never did anything for it. The 
discovery of gold in the region known as the 
southern mines brought Stockton into promi- 
nence and made it the metropoHs of the south- 
ern mining district. Captain Weber led the party 
that first discovered gold on the Mokelunine 
river. The freight and travel to the mines on 
the Mokelumne, Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers 
passed through Stockton, and its growth was 
rapid. In October, 1849, the Alta California 
reports lots in it selling from $2,500 to $6,000 
each, according to situation. At that time it had 
a population of about one thousand souls and a 
floating population, that is, men coming and 
going to the mines, of about as many more. The 
houses were mostly cotton-lined shacks. Lum- 
ber was $1 a foot and carpenters' wages $16 per 
day. There was neither mechanics nor mate- 
rial to build better structures. Every man was 
his own architect and master builder. Cloth 
was scarce and high and tacks at one time were 
worth $5 a package ; even a cloth house was no 
cheap affair, however flimsy and cheap it might 
appear. On the morning of December 23, 1849, 
the business portion of the town was swept out 
of existence by fire. Rebuilding was begun al- 
most before the embers of the departed city 
were cold and a better city arose from the ashes 
of the first. After the wild rush of mining days 
was over, Stockton drifted into a center of agri- 
cultural trade and it also became a manufactur- 
ing city. Its growth has been steady, devoid of 
booms or periods of inflation, followed bv col- 
lapse. Its population in 1890 was 14,424; in 
1900, 17,506. 

SAN DIEGO. 

In former chapters I have described the 
founding of the presidio and mission of San 
Diego. A pueblo of twenty-five or thirty houses 
grew up around the presidio. This is what is 
known as Old San Diego. In 1850 it was in- 
corporated as a city. March 18, 1850, Alcalde 
Sutherland granted to William Heath Davis and 
five associates one hundred and sixty acres of 
land a few miles south of Old Town, in con- 
sideration that they build a wharf and create 
a "new port." The town of New San Diego was 



laid out, the wharf was built, several houses 
erected, and government barracks constructed. 
A newspaper was established and the Panama 
steamers anchored at the wharf. San Diego 
was riding high on liie wave of prosperity. But 
the wave broke and left San Diego stranded on 
the shore of adversity. In 1868, A. E. Horton 
came to San Diego. He bought about nine 
hundred acres of pueblo lands along the bay at 
twenty-six cents an acre. He subdivided it, gave 
away lots, built houses and a wharf and soon 
infused life into the sleepy pueblo. In 1884 
the Southern California Railroad was completed \ 
into the city. In 1887 San Diego experienced a 
wonderful real estate boom and its growth for 
several years was marvelous. Then it came to 
a standstill, but has again started on the high- 
way to prosperity. Its population in 1890 was 
16,159: in 1900, 17,700. 

1-"KESN0 CITY. 

Fresno City was founded by the Southern 
Pacific Railroad in May, 1872. The road at that 
time was in the course of construction. The 
outlook for a populous town was not brilliant. 
Stretching for miles away from the town site in 
different directions was an arid-looking plain. 
The land was fertile enough when well watered, 
but the few settlers had no capital to construct 
irrigating canals. 

In 1875 began the agricultural colony era. 
The land was divided into twenty-acre tracts. A 
number of persons combined together and bv 
their united capital and community labor con- 
structed irrigating canals and brought the land 
under cultivation. The principal product is 
the raisin grape. Fresno City became the 
county seat of Fresno county in 1874. It is now 
the largest and most important city of the 
Upper San Joacpiin Valley. Its population in 
1890 was 10,818; in 1900, 12,470. 

VALLE.TO. 

Vallejo was founded for the state capit'd. It 
was one of several towns which had that teiu- 
Dorary honor in the early '50s, when the state 
capitol was on wheels, or at least on the move. 
The original name of the place was Eureka. 
General Vallejo made a projiosition to the leg- 
islature of 1850 to grant tlie state one hundred 



254 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and fifty-six acres of land and to donate and 
pay to the state within two years after the ac- 
ceptance of his proposition $370,000, to be used 
in the erection of public buildings. The legisla- 
ture accepted his proposition. The' location of 
the state capital was submitted to a vote of the 
people at the election on October 7, 1850, and 
Vallejo received more votes than the aggre- 
gated vote of all its competitors. Buildings 
were begun, but never cojnpleted. The legisla- 
ture met there twice, Init on account of insuffi- 
cient accommodations sought other places 
where they were better cared for. General Val- 
lejo's proposition at his own request was can- 
celled. In 1854 Mare Island, in front of Val- 
lejo, was purchased by the general government 
for a United States navy yard and naval depot. 
The government works gave employment to 
large numbers of men and involved the expendi- 
ture of millions of dollars. The town began to 
prosper and still continues to do so. Its popu- 
lation in 1890 was 6,343 : in 1900, 7,965. 

NEVADA CITY. 

No mining town in California was so well and 
so favorably known in the early '50s as Nevada 
City. The first discovery of gold near it was 
made in September, 1849; ^nd the first store 
and cabin erected. Rumors of rich strikes 
spread abroad and in the spring of 1850 the rush 
of gold-seekers came. In 185 1 it was estimated 
that within a circuit of seven miles there was a 
population of 30.000. In 1856 the business sec- 
tion was destroyed by fire. It was then the 
third city in population in the state. It has had 
its periods of expansion and contraction, but 
still remains an important mining town. Its 
population in 1880 was 4,022; in 1890, 2.524; 
in 1900, 3,250. 

GRASS VALLEY. 

The first caliin in Grass Valley was erected in 
1849. The discoveries of gold quartz raised 
great expectations. A quartz mill was erected 
in 1850. but this new form of mining not being 
understood, quartz mining was not a success ; 
but with improved machinery and better meth- 
ods, it became the most important form of min- 
ing. Grass Valley prospered and surpassed its 
rival, Nevada City. Its population in 1900 was 
4.719- 



EUREKA. 

In the two hundred years that Spain and Mex- 
ico held possession of California its northwest 
coast remained practically a terra incognita, but 
it did not remain so long after the discovery of 
gold. Gold was discovered on the head waters 
of the Trinity river in 1849 ^^'^ parties of pros- 
pectors during 1849 ^"d 1850 explored the 
countr\- between the head waters of the Trinity 
and Klamath rivers and the coast. Rich mines 
were found and these discoveries led to the 
founding of a number of towns on the coast 
which aspired to be the entrepots for the sup- 
plies to the mines. The most successful of these 
proved to be Eureka, on Humboldt Bay. It 
was the best located for commerce and soon 
outstripped its rivals, Areata and Bucksport. 
Humboldt county was formed in 1854, and Eu- 
reka, in 1856, became the county seat and was 
incorporated as a city. It is the largest ship- 
ping point for lumber on the coast. It is also 
the commercial center of a rich agricultural and 
dairying district. Its population in 1880 was 
2.639; in 1890, 4,858; in 1900, 7,327. 

MARYSVILLE. 

The site on which Marysville stands was first 
known as New Mecklenburg and ■ was a trading 
post of two houses. In October, 1848, M. C. 
Nye purchased the rancho and opened a store 
at New Mecklenburg. The place then became 
known as Nye's rancho. In 1849 ^ town was 
laid out and named Yubaville. The name was 
changed to Mar^'sville in honor of the wife of 
the proprietor of the town Covilland. His wife 
was Mary Murphy, of the Donner party. Marys- 
ville, being at the head of navigation of the 
north fork of the Sacramento, became the en- 
trepot for mining supplies to the miners in the 
rich Yuba mines. After the decline of mining 
it became an agricultural center for the upper 
portion of the Sacramento. Its population in 
1880 was 4,300; in 1890, 3,991; in 1900, 3.397. 

REDDING. 

The Placer Times of May 8, 1850, contains 
this notice of Reading, now changed to Red- 
ding: "Reading was laid ofif early in 1850 by 
P. B. Reading at the headwaters of the Sacra- 
mento within fortv-five miles of the Trinity 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



255 



diggings. Reading is located in the heart of a 
most extensive mining district, embracing as it 
does, Cottonwood, Clear, Salt, Dry, Middle and 
Olney creeks, it is in close proximity to the Pitt 
and Trinity rivers. The pet steamer. Jack 
Hayes, leaves tomorrow morning (May 9, 1850) 
for Reading. It has been hitherto considered 
impossible to navigate the Sacramento to this 
height." The town grew rapidly at first, like 
all mining towns, and like most of such towns 
it was swept out of existence by fire. It was 
devastated by fire in December, 1852, and again 
in June, 1853. ^^^ original name, Reading, got 
mixed with Fort Redding and it now appears on 
all railroad maps and guides as Redding. Its 
population in 1890 was 1. 821 : in 1900, 2,940. 

PAS.'VDENA. 

Pasadena is a child of the colony era of the 
early '70s. Its original name was the Indiana 
Colony. In 1873 a number of persons formed a 
company for the purchasing of a large tract of 
land and subdividing it among them. They in- 
corporated under the title of the San Gabriel 
Orange Grove Association and purchased four 
thousand acres in the San Pasqual rancho, sit- 
uated about nine miles east of Los Angeles city. 
This was divided on the basis of one share of 
stock being equivalent to fifteen acres. Each 
stockholder received in proportion to his invest- 
ment. Tlie colonists turned their attention to 
the cultivation of vineyards and orange or- 
chards. In 1875 the name was changed to Pasa- 
dena, an Algonquin word meaning Crown of the 
Valley. The colony had become quite noted for 
its production of oranges. In 1887 the great 
real estate boom struck it and the cross roads 
village suddenly developed into a city. It has 
become famous as a tourist winter resort. Its 
population in 1890 was 4,882; in 1900, 9,117. 

POMONA. 

Pomona was founded by the Los Angeles Im- 
migration and Land Co-Operative Association. 
This company bought twenty-seven hundred 
acres of the Rancho San Jose, lying along the 
eastern border of Los Angeles county. The 
town was laid ofif in the center of the tract. The 
remainder of the tract was divided into forty- 



acre lots. The town made a rapid growth at 
first, but disaster overtook it. First the dry 
season of 1876-77, and next a fire that swept 
it almost out of existence. In 1880 its popula- 
tion had dwindled to one hundred and eighty 
persons. In about 1881 it began to revive and 
it has made a steady growth ever since. It is 
the commercial center of a large orange grow- 
ing district. Its population in 1890 was 3,634; 
in 1900, 5,526. 

SAN BERNARDINO. 

San liernnrdino was originally a Mormon col- 
ony. In 1 85 1 one hundred and fiftv families 
were sent from Salt Lake to found a colony or 
a stake of Zion. The object of locating a colony 
at this point was to keep open a line of coinmu- 
nication with some seaport. San Bernardino was 
near the old Spanish trail which led out through 
the Cajon pass. Goods could be transported 
to Salt Lake from San Pedro at all seasons of 
the year, which could not be done to Salt Lake 
over the central route westward or eastward 
during the winter. The leaders of the Mormon 
colony, Lyman and Rich, bought the San Ber- 
nardino rancho from the Lugos. A portion of 
the land was subdivided into small tracts and 
sold to the settlers. The Mormons devoted 
themselves to the cultivation of wheat, of which 
they raised a large crop the first year and re- 
ceived as high as $5 per bushel. The colony 
prospered for a time, but in 1857 the settlers, 
or all of them that would obey the call, were 
called to Salt Lake by Brigham Young to take 
part in the threatened war with the United 
States. The faithful sold their lands for what- 
ever they could get and departed. The gentiles 
bought them and the character of the settlement 
changed. The city of San Bernardino has an 
extensive trade with the mining districts to the 
east of it. Its population in 1890 was 4,012; in 
1900, 6,150. 

RIVERSIDE. 

Riverside had its origin in the colonv era. It 
began its existence as the Southern California 
Colony Association. In 1870 an association, of 
which Judge John W. North and Dr. James P. 
Greves were leaders, purchased four thousand' 
acres of the Roubidoux rancho and adjoining 



256 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



lands, aggregating in all about nine thousand 
acres. This was subdivided into small tracts 
and sold to settlers at a low price. A town was 
laid off and named Jurupa, but this being diffi- 
cult of pronunciation its name was changed to 
Riverside, which eventually became the name of 
the settlement as well. An extensive irrigating 
svstem was constructed and the cultivation of 
citrus fruits became the leading industry. The 
Bahia or Washington navel orange has made 
Riverside famous in orange culture. It was 



propagated by budding from two small trees 
sent by the Department of Agriculture to a citi- 
zen of Riverside. The city of Riverside in area 
is one of the largest cities of the state. Its 
boundaries include fifty-six square miles. Its 
corporate lines take in most of the orange 
groves of the settlement. By this means mu- 
nicipal regulations against insect pests can be 
better enforced. The population of Riverside in 
1890 was 4.683 ; in 1900, 7,973. 



HON. JOHN DANIEL GOODWIN. 



HON. JOHN DANIEL GOODWIN. No 
definite information can be secured as lo the 
exact date of the establishment of the Goodwin 
family in America, but the genealogical records 
show that they were identified with the colonial 
history of the south and sent loyal youths to the 
front to aid in securing independence for the 
struggling colonies. One of these gallant young- 
soldiers was seriously injured in the service, and, 
in order to avoid being captured by the Tories, 
he hid in a cave for six weeks until his wounds 
had healed sufficiently for him to seek refuge 
with his own army. In his old age he often told 
to his descendants stirring talcs of his service 
during the Revolution and his perils and hard- 
ships during the most critical period of our na- 
tional history. 

Among the children of this Revolutionary hero 
was a son, Daniel, born in South Carolina in 
1768, and by occupation a ])lanter. .\bout 1831 
he moved to Alabama and there became the 
owner of a plantation with several slaves. At 
the time of his death he was ninety-four years 
of age. The next generation was represented bv 
John, who was born in 1800 in Kershaw district. 
South Carolina, and on the completion of an ex- 
cellent education engaged in teaching school. 
While still a young man he was elected to the 
office of sherifl:', which he filled with characteristic 
fearlessness and sagacity. However, the failure 
of his health terminated his official and business 
activities and forced him to seek a change of 
climate in the hope of being benefited thereby. 
Though lie went to Alabama, it was too late to 
be of avail, and he died ere the journey was com- 
])leted. November 12, 1833. while he was still in 
the prime of manhood. Undoubtedly had he 
been spared to old age, he would have gained dis- 
tinction and success, for he possessed intelligence 
of a high order, energy and a capacity for affairs. 



The marriage of John Goodwin united him 
with Martha Nettles, who was born in Kershaw 
district in South Carolina in 1802 and died in 
.\labama in 1844, having s]3ent the years follow- 
ing her husband's death in the home of her 
father-in-law. She was a daughter of William 
Nettles, who was born in Kershaw district, the 
son of an Irish gentleman : during his active years 
he followed mercantile pursuits in Camden, 
where he died at the age of ninety-four. Having 
been an officer in the War of 1812. he was hon- 
ored with a military funeral, and the splendor of 
the service made an indelible impression upon 
the mind of his grandson. Judge Goodwin, who 
was then a child of four years. In addition to 
this veteran's service in the second war with Eng- 
land, he had been a valiant soldier in the ranks 
during the first great .struggle, and had endured 
want, hardships and constant exposure such as 
was incident to that memorable conflict. 

In Camden, Kershaw district, South Carolina, 
John Daniel Goodwin was born November 6. 
1829. When a very small child lie was taken by 
his mother to .Alabama and made his home with 
his paternal grandfather on a plantation. Being 
orphaned at an early age by his father's death, 
he felt the necessity of earning his own liveli- 
hood, and so secured work as a farm boy at the 
age of twelve. After two years he went into a 
store and remained there for fourteen months, 
when he was taken ill. On regaining his health, 
after an illness of several months, he took up 
school work and was a student in local schools 
for six months. At the age of seventeen he 
began to teach in a country school and later at- 
tended a preparatory school with the plan of en- 
tering the Alabama State University, but was 
compelled to relinquish his plans owing to lack 
of funds. 

When news came of the discovery of gold in 



259 



260 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



California the young man was in a position to 
follow the tide of emigration toward the Pacific 
coast, and accordingly, in February of 1850, he 
came from his old home in the south via the 
Panama route, then up the Pacific to San Fran- 
cisco, where he landed on the 6th of June. At 
once he proceeded to the mines at Auburn, but 
no great success rewarded his efforts at prospect- 
ing there. During 1851 he began prospecting at 
Nevada City. With a party of twenty men he 
entered upon the building of a ditch of nine miles 
between Newtown and Deer creek, and spent the 
entire summer at the work, only to find that the 
mines were worthless and his time and money 
wasted. In the fall of 1851 he went to Brown's 
valley in Yuba county and assisted in organizing 
a minmg company, of which he was chosen secre- 
tary. Lender his supervision a ditch was con- 
structed to a mine and a general store also was 
carried on, but he found no profits accruing from 
his work, so sold out in 1855 and returned to 
Alabama, where on the 22d of August he mar- 
ried Miss Martha J. Cravens, a native of that 
state. Accompanied by his young wife, he came 
to California and began housekeeping in Brown's 
valley, but in 1856 sold out there and moved to 
Spanish Ranch, Plumas county, where he con- 
ducted a general store. On his election as county 
clerk in 1859 he disposed of his business at Span- 
ish Ranch and moved to Quincy, where since he 
has made his home. All his active life he had 
been ambitious to study law, and now for the 
first time the opportunity to do so presented it- 
self. During his leisure hours in the county 
clerk's office he carried on his law studies, and in 
1863 was admitted to the bar, since which time 
he has made the law his profession. In 1865 he 
was elected to the State Assembly from the dis- 
trict composed of Plumas and Lassen counties. 

Under appointment from Governor Irwin, in 
1876, Mr. Goodwin was tendered the position of 
judge of the twenty-first judicial district, which 
district then comprised Plumas, Lassen and Mo- 
doc counties. At the expiration of the term of 
eighteen months he was the Democratic nominee 
for the same office, but was defeated and then 
took up general professional work. May 12, 1905, 
he received from Governor Pardee the appoint- 



ment of superior judge of Plumas county, and 
since then has had charge of the superior court. 
Alike at the bar and on the bench he has proved 
himself earnest, resourceful, capable and saga- 
cious, a man of great dignity and culture, a 
scholar notwithstanding lack of early advantages, 
and a stanch friend to those whose friendship he 
cherishes, yet equally firm in his opposition to 
those whose deceits he has unveiled. 

The wife of Judge Goodwin was a daughter of 
Jesse P. Cravens, M. D., a native of Kentucky 
and for years a physician of Alabama. When the 
Civil war had devastated his plantation and 
stripped him of the accumulations of a lifetime, 
he came to California and for twelve years made 
his home with his daughter, Mrs. Goodwin, but 
eventually returned to Alabama ; there he passed 
away at the age of eighty-three years. Six chil- 
dren were born to the union of Judge and Mrs. 
Goodwin, namely: Martha L., who resides in 
Quincy with her parents : Ella, who died in in- 
fancy ; Cora, who was eighteen at the time of her 
death ; William Nettles, who is an influential at- 
torney of San Francisco; Kittie M., deceased; 
and Grace, wife of Hon. Ulysses S. Webb and a 
resident of Sacramento. About 1878 Mr. Webb 
became a resident of Plumas county, and in 1890 
he was elected district attorney, which position 
he resigned in order to accept the office of attor- 
ney-general of the state. The influence of Judge 
Goodwin is strong throughout the state and was 
in large measure responsible for the selection of 
his son-in-law to his present responsible post. 

In fraternal relations Judge Goodwin was for- 
merlv active in Masonry, having been initiated 
into the order in 1854 in Yuba Lodge at Marys- 
ville, from which he was demitted to Plumas 
Lodge No. 60, F. & A. M., at Quincy, and still 
holds membership in the latter organization. 
Though at one time a Democrat in his views, 
during the Spanish-American war he found him- 
self opposed to the measures which his party 
supported and in sympathy with the colonial 
theory of the Republican party. For the office 
of superior judge he was endorsed by both the 
Republican and Democratic central committees, 
and this unanimity of opinion is the tribute to 
his high standing as a man and a jurist. In 1903 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



261 



he assisted in the organization of the i'hinias 
County Bank, in which now he is a stoekholder 
and cHrector. Though his mining ventures proved 
unprofitable he met with success in the law and 
has a competency which his efforts justly merit. 
When at leisure from official duties he enjoys the 
pleasures of his beautiful home in Quincy, with 
its two hundred acres extending back into the 
mountains. Not only are the mountains a source 
of scenic beauty, but they have proved of prac- 
tical value, as they are the source of a spring of 
excellent water, which the judge, by means of 
underground pipes, conveys into Quincy and thus 
supplies the town with water. In many other 
ways he has aided the material development of 
his home town and has fostered enterprises for 
its permanent progress. On August 22, 1905, 
the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage of Judge 
and Airs. Goodwin was held at their home in 
Quincy and was attended by a large concourse of 
friends from Plumas countv. 



HIRAM HOYT RICHMOND, now serv- 
ing as postmaster of Auburn, Placer county, 
was born in Lebanon, Madison county, N. Y., 
Mav 8, 1843, the eighth in a family of ten chil- 
dren that blessed the union of his parents, Tra- 
jan and Lydia (Cazier) Richmond. The name 
had long been established on American soil, the 
first emigrant being an Englishman who lo- 
cated in New England and reared a family to 
the high principles characteristic of our citizen- 
ship. Tlie great-grandfather of Hiram H. Rich- 
mond served in the Revolutionary war from 
Connecticut, whence the family had drifted from 
Massachusetts, while his son David, who be- 
came a farmer in \'ermont, participated in the 
War of 1812. 

Trajan Richmond was born in Poultney, Rut- 
land county, \"t., and in young manhood became 
a student in the \'ermont Medical College (of 
Castleton), fron.i which institution he was later 
graduated with the degree of M. D. He fol- 
lowed the westward trend of civilization and lo- 
cated in Madison county, N. Y., where he prac- 
ticed his profession successfully until his retire- 



ment, his death occurring in 1878. He was 
prominent in various walks of life, being a Ma- 
son of high degree and a citizen foremost in the 
promotion of all movements which had for their 
end the upbuilding of city, county or state 
wherein he made his home. His wife, who also 
died in New York, was the descendant of an old 
riiid honored colonial family, an ancestor par- 
ticipating in the Revolutionary war. The family 
is of French-Huguenot stock, the Massacre of 
St. Bartholomew driving them from their native 
land, later members taking refuge in America, 
in the state of New Jersey. Mrs. Richmond's 
father, Mathias Cazier, a native of New Jersev, 
graduated at Princeton College and in young 
manhood became a Presbyterian minister, to 
which calling he devoted the best years of his 
life. His death occurred in Madison countv, 
N. Y., in the year 1839. Of the ten children 
born to Dr. and Mrs. Richmond Charles E. died 
near Ft. Scott, Kans. ; Charlotte is the wife of 
H. S. Magill, of Auburn, 111.; Rollin M. is lo- 
cated in New York ; Joel C. was a soldier in the 
One Plundred and Fourteenth Regiment New 
York Infantry and died in New Orleans, im- 
mediately following the first Port Hudson cam- 
paign ; Cornelia is the wife of George Martin, a 
Civil war veteran in an Illinois regiment, and 
now residents of Harvard, Neb. ; Lewis L., a 
resident of St. Louis, Mo., was a soldier in Com- 
pany C, Twenty-sixth Regiment New York In- 
fantry, and was wounded in the shoulder in 
August, 1862, at the second battle of Manassas; 
he died in 1886. Sarah E. is a resident of Mad- 
ison county. N. Y. ; Hiram Hoyt is the subject 
of this review ; Albert D. was also a member of 
the One Hundred and Fourteenth Regiment 
New York Infantry: and Edwin AI. is a resident 
of New York. 

Hiram Hoyt Richmond was reared on the 
home farm, which his father operated in con- 
nection with his practice of medicine, and re- 
ceived a substantial education in the public 
schools of Lebanon. He was only eighteen years 
old when he responded to the call for volunteers 
in behalf of the Union, being the first to enlist 
in his town. He was enrolled in Company C 
Twenty-sixth Regiment New York Infantry, 



262 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and was mustered in at Hamilton, N. Y., his 
regiment soon engaging in active service. 
While serving on picket duty in September, 
1861, he and four others were captured by Wade 
Hampton's cavalry, and for nine months were 
held prisoners before being exchanged, spending 
their time at Richmond', Salisbury and Tusca- 
loosa. They were returned to their regiment 
just before the battle of Antietam, in which they 
participated, and a little later the battle of Fred- 
ericksburg, in which Mr. Richmond was wound- 
ed in the" left leg by a minie ball. After being 
incapacitated for some time he was finally dis- 
charged in March, 1863, when he returned home 
and took up the studies which had been inter- 
rupted by the call to arms. He entered Caze- 
novia Seminary and two years later completed 
the scientific course, and in May, 1865, went to 
Denver, Colo., and secured a position on the 
Rocky Mountain News. Returning to Illinois 
in the same year he taught school in Sangamon 
county, and in 1866 crossed the plains to Boze- 
man, Mont., where he spent the ensuing winter. 
He mined on Alder Gulch and in the vicinity of 
Virginia City, while he also proved himself a 
capable and reliable citizen of the western coun- 
try by volunteering for service in putting down 
the Blackfeet Indians in the Yellowstone coun- 
try, serving as Lieutenant in tlie body of cav- 
alry with which he was identified. Not wish- 
ing to spend another winter in Montana, where 
the chief source of diet was elk meat, and where 
countless disadvantages added to the hardships 
of the country, he came to California in the fall 
of 1867, and in Placer county successfully passed 
the teacher's examination and began teaching 
school. For fourteen years he was thus occupied 
and at the same time gradually assumed a place 
of prominence among the representative citizens 
of Placer county, his ability, fidelity to duty and 
personal character winning universal confidence. 
In 1880 he became census marshal and fulfilled 
the duties devolving upon him. 

In i886 Mr. Richmond purchased an interest 
in the Placer .4ygus and edited the same for some 
time, finally merging this paper with the Re- 
publican, which was known thereafter as the 
Placer County Republican. He continued his 



position of editor until 1900, when, in August of 
that year, he was appointed postmaster of 
Auburn by President jMcKinley, at which time 
he severed all business connections in order to 
be able to devote his time and attention entirely 
to his new duties. Re-appointed to the office in 
December, 1904, by President Roosevelt, he has 
since served efficiently in this capacity, carrying 
with him into the performance of his duties the 
same fidelity which had distinguished his ef- 
forts in all business enterprises. 

Mr. Richmond is located in Auburn, his home 
being presided over by his wife, a woman of cult- 
ure and refinement and a prominent figure in 
the social life of the city. She was formerly 
Miss Carrie M. Slade, a native of Genesee 
county, N. Y. ; on the 29th day of April, 1879, 
she became the wife of Mr. Richmond. In the 
midst of his business cares Mr. Richmond has 
still found time to ally himself with social and 
fraternal organizations, being a prominent mem- 
ber of the Monday Night Club, a local literary 
organization, of which he was one of the organ- 
izers, and belongs to the Odd Fellows and En- 
campment of Auburn. In politics an ardent Re- 
publican, he has always been active in his ef- 
forts to advance the principles he endorses, serv- 
ing for many years as a member of the county 
central committee and chairman of the same for 
some time. In memory of his "days and nights 
on the battlefield" he assisted in the organization 
of Belmont Post No. loi in 1886, and served as 
commander. In 1896 he was elected delegate to 
the National Encampment at St. Paul and en- 
joyed at that time a reunion with many who had 
served with him in the great civil struggle of 
'61. Mr. Richmond is a member of the Pioneer 
Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he offici- 
ates as president of the board of trustees. He 
possesses more than ordinary literary talent and 
has devoted as much time as possible to its culti- 
vation, notwithstanding many engrossing business 
interests, as early as 1885 publishing a book of 
jxiems entitled "Montezuma," relating to the 
life and origin of the early Aztecs. A work of 
unusual merit, it secured immediate recognition 
and placed him among the literary geniuses of 
the west. At various times he has been called 




^V.^^LWt^X^V, 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRArHICAL RECORD. 



265 



upon for the production of poems on special oc- 
casions in the city of Sacramento and elsewhere 
and has always fulfilled the high exiiectations of 
those who know him. Personally he is such a 
man as could win the friendship of all who came 
within the range of association, for his qualities 
are not a veneer, but are rather the eloquence 
of a nobly inclined character ; in spite of many 
years in the business world he still has implicit 
faith in the integrity of human nature and is al- 
ways looking for the best side, and not the worst, 
in his fellow-men, and is therefore constantly 
finding that which enlarges his own nature, 
builds higher his wall of trust, and rounds out 
and completes a splendid example of manliness 
and manhood. 



WILIJAM JAMES EDWARDS. Few 
names in Plumas county are vested with more 
honor than that of William James Edwards — 
not for the high position he won in aflFairs of 
state, nor for the vast wealth he accumulated, 
nor for the glory of personal conquest, but for 
the incomparable manhood that endeared him 
to a whole cotmtryside that mourned his death as 
a personal loss. Throughout his entire life he 
had been a resident of Quincy, where his birth 
occurred December i6, i860; his parents, of 
English birth and breeding, located here in 1855, 
and here passed the best years of their lives, 
at its close being laid side by side in "God's 
Acre" in the little city of their adoption. The 
greater part of Mr. Edwards' educational train- 
ing was received in the public schools of Quincy 
and in young manhood he entered upon a busi- 
ness career, which, to the day he laid down 
alike the pleasures and responsibilities of life, 
was a fair page untouched by the shadow of 
personal greed or dishonor. As proprietor of 
the PlumaS' House he came in contact with a 
vast number of people and lost nothing through 
his intimate association with them, but instead. 
by his ever courteous, kindly and hospitable na- 
ture, won friendships that outlasted dissolution 
itself. He was generous to a fault, and though 
there are many to tell of the constant outpour- 



ing of the best in his life — money, sympathy, 
courtesy and kindliness — yet he combined with 
this characteristic a modesty and a depreciation 
of his own merits that as often withheld from 
the assisted one the name of the donor. Yet 
with all his generosity and the absence of greed 
or avarice, such was his business ability that he 
could not fail to accunndate considerable prop- 
erty, being, in fact, with scarcely an exception 
the largest land-owner in Quincy, while he 
also owned valuable ranch land in the vicinity, 
and was as well extensively identified with min- 
ing interests in Plumas and adjoining counties. 
Just prior to his death, which occurred Septem- 
ber 8, 1905, he had planned many valuable im- 
provements upon his property, and was looking 
forward to many years of usefulness in both the 
upbuilding of his own interests and those of the 
place of his nativity. Endowed with unfailing 
patriotism and loyalty, his public spirit was man- 
ifested upon all occasions, his influence and ma- 
terial aid being given always toward the further- 
ance of any plan for the upbuilding and develop- 
ment of Quincy and Plumas county ; no move- 
ment for the public welfare in the last twenty 
years has lacked the stanch support of Mr. Ed- 
wards and many would have been brought to 
ignominious failure but for his timely aid. 

.\s in his public life, so in his private. In 
early manhood he was united in marriage with 
the woman of his choice. Miss Delia R. Wilson, 
and throughout the years of their union love 
and sympathy and kindness held their hearts 
and lives together. He was unfailing always in 
the highest qualities of manhood — a genuine sym- 
path\' and tenderness, a cheery patience in the 
midst of all trials, and a faithfulness that sur- 
vived to the end. Mrs. Edwards, who survives 
her husband and since his death has taken up 
the burdens and responsibilities of his large es- 
tate, is a native of the state of New York, whence 
she came to California with her parents in child- 
hood. In the grammar schools of San Francisco 
and the State Normal of San Jose, she received 
her education, after which she engaged as an 
educator in Quincy. An enthusiast in her work, 
and of unusual capabilities through her broad 
culture and excellent training, she rose rapidly 



266 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



to a position of prominence among tlie educators 
of the county, her withdrawal from tliis Hne 
of work, through her marriage with Mr. Ed- 
wards, being largely deplored. However, she 
has kept in close touch with all lines of advance- 
ment and has remained particularly active in the 
teaching of dramatic art and physical culture. 
Possessing admirable qualities enhanced by lib- 
eral training, she has always been held in the 
highest esteem for her frank, sweet womanhood, 
and since her assumption of business duties in 
the management of the large estates left to her 
care and the conduct of the Plumas House (which 
was founded by the Edwards family and for two 
generations has been under their management), 
she has demonstrated the executive ability and 
unerring judgment with which nature also en- 
dowed her. 

Mr. Edwards was placed to his eternal rest 
under the auspices of the Native Sons of the 
Golden West, with which order he had been 
identified for many years, having been a charter 
member of Quincy Parlor No. 131 and one of its 
most faithful and prominent upbuilders. He was 
also a.ssociated as a member of Plumas Lodge 
No. 88, I. O. O. F., which acted as escort. Many 
were the beautiful floral offerings, bespeaking 
the affection in which he was held ; and deep 
and heartfelt were the tributes paid him by those 
who had known him all his life in the words 
spoken above his bier. It was much to have 
lived as he did ; it was much to have passed away 
with the universal commendation and love which 
proved unquestioningly the worth of his life. 
His influence is not ended ; the cheer and bright- 
ness of his life, the courage and strength of 
purpose still leave their impress upon those who 
have known him. 



RANSOM H. STANLEY. The town of 
Cedarville, which lies in the northeastern part 
of California near the state line of Nevada, num- 
bers among its best-known and most influential 
men the editor and publisher of the Surprise \'al- 
ley Record, a weekly paper patronized by local 
advertisers and by a growing list of subscribers. 



The headquarters of the newspaper and its pro- 
prietor is also the central office of the local tele- 
phone system and the office of the local branch 
of the California and Oregon Telegraph Com- 
pany, which since 1898 has been under the super- 
vision of the editor. When it is mentioned that 
Mr. Stanley, in addition to being editor and pub- 
lisher of a paper and manager of a telegraph 
office, is also the owner of a ranch of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres near Adin. and since 1902 
vice-president and a stockholder in the Kistler 
Brothers Company, it will be seen that he is one 
of the town's principal business men and a leader 
in local activities. 

Born in Decatur county, Iowa, June 10, 1861, 
Ransom H. Stanley was a child of about five 
years when, in 1866, the family crossed the 
plains with wagons and ox-teams, settling in 
Placer county, where the father engaged in min- 
ing about eighteen months. From there he w^t 
to Petaluma and engaged in the slaughtering 
business for San Francisco wholesale meat 
houses. After perhaps ten years he removed to 
Lake county, this state, and settled at the village 
of Lower Lake, where he filled the offices of post- 
master and justice of the peace. His wife died 
in California when their son, R. H., was only 
six years of age. The latter was educated in 
grammar schools and the Napa high school, from 
which he was graduated in 1880. Learning the 
printer's trade he followed that occupation in 
different parts of the state, and in i88g, with a 
partner, conducted the Lassen Mail at Susan- 
ville, but sold out a year later and removed to 
Dav, Cal., where he conducted a paper, The Four 
Conicrs. about eighteen months. In the spring 
of 1892 he came to Cedarville and established the 
first paper in the town and the only one pub- 
lished in Surprise valley. His marriage took 
place at .\din, Modoc county, March 8, 1891, and 
united him with ]\Iiss Christine Anderson, a na- 
tive of Wisconsin, and an earnest member of the 
INIethodist Episcopal church. Two children, 
Leon and Fay, bless their union. 

The political affiliations of Mr. Stanley always 
have been with the Democratic party, and during 
the second term of President Cleveland he was 
appointed postmaster of Cedarville, an office that 





2/77-^^-2^^7^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



2fift 



he filled for five years, until the national admin- 
istration became Republican. Interested in Ma- 
sonry, he is past and present master of Surprise 
Valley Lodge Xo. 235, F. & A. M. ; memljer of 
Acacia Chapter Xo. 64, R. A. M., at Adin; 
patron of the Eastern Star Lodge at Cedarville, 
with which his wife is identified as secretary; 
member of the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men and past master workman of his lodge ; and 
past noble grand of Cedarville Lodge Xo. 249, 
I. O. O. P.. at Cedarville, which he has repre- 
sented at different times, as delegate to the grand 
lodge. In the work of these fraternities, as in 
all movements and organizations calculated to 
promote the material, social .or commercial inter- 
ests of the community, he is deeply interested, 
and to them gives cordial co-operation and sym- 
pathetic assistance. 



JOHX HEATH BOXXER. When the mem- 
orable battle of Hastings brought England under 
Xorman-French influences the Bonner family, 
which was of Xorman origin, became established 
in the south of England, and its representatives 
lived and flourished at Kent for many successive 
generations. As early as 1642 the family was 
traftsplanted to America, during which year Capt. 
Thomas Bonner immigrated to the colony of Vir- 
ginia and settled at Reams Station in Dinwiddie 
county, the location of the famous battle of Pe- 
tersburg during the Civil war. During the war 
of the Revolution one of the name served as an 
officer under George Washington. In recogni- 
tion of his valor and fidelity he received, through 
congress, a grant of five thousand acres of land 
in what was known as the \'irginia Reserve of 
southwestern Ohio, and thither he removed his 
family during the year 1802, later founding a 
town now known as Zenia. the county-seat of 
Greene county. Another branch of the family 
went from Virginia to Georgia and Texas. 

On the homestead which formed a portion of 
the grant his father had received from the gov- 
ernment in recognition of his war services, Philip 
Davis Bonner was born, and there he passed the 
years of boyhood and youth, and later married 



Miss Mary Heath, with whom he established a 
home near the old farm. Both he and his wife 
died while yet in early life. Their son, John 
Heath Bonner, was bom near Xenia, Ohio, Jan- 
uary 5, 1838, and was the eldest of four children. 
The death of his parents fortunately did not de- 
prive him of home influences and careful train- 
ing, for at the age of nine years he and two 
younger children went to live with their grand- 
father, Chappel Heath, near Keosauqua, Van 
Buren county, Iowa, where he was reared to 
manhood's estate and received fair educational ad- 
vantages. In 1861 he crossed the plains to Cali- 
fornia with wagon and ox-teams and settled at 
Red Bluff, where he was employed in a mercan- 
tile business for six years. In the meantime he 
had formed the acquaintance of W. T. Cressler, 
with whom afterward he was identifie'd in busi- 
ness. In 1867 the two men came to Surprise 
valley and laid out what is now the town of 
Cedarville, opening the first store in the place 
and erecting the first building here. For four- 
teen years they gave their attention exclusively 
to merchandising, but in 1882 they also estab- 
lished a bank in Cedarville and thenceforward 
devoted time and thought to the making of loans 
and transacting of a general banking business 
for the accommodation of their customers. 

While carrying forward his personal enter- 
prises Mr. Bonner was not negligent of the in- 
terests of the village he assisted in founding. 
Any movement for the upbuilding of local enter- 
prises received his stanch support. In the build- 
ing of the first road over the mountains to Altu- 
ras he was deeply interested, for he recognized 
that it would open up to the valley intercourse 
with the broad and fertile stock-raising regions 
to the west. X"o project was planned for the 
benefit of the people and the development of the 
valley which failed of his enthusiastic support, 
and his name will always be remembered in local 
history as that of a man devoted to the welfare 
of tlie community and largely instrumental in 
securing its present degree of prosperity. For 
about thirty years he was a member of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity and many times he was honored 
with the office of master of the Cedarville Lodge. 
For many years he served as inspector of this 



270 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Masonic district, and during the period of his 
service he installed the lodges at Alturas and 
Fort Bidwell, Modoc county. At the time of 
his death he was officiating as treasurer of his 
home lodge. Twice married, he was first united 
in 1870 with Miss Emeline Claflin, by whom he 
had two children, Ernest C, now the district at- 
torney of ]\Iodoc county, and Edna, now deceased. 
In 188S he was united in marriage with Mrs. 
Lizzie N. Lee, and of this union two children 
were born, Mary Heath and Marjorie May. 

A useful and honorable career came to a close 
when death terminated Mr. Bonner's activities, 
November 19, 1904. The body was interred in 
the Cedarville cemetery near the scenes so fa- 
miliar to him throughout many years of business 
activity. When he passed away, there were many 
to mourn his loss, for it was everywhere recog- 
nized that the town had lost one of its leading 
citizens and the valley a man who had contrib- 
uted largely to its material development. Per- 
sonally he possessed many attractive qualities of 
heart and mind. Generous and charitable in dis- 
position, he gave frequently, but quietly and un- 
ostentatiously, so that few knew of his kindnesses 
save the recipients themselves. There are many 
of these who could testify concerning his good- 
ness of heart in helping them in times of ad- 
versity and misfortune. While he gained busi- 
ness success, he was even more fortunate in gain- 
ing the confidence of his fellowmen and a high 
standing for integrity and honesty. Always cour- 
teous in his intercourse with others, always help- 
ful to the deserving poor, he furnished an illus- 
tration of the highest type of citizenship. Any 
sketch of his life, however complete it might be 
concerning his commercial activities, could not 
depict the noble traits of character that endeared 
him to his fellowmen ; nor could it describe the 
generosity of the heart that bled for others' woes ; 
the silent charity extended to the worthy poor 
and unfortunate ; the purity of mind essential to 
the highest exemplification of Christian charac- 
ter ; the influence exerted for justice and moral- 
ity ; vet these were prominent traits of his per- 
sonality, and without them his character would 
have been incomplete. Xo man stood higher in 
the community than he, and few ever received 



greater confidences than were reposed in him; 
nor were any of these confidences ever betrayed, 
for he was ever faithful to every trust reposed in 
him. His influence was predominant in shaping 
the early conditions of Cedarville and paving the 
way for a refining civilization, every upward step 
being identified with his progressive mind and 
enthusiastic energy, and to him may be given 
credit for a large degree of the prosperity that 
the community now enjoys. 



GAINES LANE COATES, M. D. Identi- 
fied with Sierraville and the Sierra valley 
throughout the greater portion of his profession- 
al life. Dr. Coates has established an enviable 
reputation for medical skill and extended knowl- 
edge of the science to which he has given years 
of thought and study. Without the aid of cap- 
ital or influence he gained a thorough educatioii 
in his chosen art and has since devoted himself 
assiduously to its practice, meanwhile winning 
hosts of personal friends and a goodly number of 
patients among those in need of medical skill. 
The conscientious practice of his profession en- 
grosses his attention. No night is too dark or 
cold for him to ansvyer the call for help ; no fam- 
ily too poor to be refused his skill in the hour- of 
need ; no case too intricate to baffle his keen 
powers of diagnosis. A young man, with years 
of labor in the future, it may be predicted that 
honors and prosperity await him in the further 
prosecution of his life-calling. 

The Coates family is of southern extraction. 
Washington Fletcher Coates was born in Mis- 
sissippi and during boyhood removed to Texas, 
where he grew to manhood and embarked in the 
cattle-growing business. Through all of his act- 
ive life he has followed stock-raising and still 
makes a specialty of that occupation, in which he 
has met with deserved and notewortliy success. 
In young manhood he married Elizabeth Saun- 
ders, who was born in North Carolina, of colo- 
nial southern lineage ; at the age of about sixteen 
years she accompanied members of the Saunders 
family to Texas and there died at thirty-four 
years, when her son, Gaines Lane, was a child of 



'^-^ 





HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



273 



four years. The latter was bom in Coryell 
county, Tex., March 25, 1873, and after his 
mother's death he was taken to the farm home 
of his maternal grandmother, under whose kind- 
ly care he grew toward nianhood and received a 
fair education. After having spent one vear as a 
student in the college at Gatesville, Tex., in 1892 
he came to California and secured emplovment 
on a ranch in the southern part of the state. In 
1893 he matriculated in the California Medical 
College, where he took the complete course of 
lectures and was graduated May 20, 1896, with 
an excellent standing for class work. 

After having practiced for nine months at 
Sherwood, Tex., and for a similar period at 
Susanville, Cal., Dr. Coates came to the Sierra 
valley in 1897 and since then has built up a 
growing practice in Sierraville and vicinity. 
February 17, 1897, he established domestic ties 
through his marriage to Miss Lottie Marie Veck, 
of San Angelo, Tex., daughter of William S. 
Veck, a pioneer of that place. Three children 
came to bless their union, the eldest of whom, 
\T^ck, died at twelve months. The others are 
Thelma and Gaines L., Jr., aged respectively five 
and three years (1906.) Stanch in his allegiance 
to the Democratic party, Dr. Coates is yet far 
from being a politician and, indeed, has never 
been active in partisan affairs and has held no 
office save that of school trustee. Prominent in 
Masonry, he has been honored with the office of 
master of Sierra Valley Lodge No. 184, F. & A. 
M., also has officiated as inspector of the eleventh 
district. Mountain Vale Lodge No. 140, I. O. 
O. F., and Crystal Encampment of Sierraville 
number him among their active members, as do 
also the Orders of the Eastern Star and the 
Rebekahs. 



CAPT. AMANDUS C. KISTLER. The 
life which this article delineates, began in 
Berks county. Pa., October 29, 1845, i" the 
home of Samuel M. and Esther (Moser) Kist- 
ler, who were members of old Pennsylvania 
families, and spent their entire lives in that 
state. Nothing occurred to individualize the 
life of Captain Kistler until he had attained 



man's estate, when the outbreak of the war 
between the north and the south changed the 
quiet tenor of his existence and caused him 
eventually to become a permanent resident 
of the great west. On the completion of his 
education he had commenced to teach school, 
and was succes.sfully carrying forward the 
work of his second year as an instructor, 
when he resigned his position in 1864. Im- 
mediately afterward he became a private in 
the Fourteenth Regiment, U. S. A., and in 
August of 1865, received a promotion to the 
fank of second lieutenant, which he held un- 
til his promotion to the rank of captain, in 
December, 1867, and the latter commission he 
held at the time of his resignation from the 
regular army, in December of 1870. Mean- 
while, at the close of the Civil war, in 1865, he 
was sent to the Pacific coast with the first 
regular troops ordered to that part of the coun- 
try after the Rebellion. On the western coast 
he was successively stationed at Forts Van- 
couver and Steilacoom, in Washington, and 
Camps Watson and Warner in Oregon, his 
resignation taking place during the time he 
was stationed at the camp last named. 

After his resignation from the regular army 
Captain Kistler engaged in the cattle business 
in Oregon, but in 1879 became a resident of 
Cedarville, Cal., and has since engaged in 
mercantile pursuits. Shortly after his arrival 
in this town he bought a part of the stock of 
Cressler & Bonner and a mercantile establish- 
ment was started under the name of Kistler 
Brothers & Co. In 1886 the business was con- 
solidated with that of Cressler & Bonner, and 
the title was changed by the admission of Mr. 
Johnstone into partnership. In 1889 the name 
was again changed, this time becoming Kist- 
ler Brothers & Co., from which in 1895 '^ was 
changed to A. C. & O. P. Kistler, and as such 
continued until the firm of Kistler Brothers 
Company was incorporated for $50,000, in 
1902, under the state laws of California. In 
addition to the Cedarville establishment they 
have a store at Eagleville, and for two years 
also carried on a similar enterprise at Lake 
City. Their stock comprises a complete line of 



274 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



supplies for the house and the table, as well 
as wearing apparel for men and women, cloth- 
ing of all kinds, and, indeed, everything to be 
found in a first-class general store. 

In 1875 Captain Kistler was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Ella Drouillard, who died in 
1892. Afterwards he married Miss Stella E. 
Stephens, by whom he had three children, 
namely : John Amandus, Samuel Stephens and 
Aline Isabel. In religious connections Mrs. 
Kistler holds membership with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, while the Captain adheres 
to the faith of the Lutheran denomination in" 
which he was reared. Upon the organization 
of the blue lodge of Masonry at Cedarville, in 
1873, he became one of its charter members, 
but a few years later was demitted. The Re- 
publican party has received his support ever 
since he became of age, but he has taken no 
active part in politics, nor has he ever con- 
sented to become a candidate for local posi- 
tions of a political character. 



HON. FELIX GRUNDY HAIL. A notable 
acquisition to the educational and political inter- 
ests of Rum.as county is Hon. Felix G. Hail, 
widely known as the editor of the Plumas Na- 
tional Bulletin, a paper which since the spring 
of 1892 has presented the local and general news 
to the residents of Quincy with fair and im- 
partial handling. The paper is Republican in 
its political sentiment, and it was on the ticket 
of this party that Mr. Hail was elected assembly- 
man from the sixth district in 1890. He served 
with distinction in the session which convened 
in 1891, making an excellent record as chairman 
of the committee on mines and mining. 

Born near Linn Creek, Camden county, Mo., 
October 19, 1851, F. G. Hail descends from 
southern antecedents, his grandfather, John Hail, 
having been a native of Kentucky. His entire 
life had been passed as a farmer in that state, 
his death occurring when he was a compara- 
tively voung man. While the grandparents were 
living in Kentucky their son Fielding was born, 
July 19, 1824, and he was nine years old when. 



in 1833, he went to Missouri with his mother and 
stepfather. Until 1858 he carried on farming in 
the latter state, and then moved to Kansas, and 
after serving in the Mexican war crossed the 
plains to California with horse teams in 1863. 
Going directly to Butte county, he was located 
on a ranch near Qiico for a time, but subse- 
quently carried on a hotel in Cana, that county, 
and there he died June 11, 1883. Unlike his 
son, his political sympathies were enlisted in be- 
half of Democratic principles, which he upheld 
both by his voice and vote. His wife, formerly 
Martha Ann Watson, was also a native of Ken- 
tucky, but while- she was still a small child her 
parents removed first to Illinois and later to 
Missouri. From the time of the removal of the 
family to the west in 1863 until the close of her 
life she continued to be a resident of California 
and the state of Washington, dying at Walla 
Walla in February, 1903, at the age of seventy- 
six years. She was a firm adherent of the Chris- 
tian church, and in that faith she trained her 
family. 

Of the eleven children that comprised the pa- 
rental family Felix G. Hail was the eldest and 
was seven years old at the time of the removal to 
Kansas. His advent in the Golden state dates 
from his twelfth year, and from that age until 
he was nineteen he attended the public schools 
in Butte county and worked on his father's 
ranch. After leaving home he determined to pre- 
pare himself for teaching, and with this idea in 
mind he resumed his studies first in Pine Creek, 
later in Qiico, and finally in Jonesville, all in 
Butte county. His efforts were rewarded in 
1872 by receiving a first-grade certificate, which 
he at once made use of by accepting a position as 
teacher in the district schools of Butte county. 
Three years later he came to Plumas county as 
principal of a school in Big Meadows, and until 
1884 taught successively in the schools of Cres- 
cent Mills, Taylorsville and Greenville, having 
in the meantime, in 1877, been elected county 
superintendent of schools. During the four years 
and ten months in which he filled this position 
he taught classes regularly, and his administra- 
tion was marked by a distinct and healthy growth 
toward a higher educational standard. 




l/ 



'h^^^^ /y^.^5^^^:^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



2Yo 



Upon relinquishing his pedagogical duties Mr. 
Hail purchased the Greenville Bulletin in 1884 
and as editor and proprietor of the paper in- 
creased its circulation and continued its publica- 
tion until the fall of 1891, when he transferred 
the entire plant to Quincy. In the spring of 
the following year he enlarged his plant and cir- 
culation by the purchase of the National, his pub- 
lication since that date being known as the 
Plumas National Bulletin. The consolidation of 
the two papers and the incorporation of the busi- 
ness have been beneficial to owner and citizens 
alike, increasing the capital of the former, which 
redounds to the advantage of the latter in a larger 
and more satisfactory news sheet. Mrs. Hail, 
who is a highly gifted woman, is assistant editor 
of the paper, and also renders efficient help in the 
capacities of bookkeeper and proofreader. 

May 26, 1B78, Mr. Hail was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Mary Alvie Leonard, who was 
lx>rn in Peoria, 111., but who since 1865 has been 
a resident of California. With her mother and 
stepfather she came to the state by the Panama 
route, and March 10, 1865, they located in Plu- 
mas county near Quincy. Mrs. Hail is a daugh- 
ter of Dr. Alva and Rebecca IMerritte (Smith) 
Leonard, the former of whom was a native of 
Pennsylvania. Going to the middle west during 
young manhood he located at Peoria, 111., where 
the birth of his daughter occurred, and where 
he practiced his profession until his death, when 
onl_\- thirty-three _\ears of age. His wife was a 
descendant of southern ancestors and was born 
in Kentucky. Her education, however, was ac- 
quired principally in Illinois, and in that state 
sl'ie afterward taught for a number of years. 
At the time of the breaking out of the Civil war 
her home was in Tennessee, but after hostilities 
had begun she removed to Leavenworth, Kans., 
where her second marriage was solemnized. At 
the age of seventy-four years she is still hale and 
hearty and at her home in Modoc county, this 
state, sl;e is enjoying the beauties of Nature as 
depicted in the flora for which the state is fam- 
ous. .She has made a complete study of the 
plant.i and flowers indigenous to this state, and 
her reputation as a botanist has not only made 



her name well known throughout California and 
Oregon, but throughout Europe as well. 

Four children blessed the marriage of Mr. and 
Mrs. Hail, of whom three are living, as follows; 
Herbert Felix, who is his father's foreman and 
right-hand man in the office of the National Bul- 
letin; Stella Merrittc, the wife of J. M. Hanley, 
who is assistant district attorney of San Fran- 
cisco; and Martha Leora, who is now attending 
Kings Conservatory of Music in San Jose. Leon- 
ard Fielding, the eldest child, was accidentally 
drowned at the age of twenty-one years, when 
in the first flush of young manhood, and his loss 
was deeply mourned by lx)tb family and friends. 
]\Ir. Hail is well known in fraternal circles, hold- 
ing membership in Plumas Lodge No. 60, F. & 
A. M., of which he is secretar\-, and Plumas 
Lodge No. 88, I. O. O. F., of which he is past 
grand; while his wife is identified with the W. C. 
T. U. and with the Woman's Qub. It may not 
be out of place to mention in this connection that 
prior to her marriage Mrs. Hail had been a 
student in the State Normal at San Jose for two 
years, leaving before the completion of the term 
to be married to Mr. Hail, in 1878. Twenty-five 
years afterward, and after she had become a 
grandmother, in 1903 she resumed her studies in 
the Normal, completing the course in eighteen 
months and graduating with honors. 



NOBLE SAMUEL McKINSEY. The iden- 
tification of the McKinsey family with the 
development of the west began in those memor- 
able days following the discovery of gold 
in California, when A. J. McKinsey, a native 
of Crawfordsville, Ind., of Scotch descent, and 
a farmer by occupation, crossed the plains and 
began to search for gold in the mines near 
Downieville, Sierra county. In addition to his 
mining ventures he carried on a store at Snake 
Bar in partnership with William Young. Early 
in the 6o's he was appointed postmaster at 
Downieville, and for eighteen years he continued 
to fill the position with efficiency, but finally gave 
up active business cares and retired to Susan- 
ville. Upon his death, which occurred at San 



276 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Luis Obispo, his remains were brought back to 
Susanville for interment. During his early man- 
hood he married in Indiana, where his wife died 
before he started west. Two sons of that mar- 
riage were soldiers in the Civil war, serving with 
an Indiana regiment. After coming to California 
he married Mrs. Rachel Frasch, who crossed the 
plains from Wisconsin about 1850 and settled in 
Sierra county, where her husband was drowned. 

The only child of his father's second mar- 
riage, N. S. AIcKinsey was born at Downieville, 
Cal., May 8, 1855, and as a boy aided his father 
in the postofifice. At sixteen years of age he en- 
tered the office of the Mountain Messenger. 
where he learned telegraphy as well as the print- 
er's trade. When nineteen years of age he en- 
tered the employ of the Western Union Telegraph 
Company and for a year engaged in the con- 
struction of lines through the Sacramento val- 
ley, after which he spent twelve months in placer 
mining at Goodyear Hill. However, little suc- 
cess met his efforts in the mines, so he returned 
to the construction of telegraph lines and later 
was appointed operator at Sierra City, from there 
going in a similar capacity to other points. In 
1877 he became superintendent of construction 
on the line extending from Taylorsville, Plumas 
county, to Susanville, Lassen county, in which 
latter city he opened the first telegraph office 
June 24, 1877. After he had conducted the office 
for two years it was abandoned by the owners 
on account of the deep snows on the Sierras in- 
terfering with winter work. 

During 1879 Mr. McKinsey was clerk and 
bookkeeper for L. N. Breed at Janesville, after 
which he published the Lassen Adz'ocate at Su- 
sanville and the Modoe Independent at Alturas, 
conducting the same until 1889. Meanwhile, 
with E. R. Dodge and W. H. Hall, he had be- 
come interested in a telegraph and telephone sys- 
tem. In connection with A. R. Bidwell a line 
was completed to Clear creek August 9, 1888, 
and this was used with the line from Greenville. 
After Mr. Bidwell's interest had been purchased 
a line from Greenville to Sierra City was bought 
from the Western Union Telegraph Company, 
and this furnished connection with Sacramento. 
June I, 1889, a line was completed to Alturas via 



Hayden Hill and Adin, and in September of the 
same }ear the line was extended to Bieber. Sep- 
tember I, 1894, the line was extended to Reno, 
Nev., at which time connection with Sierra City 
was severed and the transfer was made at Reno. 
The line from Eureka to Sierra City was then 
sold to the Phunas Eureka Mining Company, 
while the wires were taken up between the 
Plumas Eureka mine and Ouincy. By these 
changes Ouincy, Crescent Mills, Greenville and 
Taylorsville were placed on lines direct tO' Reno 
via Susanville. The next step in advance was 
the extension of the line from x\lturas via Cedar- 
ville, Lake City, Fort Bidwell and New Pine 
creek to Lakeview, Ore., where the work ended 
August 25. 1898, and in 1904 a new line was 
built direct between Susanville and Alturas, the 
old line via Hayden Hill and Adin being sold to 
George IT. Knight of Adin, by whom the Modoc 
& Lassen Telegraph Company was incorporated. 
In November, 1897, the company also extended 
tlie line from Susanville to jMilford. 

From the first the company has had a success- 
ful business existence, which may be attributed 
to the intelligence and application of the general 
superintendent, N. S. McKinsey, acting in har- 
mony with the officers, who are as follows : W. H. 
Hall, president ; Jules Alexander, vice-president ; 
and J. E. Pardee, secretary. The headquarters 
are in Susanville, which city has been greatly 
aided by the building of the line, as have also 
all the other towns reached in California and 
Oregon. Additional facilities are provided by 
the Lake County Telegraph & Telephone Com- 
pany, which owns one hundred miles of lines and 
connects with the California line at Lakeview, 
Ore. 

The inventive ability which Mr. McKinsev 
possesses has been of the greatest assistance to 
him in his present business. One of his earlv 
inventions was a telegraph and telephone line, 
v,'hich was the first combination line in use in 
the whole world and was his own appliance. 
Another important invention, which he devised 
with A. R. Nelson, is a selective lockout tele- 
phone system, by means of which the subscriber 
and not the central office controls the line. Af- 
ter three years of labor devoted to perfecting the 





l£jt£^^.-. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



279 



invention, in 1905 Mr. McKinsey bought out Mr. 
Nelson and is now the sole proprietor of the 
system.. 

With the exception of nine years of service as 
postmaster of Susanville, Mr. McKinsey has 
given his entire attention to his duties as super- 
intendent of the California & Oregon Telegraph 
Comjianv, and the inventive work coimected 
therewith. In politics he is a stanch Republican, 
but not active in such work. Fraternally he was 
made a Mason in Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & 
A. M., and is further connected with Lassen 
Giapter No. 47, R. A. M., and Lassen Com- 
mandery No. 13, K. T. Both himself and his 
wife are members of the Eastern Star, Hesperian 
Giapter No. 112, of which he is past patron, and 
she past matron. At one time she was grand 
conductress of the Grand Court of Amaranth 
No. I of the state. Mr. McKinsey's marriage 
united him with Miss Louisa B. Slater, who was 
born in Susanville and died in this city, leaving 
a daughter, Helen L. McKinsey, now Mrs. J. 
McGregor, of Susanville. After the death of his 
first wife Mr. McKinsey married Atawa Streshly, 
who was born in Susanville. After taking a 
normal school course in Los Angeles she re- 
turned to Susanville, where she has since resided. 
One daughter, Irene, blesses this union. 

The father of Mrs. McKinsey is Orlando 
Streshly, who was born in 1831 in Fredericks- 
burg, Va., and since 1901 has made his home at 
Azusa, Cal. Originally from Wales, the family 
was foimded in America by Sir Harry and John 
Streshly, who were among the founders of James- 
town, Va., in 1607. Sir Harry Streshly died at 
Raleigh in 1620. Among the descendants of 
John was Capt. John Streshly, a Revolutionary 
officer and a Virginia farmer. James Madison 
Streshly, a son of the captain, was born in Vir- 
ginia, served in the war of 1812, and died in \'ir- 
ginia an aged man. In early life he had mar- 
ried Mary Fitzhugh, daughter of William Henry 
Fitzhugh, of Belair, Va. Of their five sons and 
two daughters Orlando was the eldest. Immedi- 
ately after news came of the discovery of gold 
in California he took passage at New York on 
the Unicorn, which rounded Cape Horn and land- 
ed at San Francisco October 4, 1849. After 



spending the winter at Sacramento he began 
prospecting and then hired as a packer, later 
engaged in teaming and hauling for himself. 
From 1853 to 1856 he carried on a store in 
I'lumas county. December 8, 1856, he married 
IMiss Margaret Todd, who was born in County 
Antrim. Ireland, of Scotch descent, and came to 
California in 1854, remaining in this state until 
lier death, in 1897, in Los Angeles. The children 
of their union were named as follows : Mary- A., 
now the wife of George B. Long, of Horse Lake; 
Helena, Mrs. David Hyer, of Susanville; Eliza. 
Mrs. William Homer McArthur, of Azusa: Ata- 
wa, wife of N. S. ^McKinsey; J. M., a rancher of 
Willow creek; W. O., a merchant of Azusa; 
R. C, who is employed in the money order de- 
partment in Los Angeles postoffice ; Tucker, who 
died at seventeen years ; F. D.. a merchant in 
Azusa; George L., an architect in San Francisco; 
and Harry H., who is employed in the Los An- 
geles postoffice. 

After engaging in the hotel business at Quincy, 
Plumas county, in September, 1857, Mr. Streshly 
went to Soda Bar and the same year settled in 
Honey Lake valley, where he engaged in ranch- 
ing until 1862, and then began teaming with oxen 
from this valley to Humboldt. After 1867 he 
resumed ranching on his old farm. For two 
terms he was sheriff of Lassen county, and then 
served as assessor for four years. Later he lived 
in Fall river valley and from there in 1882 he 
removed to Los Angeles county, where he en- 
gaged in horticultural pursuits until 1901, when 
he sold his ranch and retired to Azusa, his pres- 
ent home. 



HON. WILLIAM W. KELLOGG. The an- 
nals of the ancient city of Farmington show 
that Lieut. Joseph Kellogg acted as a trainer of 
the old Connecticut militia as early as 1651, but 
save the fact that he came from England noth- 
ing is known concerning his life history. Gen- 
erations of the same name lived and labored and 
died, leaving behind them the records of hon- 
orable lives spent within the narrow confines of 
New England. Not less worthy of the ancestral 
name was Langdon Kellogg, a man of large com- 



280 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



mcrcial enterprises and the owner of mills for the 
manufacture of powder. In marriage he became 
united with Wealthy Boise, likewise a member 
of an old and honored family of that region. At 
their home in South Lee, Berkshire county, 
Mass., their son, William W., was born March 
13, 1837, and there he was given excellent gram- 
mar-school and academic advantages. Upon at- 
taining his majority, in 1858, he set out in the 
world for himself and came via Panama to Cali- 
fornia, where he prospected in Trinity county. 

A pioneer of Plumas county, Mr. Kellogg 
came to this part of the state as early as the fall 
of 1858 and located at Rich Bar. on the east 
branch of the north fork of Feather river, where 
he engaged in mining with very indifferent suc- 
cess. After about three years he abandoned 
work in the mines and devoted his attention to 
his duties as constable and justice of the peace. 
In 1861 he was elected county assessor on the 
first Republican ticket nominated in the state, and 
removed to Quincy to enter upon official duties. 
At the expiration of two years he was elected 
county clerk, auditor and recorder, and served 
in that capacity for one term. While holding the 
position of assessor he served also as deputy sher- 
iff under E. H. Pierce, sheriff. For some six 
years he was editor and proprietor of the Quincy 
Union, a newspaper which he published in his 
home town. During intervals of leisure, while 
following various pursuits, he studied law, and 
in 1871 was admitted to the bar, after which 
he began professional work at Quincy, and now 
ranks among the most brilliant criminal lawyers 
in the state. 

As the representative of Plumas and Lassen 
counties in the state assembly during 1880 and 
1881, Mr. Kellogg first became familiar with the 
public affairs of the commonwealth and was rec- 
ognized as a man of brilliant mind among his 
fellow-legislators. At the expiration of his term 
in 1883 he was elected to the state senate from 
Butte, Plumas and Lassen counties, and there, 
as in the lower house, he won recognition by rea- 
son of his fine mental endowments. Though not 
active in fraternal work, he is a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, and takes a 
warm interest in its welfare. Partisanship does 



not appeal to his mind, yet he is a politician in 
the best sense of that term, and as a Republican 
has for years been a local leader of his party. In 
common with the majority of early settlers of 
Plumas county, he has been more or less con- 
stantly interested in mining and still owns to a 
love for prospecting, yet he cannot boast of any 
great success in his labors as a gold-seeker. 
Among men of his profession he has a reputation 
as a fluent \yriter, able speaker and quick thinker, 
a man with weaknesses and showing human frail- 
tics, yet one of warm-hearted, lovable disposition. 
By his first marriage he has a son and daughter. 
The son. Clarence W. Kellogg, M. D.. is a prom- 
inent physician at Bakersfield. this state : and the 
daughter, Maude May, is the wife of Frank 
Gayton, of San Francisco. 



WILLIAM WALLACE SCROLL. Early 
in the colonial history of Virginia the Scholl 
family immigrated from Germany and settled 
upon a plantation in that then rich and undevel- 
oped region. Like all other eastern families, in 
time the}^ became transplanted into the west, fol- 
lowing the star of empire in its westward revolu- 
tion. Dudley Scholl, who was born near Rich- 
mond in 1803, established a branch of the fam- 
ily in Kentucky, settling in Qark county, where 
he married and followed the carpenter's trade. 
While Illinois was still considered frontier ter- 
ritory he removed to Winchester, then in Mor- 
gan, but now in Scott county, where he secured 
employment at his trade. In 1835 he removed to 
Pike count}-. 111., where he was employed in 
the construction of the courthouse at Pittsfield. 
As early as 1840 be removed still further toward 
the west and took up land in the southern part of 
Buchanan county, Mo. St. Joseph, the county 
seat, was then a trading post established by the 
old frontiersman, Joe Rubidoux. About 1856, 
shortly after Kansas was opened up to settlers, 
he took up land in Atchison county, twelve miles 
from the present city of Atchison, where he im- 
proved a farm and remained until his death in 
1862. During the existence of the Whig party 
he favored its prmciples and after its disintegra- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



281 



tion he gave his allegiance to the newly organized 
Republican party. 

While making his home iji Kentucky Dudley 
Scholl married Kittie Ann Xorris, who was 
born in X'irginia in 1804, of English descent, 
and died at seventy years of age. Both were 
earnest members of the Baptist Church. Of 
their eight children, the following .survive: 
Josephine L., wife of A. P. Barnes of Marysville, 
Cal. ; William Wallace, of Susanville ; Mrs. 
Martha E. Pfeiffer of Petaluma ; and Peter D., 
who first came to California in 1863 and now 
operates a farm in Honey Lake valley. Will- 
iam Wallace Scholl was born in Winchester, 111., 
February 26, 1830, and at five years of age ac- 
companied his parents to Pike county, same state, 
going from there in 1840 to the Platte Purchase 
on the frontier. Of school advantages he prac- 
tically had none, being able to attend school only 
a few weeks out of each year. In the summer 
he was obliged to work on the home farm, but 
when the severe storms of winter rendered out- 
door work impracticable he was sent to the sub- 
scription school held in a log building not far 
distant from the homestead. Frontier expe- 
riences were his from boyhood, for his father 
belonged to that type of pioneers who blazed 
paths in unknown regions for others to follow 
and who might have been called appropriatelv 
" advance agents of civilization." Impressed 
upon his memory are the scenes of 1847 i" Fort 
■ Leavenworth, where he secured employment at 
the government post for Ben Holliday. A 
greater contrast to the present day scarcely could 
be imagined. Indians were almost the only in- 
habitants, for few white men as yet had vent- 
ured so far into the wilderness or upon the 
plains. 

The first trip made by Mr. Scholl to the re- 
gions west of the Rocky mountains was in 1850, 
when he accompanied his employer to Salt Lake 
and there disposed of a herd of stock, return- 
ing to Leavenworth immediately afterward. 
When he had decided to remove to the far west 
he outfitted with a brother-in-law, A. P. Barnes, 
in 1853, and during April started overland with 
four yoke of oxen and one yoke of cows. Tlie 



trip was made via Soda Springs, Sublett's Cut- 
Off, Humboldt and Truckee rivers, Beckwith 
Pass and BidwelFs Bar on to Marysville, where 
they landed September 3, without the loss of any 
stock and without any serious adventures by the 
way. After having tried his luck in the mines 
on the Yuba Mr. Scholl secured work with the 
owner of a toll road, after which he bought four 
mules and began to team to the mines. From 
1862 to 1864 he made his headquarters in Sac- 
ramento and followed the present line of the 
Central Pacific Railroad to Virginia City and 
Reno, using three twelve-mule teams for the 
hauling of heavy loads. Although under great 
expense (the three teaitis costing about $70 per 
day) he was successful and accumulated con- 
siderable means. 

The Big White Pine mining excitement started 
in the fall of 1868 and in February of the fol- 
lowing year Mr. Scholl hauled two loads to that 
point. Upon starting he telegraphed to .\ustin 
for ten thousand pounds of rolled barley at ten 
cents a pound, a total of $1,000. In the course 
of his trip new roads and heavy storms conspired 
to increase his difiiculties and for some time his 
team was mired in the mud. Delayed until his 
feed was exhausted, he was forced to buy hay at 
$50 a ton. On reaching Hamilton he had a small 
amount of feed left. The barley he sold for nine- 
teen cents a pound, while three bales of hay 
brought $85. During that trip he was seriously 
ill with pleurisy and for a time was unable to 
sit up in his wagon, but gradually recovered. 
Shortly after he had recovered from the eflfects 
of his exhausting journey he made a trip Ijack 
to the east. 

When the railroad was built via Carson into 
Virginia City in 1872 the freighting experiences 
of Mr. Schol! came to an end. The business be- 
ing no longer profitable he sold out and came to 
Honey Lake valley with John Cahlan. Shortly 
after his arrival he bought land on the Susan 
river three and one-half miles below Susanville 
and also purchased property at Horse lake, where 
he engaged in raising stock, utilizing his valley 
farm mainly for the raising of grain. After some 
years of profitable identification with the cattle 



282 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



industry in 1884 he sold his Horse lake ranch 
and in i8go he disposed of the valley ranch to 
Mr. Cahlan. At this writing he owns a valuable 
hay and dairy farm of eight hundred and forty 
acres near Milford, also three hundred and twen- 
ty acres of pasture land in Plumas county, in 
addition to his homestead in the city of Susan- 
ville, where he resides. The accumulation of 
this property represents years of unwearied labor 
in the midst of many hardships and constant ex- 
posure to the elements, with journeys through 
dust and mud and snow, with perils by mountains 
and by streams, and with the many other ex- 
periences that mark the progress of a teamster's 
life in the mining regions. Perhaps at no time 
did he endure greater hardship than during the 
trip of 1869 previously mentioned, but that was 
bv no means his only experience of the kind ; 
on two occasions he was hemmed in by snow at 
Cisco for an entire winter and he recalls that 
then, as well as at other times, he sleighed over 
the tops of drifts that were twenty-five feet high. 
In spite of exposure he remained robust and 
sturdy and to this day does not show the effects 
of his lifetime of toil. Doubtless this is due to 
his equable disposition, cheerful mind and a 
habit of not allowing himself to be perturbed by 
difficulties. In teaming to almost inaccessible 
camps he hauled loads that would have been im- 
possible to one less experienced. More than once 
his fourteen mules hauled a load of forty-two 
thousand pounds besides their feed, yet in spite 
of these heavy loads and difficult trails his ac- 
cidents were few and unimportant. Careful, 
painstaking and methodical, he traveled through 
the most difficult passes with ease and safety. 
As may be imagined, the nature of his occupa- 
tion was such as to preclude participation in 
politics, yet he is an ardent supporter of Repub- 
lican principles and is fond of discussing national 
problems with men of thoughtful mood and keen 
intelligence. During the year 1892 he became a 
stockholder in the Bank of Lassen County and 
three years later, when the bank was reorganized, 
he was chosen vice-president and a member of 
the board of directors, both of which positions 
he has since held. 



WILLIAM S. COLLINS. In tracing the 
American genealogy of the Collins family it is 
found that the first of the name in the United 
States was Nathan, a native of Nova Scotia, 
but from early manhood a resident of New 
England, where his busy life came to an end at 
the age of eighty-four years. Next in line of 
descent was Philander Collins, who was born 
and reared in Vermont, became a farmer in 
that state, and there died at the age of sixty- 
eight years, leaving behind him a record as an 
industrious farmer and honorable man. During 
early manhood he married Mary, daughter Oif 
Reuben Ross, both natives of Vermont, where 
at the age of sixty-two years she entered into 
eternal rest. Among her children was William 
S., a native of Rutland county, Vt., born May 
II, 1834, and in youth the recipient of such ad- 
vantages as the locality and day afforded. At 
the age of fourteen years he left school and 
began to learn the tinner's trade, at which he 
served a brief apprenticeship, and later worked 
by the piece for some years. Subsequent there- 
to he held a clerkship in a Vermont store. 

Removing to Illinois in 1856 Mr. Collins be- 
came clerk in a store at Rockton, Winnebago 
county, and from there in 1859 he came over- 
land to California, defraying the expenses of the 
trip through his work as a guard, driver and in 
other capacities. After his arrival in California 
he secured employment by the month as a laborer 
on a ranch in the Mohawk valley, Plumas county, 
and from there in 1862 removed tO' the Amer- 
ican valley. A year later he went to Nelson 
Point, Plumas county, where he carried on a 
hotel for several years, and later clerked in a 
store. During May of 1871 he came to Loyal- 
ton, Sierra county, where he was variously em- 
ployed. From 1876 until 1887 he clerked in a 
store, and from 1887 until 1892 he carried on 
a mercantile business, but this proved a disas- 
trous venture and ended in the loss of the store. 

The political affiliations of Mr. Collins are 
with the Republican party. I-'or twelve years he 
held office as notary public and at this writing 
he officiates as city treasurer of Loyalton. In 
1872 he was appointed postmaster and held the 
office until the burning of the town in 1879, when 





^IIP^slK^ 



ty^^t^^v^ ^^LL-y-jL^ 



J^. 



Cc^<^ 





.^-^^^^^x 




HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



287 



he resigned the position. Again, in i8(j2, he was 
appointed postmaster under President Cleveland 
and ever since then he has continued in the 
office, being reappointed by each of the various 
presidents who have succeeded to the executive 
leadership of the nation. In June of 1883 he 
was united in marriage with iNTrs. Mary F. Price, 
who was born in ( )hio and came to California 
a few months prior to her marriage, settling in 
Sierra countv, where she remained until her 
death in 1898. Among the people of his home 
town Mr. Collins is well known as a pioneer, and 
to the older settlers throughout the entire county 
his name is also familiar as that of a man long 
identified with local affairs. 



HIRAM LEWIS. In the annals of Sierra 
county the name of Hiram Lewis, late of Loyal- 
ton, will ever hold a place of honor and distinc- 
tion. As one of the original settlers of this sec- 
tion of the state he assisted materially in devel- 
oping its agricultural and industrial interests, 
and as opportunity occurred used his influence 
to encourage the establishment of enterprises 
• conducive to the public welfare, and to the edu- 
cational and moral progress of town and county. 
.\ native of Missouri, he was born, December 5, 
1820, in Franklin county. His father. John S. 
Lewis, a native, probably, of Kentucky, was de- 
scended from an old and influential southern 
family. He served in the Mormon war, subse- 
quently settling as a pioneer farmer in Missouri, 
where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits 
until his death, at the age of forty years. His 
wife, whose maiden name was Jane Osborn, was 
born, without doubt, in Kentucky, and died 
while yet in early womanhood, in Missouri. 

His parents removing when he was a boy to 
Jackson county, AIo., Hiram Lewis was there 
brought up, obtaining his early knowledge of 
books in the district schools, and under his 
father's tuition becoming well acquainted with 
the various branches of agriculture while young. 
Marrying in 1844, Mr. Lewis took up a pre- 
emption claim in Cass county. Mo., near Pleas- 
ant Hill, and was there engaged in farming for 



six years. In 1850, having learned the trade of 
a bricklayer, he sold his farm and removed to 
Pleasant Hill village, where for four years he 
followed blacksmithing and bricklaying. Pre- 
vious to this time, in 1849, intending to come to 
California with the gold hunters, he had pur- 
chased a fourth interest in an outfit, but on ac- 
count of sickness had abandoned the idea and sold 
his interest in the outfit to another man. In 1854, 
fitting up one wagon for his wife and two chil- 
dren, and another for provisions, he came over- 
land to this state in a train of sixteen wagons. 
After journeying for six months they arrived in 
the Santa Clara valley, where they spent a year. 
Locating then about nine miles from Healds- 
burg, Sonoma county, .Mr. Lewas took up gov- 
ernment land, which later proved to be a part of 
an old Spanish grant. This he afterwards dis- 
posed of and purchased a ranch near Healds- 
burg, where, during the few years that he lived, 
he was one of the foremost citizens, assisting in 
its development, and helping to organize the 
first Baptist church established in that vicinity. 
Selling out in 1861, Mr. Lewis resided for two 
years in \'acaville, Solano county, from there 
coming, in 1862, to the Sierra Valley. Pleased 
with the bright prospects for the future, he pur- 
chased a pre-emption right to land east of the 
railway, where Loyalton now stands, and at 
once began the improvement of a farm. Diligent 
and persevering, he succeeded well, and in 
course of time bought additional land, becoming 
owner of a well-improved and well-cultivated 
ranch, on wliich he resided until his death, April 
22. 1902, at the venerable age of eighty-one vears 
and four months. 

January 18, 1844. in Jackson county. Mo., Mr. 
Lewis married Sarah Farmer, who w^as born in 
Meigs county. Tenn., May 26, 1829. Her father. 
Rev. John Farmer, a native of Tennessee, was a 
Baptist minister, and besides owning a sawmill 
and grist mill, was also interested in iron works, 
carrying on a large business for those davs. In 
1836 he moved with his family to Alissouri. and 
on the pioneer farm which he there established 
his death occurred May 2, 1845. His wife, 
whose maiden name was Abigail Reed, was born 
in Tennessee, and died, at the age of fifty-one 



2.'^ 8 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



years, in Missouri, July 28, 1840. The mar- 
riage of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis was blessed by the 
birth of six children: Mary J., who married 
Rev. C. W. Rees, died at the age of thirty-eight 
years ; ]\Ialinda R., widow of Joel Langdon, lives 
with her mother; Nancy S., wife of Isaac West- 
on, lives on the home ranch ; William Spurgeon, 
of whom a brief sketch appears elsewhere in this 
volume, is one of Loyalton's prominent citizens ; 
Horace Edwin has charge of the lands belonging 
to the parental estate ; and Richard Hiram com- 
pletes the list. Mrs. Lewis resides on the home 
farm, which the sons manage for her, conduct- 
ing it skilfully and profitably. She is an active 
member of the Baptist church, which she joined 
when very young, and with which Mr. Lewis 
united in 1849, being afterwards one of its most 
loval and consistent adherents. 



JOHN W. THOJ^IPSON. Until March 11, 
1905, the roll call of the courageous men who 
came to California during pioneer days included 
the name of John W. Thompson, who was one 
of Plumas county's most prominen-t citizens, and 
to whose influence, both direct and indirect, may 
be traced many improvements and advantages 
over pioneer days which the present residents 
enjov. x\s one of die earliest ranchers in the 
county he took the initiative in the matter of 
improvements, improving on old methods of 
farming and employing lalxir-saving machinery 
wherever possible. At his death he left a valu- 
able home and ranch, known as the Illinois ranch, 
and lying about four miles east of Ouincy, in 
the American valley. The ranch comprises about 
twelve hundred acres, of which about five hun- 
dred are under cultivation. 

Born in Bethel, Clermont county, Ohio, July 
I, 1829, John W. Thompson was a son of Mc- 
Kendre and Mary (McLane) Thompson, both 
of whom died when their son was only two years 
of age. and thus he had no personal knowledge 
of his parents. After the death of his parents 
he was taken into the home of his uncle, Lee 
Thompson, who was a merchant in Point Pleas- 
ant, Ohio, making his home with this relative 



until he reached his majority, in the meantime 
acquiring a fair education in the public schools 
in the vicinity of his uncle's home. As this 
period in his life and the general exodus to 
California on account of the recent discovery of 
gold were coexisting conditions it seemed an 
invaluable opportunity for a young man of pluck 
and ambition to get a start in the west, and with 
this idea in mind Mr. Thompson set out for 
California. Coming by way of the Panama route 
he reached San Francisco in March, 1850, and 
in the fall made his way to Plumas county. 
Wisely foreseeing that a more dependable in- 
come was to be obtained in almost any avenue 
than that of mining, he opened a store and board- 
ing-house at Nelson Point, which he conducted 
with very satisfactory results until 1858, when 
he sold out. In the meantime he had purchased 
the ranch in this county which his widow now 
owns, and here he conducted a stock business for 
a number of years. During this time Plumas 
county was incorporated as a separate county 
and Mr. Thompson was appointed one of the 
commissioners to act in behalf of its organiza- 
tion, and in 1854 he was rewarded for his ef- 
forts by raising the flag over the newly organized 
county. 

In 1858 Mr. Thompson disposed of his stock 
interests and went east on a visit, but returned 
a few months later, and going to Sutter county, 
again became interested in the stock business. 
This proved a losing venture, however, for he 
was overtaken by the floods of 1861-62 and lost 
$30,000 in stock. In the year last mentioned, 
1862, he again came to Plumas county and once 
more settled on the home place, carrying on 
stock-raising and ranching, making a specialty 
of raising fine trotting horses, one of which he 
sold for $4,500. At Taylorsville, this county, 
he was also the owner of a saw and grist mill, 
which he ran with success for many years, but 
disposed of them a few years prior to his death. 
Mr, Thompson's marriage occurred in Marys- 
ville, September 4, 1862, and united him with 
Mrs. Rhoda (Cunningham) Graham, who was 
born in Fairfield county, Ohio. Her parents, 
Francis and Rhoda (Post) Cunningham, were 
both natives of Pennsvlvania, and both were born 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



289 



in the same year, ijyg. The fatlier was reared 
in the locaHty of his hirth, Washington county, 
but (hiring his early manhood, in 1832, he re- 
moved to Ohio, and subsequently became a con- 
tractor on the Scioto canal. He also owned a 
tiour mill in that vicinity, which he conducted 
with success until selling out his interests in Ohio 
in 1852 to come to California. For a time after 
locating here he Vias interested in mining, Ijut 
later engaged in milling in Marysville. carrying 
on what was known as the old Cunningham mills 
from 1853 until i8()r, during which vear the 
entire plant was destroyed by floods. This dis- 
aster was the means of hastening his death, which 
occurred the following year, his wife having died 
in 1861, in Marysville. Although JMr. Cunning- 
ham came to California in 1852, his wife did 
not join bini imtil December, 1856, at which 
time she was accompanied by her daughter 
Rhoda, then the widow of Mr. Cjraham. I5y her 
marriage with William D. R. Graham, who died 
in 1854, she became the mother of one son. who 
was named for his father, William D. R., and who 
is now a bookkeeper in Reno, Nev. Three chil- 
dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, 
namely: Carrie M., who is the wife of W. J. 
Miller, a merchant in Quincy ; Rhoda A., who 
is at home with her mother ; and John W., a min- 
ing engineer, who graduated from the University 
of Nevada and holds a position with the Silver 
King Mining Company of Utah. 

From whatever viewpoint one scans the life of 
Mr. Thompson the universal verdict is success. 
Starting in life with nothing, not even a parent's 
blessing, he advanced step by step, surmounting 
innumerable obstacles in the course of his long 
and useful life. The valuable ranch which he 
owned at his death is well improved with two 
brick residences, good barns, and is surrounded 
by beautiful lawns. Here his widow and daugh- 
ter Rhoda make their home, and in the care and 
management of the ranch are carrying out his 
policy as nearly as possible. Politically Mr. 
Thompson was a Democrat in his views, but was 
at no time a seeker after office, and the only 
public position which he could be induced to 
accept was that of school trustee. He was a 
member of the State Agricultural .Association, at- 



tending the fairs and maintaining a warm in- 
terest in them. He was one of the organizers 
of the District F'air .A.ssociation and a director 
during its existence. 



JAMES BR.ANHAM. The as.sociation of 
James Branham with the commercial interests 
of Susanville, Lassen county, has extended over 
a period of about thirty-three years, his location 
in the county dating from 1873, when he came 
to this section to take charge of mining properties 
owned by his father. Upon his retirement from 
that work he located permanently in Susanville. 
where he took up the work of surveyor and civil 
engineer. By purchase in i8g6 he became the 
owner of the old Anthony electric plant, which 
he proceeded to improve and fit u]i with all 
modern equipments. Since locating here his 
interests have been handled with ability and skill 
and have brought to him satisfactory financfa! 
returns and have as well proven potent in the 
upbuilding of the business interests of the city. 

Mr. Branham is the descendant of pioneer 
ancestry, his paternal grandfather, a Virginian 
by birth and breeding, having served with gal- 
lantry and honor in the war of 1812, under Col. 
R. M. Johnson, as a soldier from his adopted 
state — Kentucky. There he spent the balance of 
his life and reared his family, a son, Isaac I]ran- 
ham, being the father of James Branham. The 
elder man was born in Scott county, Ky., August 
31, 1803, and. reared in the wilderness, became 
in manhood an expert huntsman and trapper, 
familiar with the rod and rifle, the love of which 
never left him even in the evening of his days. 
Inheriting his pioneer instinct, he located in 
Callaway county. Mo., walking the entire dis- 
tance from Kentucky anrl enduring the multi- 
fold hardships and dangers which beset him, and 
established a home in the then untried wilder- 
ness of that state. He remained a resident of 
Missouri for many years and met with success 
as a farmer and stockman. Not through dis- 
satisfaction with his location did Mr. Branham 
seek another .section of the count rv. but after 
hearing of the wonders to be found in the far- 



290 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



distant California (through tales of hunters and 
trappers, principally of the Sublette family), he 
decided to emigrate once more on account of the 
climate, which he believed would restore to him 
the vigor which had become impaired with the 
ravages of hardships and the rigorous winters of 
the JNIississippi valley. Accordingly, in the spring 
of 1846. he joined an emigrating party, and 
with his wife and four children, set out for the 
Pacific coast. They were members of the ill- 
fated Donner party and but for the judgment 
and decision of character of Mr. Branham they 
might have remained with the latter and suffered 
the fate which befell many of their comrades. 
After a journey of six months and eleven days 
they came safely through to the Santa Clara 
valley, where ^Ir. Branham immediately became 
identified with the development and advance- 
ment of this beautiful garden spot of earth. His 
first public service was an enlistment under Lieu- 
tenant Pinckney, of the United States sloop of 
war Portsmouth, he being placed in charge of 
the supplies to be issued to the wives and children 
of the men who had gone to Los Angeles with 
General Fremont. In February, 1847, Mr. Bran- 
ham moved to San Jose and with Capt. Julian 
Hanks constructed a sawmill and dam on the 
Los Gatos creek, jnst above the present station 
of Alma. This dam is now in use and forms the 
head of supply for the San Jose Water Com- 
pany's flume. Mr. Branham was afterward asso- 
ciated with the milling interests of that section, 
being one of three partners to establish the first 
steam sawmill on the Pacific coast. In 1852 he 
became the owner of six hundred and fifty acres 
of land situated five miles south of San Jose, 
and in 1856 he removed to that location and 
made it his home until his death, which occurred 
November 3, 1887. 

Mr. Branham was one of the representative 
men of the early days and to him is due in 
large measure the prosperity and growth of San 
Jose and the vicinity. He was eager to secure 
the location of the state capitol in San Jose and 
placed at the disposal of the senate a large two- 
story adobe building owned by him, and in which 
they held the early meeting of their first session 
during that winter. He was a member of the 



first town council of San Jose, and although a 
Democrat in his political preference and stanch 
in his endorsement of these principles, he never 
cared for official recognition and held office only 
at the earnest solicitation of his friends. From 
1858 to i860 he served as supervisor and was 
an important factor in establishing many valu- 
able improvements. He was also one of the pio- 
neer vineyardists of Santa Qara county and one 
of the very first manufacturers of wine and dis- 
tillers of brandy. On the 23rd of February, 
1832, in Callaway county. Mr. Branham married 
Amanda A. Bailey, born in Kentucky of old 
Virginia ancestry, and the only daughter in a 
family of seven children. Her death occurred 
in May, 1890. She was a member of the Baptist 
Church, and a woman of rare worth and ability, 
honored by a large family of children and by 
all who came to know her in her life as the wife 
of a pioneer. She was the mother of the fol- 
lowing children : James, of this review ; Francis 
E., born in 1838: Margaret, born in Callaway 
county, Mo., July 21, 1841 : and Benjamin F., 
born in 1845. 

Born April 2, 1835, James Branham was the 
oldest child in the family of his parents and was 
but eleven years of age when they left Independ- 
ence, Mo., in April, 1846, en route for Cali- 
fornia. The train consisted of a large number 
of wagons, which finally broke up in sections, 
there being about nine wagons in which the 
Branhams traveled, under the command of Cap- 
tain West. Their route lay along the Platte 
river. Fort Bridger, Fort Hall, then through the 
Thousand Springs valley and on down the Hum- 
boldt. The Donner party traveled just ahead of 
them, hiU they reached and entered the moun- 
tains two weeks ahead of them, coming into 
California by Truckee, and thence by Sutter's 
Fort, and on to San Jose. In Stockton, San 
Joaquin county, 'there was but one cabin of 
shakes, where since has grown a city. James 
Branham was reared to }oung manhood in San 
Jose, attending the public schools until 1855, in 
which vear the family located on the fami which 
his father had purchased. He remained at home 
until 1858. when he engaged with the late Eli 
Rundell in a harness and saddle establishment in 






a,^c/-t^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



293 



iiilrov, Santa Clara county, under tlie firm name 
of Rundell & Branham. After one year they 
dissolved partnership and until 1863 Mr. Bran- 
ham worked in various localities throughout the 
Santa Clara valley. In the last-named year he 
went to Sonera, Mexico, and engaged in silver 
mining as an engineer, his natural ability as a 
mechanic bringing him more than average success 
in this line. He remained in Mexico for five 
years, when he returned to California and spent 
the ensuing two years clerking at New Almaden 
mine. About 1873 he came to Lassen county to 
take charge of some mines on the Susan river 
in which his father was interested, the locality 
being known as Branham flat, but after some 
time spent in this occupation the mines proved 
to be worthless. In the meantime he had located 
in Susanville, and since that time has made this 
city his home. He began surveying and the work 
of civil engineer and for one term served as 
county surveyor. 1879 he was elected district 
attorney for one term, at the time of the new con- 
stitution, and served two years and ten months. 
He continued the study of law and in 1886 was 
admitted to the bar, but for the greater part has 
only made use of his knowledge in his everyday 
affairs, as he has never practiced his profession 
for any length of time. After his purchase of 
the electric light plant he began improvements 
that have resulted in a first class plant, arc lights 
being used in the city in a system of lighting 
which reflects credit upon his ability. Diiring 
the fall season he operates a steam engine if the 
v/ater gets low. Mrf Branham is looked' upon in 
the city of his adoption as a man of ability com- 
bined with a broadness and decision of character 
which has won for him a personal success, and 
has also made him a citizen of practical worth. 
He is universall}' esteemed and holds a high place 
among the citizens of this section. 

In Susanville Air. Branham was united in mar- 
riage with Airs. .\nna J. (Dixon) Smith, a na- 
tive of Canada, who came to California in 1871. 
They have one daughter, Margaret Gertrude. 
Fraternally Mr. Brai>liam was made a Mason in 
Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. M., of which he 
is past master, and also beltings to Lassen Chap- 
ter No. 47, R. A. M., of which he is past high 



priest; and Lassen Commandcry No. 13, of which 
he is past eminent commander. He is also iden- 
tified with the Ancient Order of L'nited Work- 
men. Politically he is a stanch Democrat in na- 
tional politics, although locally he gives his sup- 
port to tlu' men whom he considers best (|uali- 
fied for public duties. In 1902 he was elected 
to the office of county surveyor, which position 
he now holds and discharges the duty incumbent 
upon him with his usual fidelit\- and energy. Mr. 
Branham liespeaks the best in .\merican citizen- 
ship and upholds by his life the principles of a 
high integrity and an irreproachable manhood. 



COL. WALTER S. DAVIS. A successful 
mining man, Col. Walter S. Davis is numbered 
among the representative citizens of Auburn, 
Placer county, where he first located in the year 
1879, and since that date has been known as a 
man of energy and ability not only in the line of 
personal efifort, but as a promoter of the best in- 
terests of the section in which he has made his 
home. He is a native of Massachusetts, his birth 
having occurred in Milton, a suburb of Boston, 
July 15, 1837. The paternal family had long 
been established in the Bay state, the immigrating 
ancestor, an Englishman, locating in Boston in 
the year 1630 : succeeding generations continued 
to make that state their home and various mem- 
bers of the family became prominent in profes- 
sional and business walks of life. John Davis, 
a Revolutionary patriot (the grandfather of 
Colonel Davis), was a native of Boston, where 
he engaged in the manufacture of Brittania ware. 
A son, William, born in the same city in 1793, 
also proved a patriot by sen-ing in the war of 
1812 as sergeant of heavy artillery, commanding 
the second artillery at The Castle, now F"ort 
Independence. From the age of eighteen vears 
he engaged in the wool business, as early as 
1837 purchasing this commodity in Chicago, then 
Fort Dearborn, and bringing it east by way of 
the Great Lakes. He continued in this occupa- 
tion throughout his entire life, being as.sociated 
for the greater part of the time with General 
Whitney. He died at the age of seventy-five 



294 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



rears — leaving behind him a record of earnest 
and conscientious living ; a Unitarian in his relig- 
ious belief he supported the church liberally, but 
was also liberal in all other charitable enter- 
prises that were brought to his notice. Firm in 
his views, regardless of their popularity, he 
occupied a prominent place among the Abolition- 
ists of New England, numbering among his 
warmest friends such men as Garrison and Wen- 
dell Phillips. His death removed from success- 
ful business associations a practical citizen, 
and from pleasant social relations a man high in 
the esteem of those about him. By his marriage 
with Miss Marion Abbott Whitelow his fortunes 
were united with a famil}- of worth and promi- 
nence of Scotland. Her father, Alexander H. 
Whitelow. was bom in Scotland, and after his 
location in this country engaged in the manufac- 
ture of paper in Newton, Mass.. the old mill still 
standing as a relic of the early days. His wife, 
Mary Abbott in maidenhood, was a native of 
the same country and a relative of Sir Walter 
Scott, while General Abbott, of the United 
States army, is of the same family. Mr. and 
Mrs. Davis became the parents of eight children, 
of whom three are now living, the sixth in order 
of birth being Colonel Davis, 

Reared in Milton, it was the privilege of 
Walter Scott Davis to attend the best schools 
that our country afifords, after completing the 
course of Milton Academy becoming a student 
of Chauncey Hall School, of Boston. Inherit- 
ing the business talent which had distinguished 
the career of both father and grandfather, at 
eighteen years he entered the wool business and 
in the six years that followed acquired both bene- 
ficial experience and a success which argued well 
for his continuance in the commercial world. 
In the meantime he had become a member of an 
independent corps of cadets, known as the Boston 
Cadets, in which he was corporal. Upon the 
breaking out of the Civil war the martial spirit 
bequeathed to him by patriotic ancestors led him 
to enlist in Company F, Twenty-second Regi- 
ment, Massachusetts Infantry, becoming first 
lieutenant a very short time after his enlistment. 
He was sent at once to the front and became a 
part of the magnificent Army of the Potomac, 



participating in all that made up the hazardous 
life of this vast concourse of patriots. He par- 
ticipated in thirty-two official battles — the Seven 
Day battles, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, the 
second battle of Bull Run, and in fact all of the 
prominent engagements of 1861, '62 and '63, 
with the exception of Gettysburg. At Fred- 
ericksburg two horses were shot under him, but 
at other times he was less fortunate, as he re- 
ceived several wounds, and was once overcome 
by sunstroke. He rose steadily in the esteem of 
his superior officers and was constantly promoted. 
In 1861 he became aid-de-camp on the stafi^ of 
General Martindale and later became adjutant 
general of the first brigade, of the first division. 
Fifth corps. Gen. Charles Griffin was later in 
command and he also served as adjutant, while 
on his staff being commissioned colonel by the 
president. Mustered out oif service, he returned 
to civil pursuits with the same energy and deter- 
mination which had characterized his efforts as 
a soldier of his country. The wool business 
again occupied his attention until 1874, in which 
year he sought the more salubrious climate of 
California and in Los Angeles county, in the 
vicinity of Anaheim, engaged in ranching for 
the ensuing five years. Disposing of this interest 
in 1879 at a satisfactory profit, he located in 
Auburn, which city has ever since remained his 
home. His business interests have been vested 
in mines, the Davis gold mine comprising two 
miles of the Middle Fork and being operated 
under the name of the Davis Gold Mining Com- 
pany. Their plant is modern in all of its appoint- 
ments and is equipped with a gravel elevator 
which his son has patented, there being two 
falls each of five hundred feet, and the first 
producing five hundred horse p>ower. The mine 
is a fine producer and is bringing in a large in- 
come to its owner. He is also interested in 
other mining properties and is accounted one of 
the most successful men engaged in this busi- 
ness. 

In ^Milton, in 1871, Colonel Davis was united 
in marriage with Miss Eflen S. R. Larkin, a 
native of Boston, and a graduate of Bolton 
Priorv of New Rochelle, N. Y. She is a daugh- 
ter of Charles Larkin and granddaughter of 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



295 



Capt. Benjainin Rich, the former engaged in 
South American trade (being supercargo at 
eighteen years of age), and the hitter an exten- 
sive sliiji owner. The colonel and his wife have 
two sons and one daughter, namely : Charles 
Larkin; Howard Walter; and Elizabeth M., wife 
of Frederick Roumage, of Auburn. The sons 
are engaged with their father in his mining en- 
terprises and are young men of ability and en- 
ergy and bid fair to win for themselves some- 
thing of the same success which has distin- 
guished their father's worthy career. Colonel 
Davis has rounded out the years of a wxll-spent 
iife by establishing in the evening of his days one 
of the most beautiful homes in this portion of 
California ; he owns one hundred and sixty 
acres of fine land adjoining the city of Auburn, 
known as "El Toyon," and here he has had 
erected an attractive residence, complete in all 
points of beauty and comfort, and eloquent of the 
refinement and culture which distinguish its oc- 
cupants. Much attention has been given to the 
cultivation of the grounds (the training of the 
most superb flowers that the climate Oif Califor- 
nia affords, the rarest plants, beautiful shrubbery 
and stately trees), which make them the most 
beautiful in this section. It is an attractive home 
both within and without, the spirit of hospitality 
and kindliness, and the liberality of broad living 
plainly evidenced in the life of the colonel and 
his wife. Colonel Davis is a member of the 
Loyal Legion and belongs to Post No. loi, 
G. A. R., of Auburn. 

Colonel Davis is a man of many parts. In- 
heriting from a long line of ancestors those qual- 
ities of citizenship which have induced his 
patriotism, he has given the best of his life for 
the cause of his countr\-. The effects of his 
service as a soldier have been such as to mate- 
rially injure his constitution, and today he lacks 
the health which would add greatly to the pleas- 
ure of his daily life. He meets this trial with 
the same courage and fortitude which have been 
noticeable features in all his undertakings, re- 
maining cheerful in the face of years of suffering, 
and genial even in the midst of pain. His spirit 
of self effacemcnt is strongly marked upon his 
face, and all who know him and honor him for his 



manhcKxl, recognize that which has been given 
him as a recompense. Although ageing as 
nature inlendcd he should he retains a spirit 
which is indicative of perpetual youth and gives 
to him the greatest enjoyment that can come to 
a man. Thoroughly alive to the events of the 
day, he takes a keen interest in all questions 
of contemporary interest and keeps abreast of 
the times. He has traveled a great deal and ben- 
efited by his many experiences, a fund of inter- 
esting talk making him a peculiarly entertain- 
ing companion. It is fitting if true that the 
esteem in which he is so universally held adds 
peace and happiness to the evening of his days, 
for it is something to have so lived that the past 
holds nothing of regret and the future nothing 
of fear. 



HON. CHARLES E. McLAUGHLIN. In 
the office of associate justice of the court of ap- 
peals of the third district of California, com- 
posed of thirty-five counties. Judge McLaughlin 
occupies a position of great responsibility, re- 
quiring the constant exercise of logical reasoning 
faculties, broad knowledge of the law and an 
impartial spirit in making decisions. The w'ork 
of this district is in the charge of three judges, 
and the two other districts in the state also are 
superintended by three judges, to whom all ap- 
peals are taken from the lower courts. By pre- 
vious experience as district attorney and judge 
of the superior court. Judge McLaughlin be- 
came admirably qualified for the duties devolv- 
ing upon him when in 1905 he entered upon 
the duties of his present position, under appoint- 
ment from the Republican chief executive. Gov- 
ernor Pardee, though himself a pronounced 
Democrat in political views. 

LaPorte, Plumas county, Cal., is the birth- 
place of Judge McLaughlin, and February 2, 
1861, the date of his birth. His father, John, 
was born in the north of Ireland, and settled in 
Boston, Mass., at the age of sixteen years. Af- 
ter about ten years in that city he came to Cal- 
ifornia via Panama in 1856. and until his death 
at fifty-four years of age he continued to make 
Plumas county his home. In earlv manlitxid he 



296 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



had married Mary McLaughlin, who was born 
in Brooklyn, N. Y., and came to California in 
1856, settling among the first pioneers of La- 
Porte, where she died in 1870, at forty years of 
age. 

In a family of eight children Charles Emmett 
McLaughlin was third in order of birth and he 
was still quite young when death deprived him 
of a mother's affectionate oversight. Two years 
after her death, when he was only eleven, he 
began to work in the mines, in order to lighten 
the burden of the family's support for his 
father. Lender these circumstances it was not 
possible for him to attend school regidarly, but 
he had an ambition to obtain an education and 
did not permit obstacles to daunt him.. While 
employed during the days he devoted his even- 
ings to study and in this way not only obtained 
a high-school education, but even took a thor- 
ough course in law, which enabled him to se- 
cure admission to the bar at Quincy, Plumas 
county, in the spring of 1887. During the fall 
of the preceding year he had been elected dis- 
trict attorney and at once moved to Quincy, 
where he still makes his home. At the expira- 
tion of his term he was re-elected, being the only 
Democrat who was elected to office in Plumas 
county in 1888. As his party's candidate for 
superior judge of Plumas county in 1890, he 
came within fourteen votes of winning the elec- 
tion, in the face of a strong Republican majority 
in the comity. Again, in 1896, he became his 
party's nominee for judge of the superior court 
and this time received a majority of one hun- 
dred and twenty votes, overcoming the usual 
Republican majority of about two hundred. At 
the expiration of his term in 1902 he was re- 
elected to tlie office and served until April 15, 
1905, when he resigned to accept the office he 
now fills. 

The marriage of Judge McLaughlin occurred 
November 18, 1890, and united him with Miss 
Evalina Benner, a native of Butte county, Cal., 
but reared from early childhood at Prattville, 
Plumas county. The two children of their union 
are named Charles Porter and Eunice. In frater- 
nal relations Judge McLaughlin is identified 
with Quincy Parlor No. 13, N. S. G. W.. in the 



work of which he maintains a warm interest. As 
a leader of the Democratic party in Plumas 
county he has become well known and has 
achieved a popularity by no means limited to 
the members of his party. However, though 
ardent in his allegiance to party, politics is al- 
ways placed in the background when the duties 
of his office den;and thought and attention. At 
the bar and on the bench he has won signal dis- 
tinction and a prominence not merely local, but 
extending into c>ther portions of the state. 



CAMPBELL STONE MAYFIELD. From 
the time of his settlement in Modoc county until 
he died many years afterward Mr. Mayfield was 
intimately associated with the development of the 
agricidtural mterests of Surprise valley and is 
remembered as one of its energetic pioneers and 
progressive farmers. A native of Neosho, New- 
ton county. Mo., born December 22, 1836, he 
was a youth of sixteen years when in the spring 
of 1853 he joined a party of gold-seekers bound 
for the mountains of the far west. After an un- 
eventful trip with wagons and oxen he landed at 
the mines, where he unsuccessfully attempted to 
discover gold in paying quantities. During the 
year 1864 he came to Modoc county for the 
first time, but after a brief sojourn he left, to 
return, however, in 1866, at which time he pre- 
empted one hundred and sixty acres one mile 
south of the present site of Cedarville. The land 
was in its primeval condition of sage brush, un- 
attractive in appearance, unpromising in aspect, 
but under his constant labors and effective man- 
agement the soil was made to produce in paying 
quantities the grains to which it is adapted. 
Eventually he became one of the principal stock- 
raisers and farmers of the valley, and his estate, 
with its neat house and modern improvements, 
ranked among the best for miles around. Due 
credit belongs to him for the degree of success 
he achieved. Orphaned in early childhood by 
the death of his father, he was forced to make 
his own way in the world at a time when more 
fortunate boys were enjoying educational oppor- 
tunities; yet, in spite of discouragements, lack 





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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



301 



of schooling, ami other disadvantages under 
which ho labored, he worked steadily forward 
until he won recognition as a successful farmer 
and broad-minded man. 

The marriage of Campbell Stone Ma^tield and 
Helen A. Wood was solemnized in Surprise val- 
ley June 21, 1875. Mrs. Mayfield was a daugh- 
ter of Rufus and Ruth Ann (Covcll) Wootl, and 
came to Modoc county from the east with her 
parents in 1874, at which time Mr. Wood pur- 
chased one hundred and sixty acres located one 
and one-half miles east of Cedarville. After 
many years as an active farmer he sold the land 
and moved into Cedarville, where he died at an 
advanced age ; his widow remains a resident of 
the town, and is now seventy-four years of age. 
Six children were born to the union of Mr. and 
Mrs. Mayfield, five of whom are living, namely : 
Harr\-, who married Sallie Nugent, and occupies 
the old homestead ; Eustace, who married Elsie 
Benner and operates a ranch opposite the old 
homestead ; Edith. who married Charles 
Stephens, and resides in Cedarville ; Virgie. the 
wife of James T. Dacy, living in Cedarville; and 
Olive, who with her mother now makes her 
home near Cedarville. The family are identified 
with the Christian Church, to which ]\Ir. May- 
field was a liberal contributor and in the work 
of which he was deeply interested. Politically 
he maintained a warm interest in public affairs 
and voted the Democratic ticket. A close stu- 
dent of current events, he was well posted upon 
matters of local and national importance, and 
possessed the broad knowledge and keen intelli- 
gence that make a man a desirable citizen of any 
locality. After years of active work as a farm- 
er he died April 17, 1903, and a few days later 
was laid to rest in the Cedarville cemetery, in 
the midst of the coimtry familiar to him through 
a long period of activity. 



GEORGE CLARK TURNER. To the resi- 
dents of Surprise valley the name of Mr. Tur- 
ner is familiar as that of an energetic and 
capable farmer and stock-raiser, one who 
coming here in voung manhood has worked 



his way forward to a position among the 
l^rominent agriculturists of Modoc county, and 
has won the respect of associates in every 
walk of life. The son of a farmer, he was born 
on a Wisconsin farm November i, 1855, and 
his earliest recollections are connected with 
country life. While the means of the family- 
did not permit of his attendance at college, he 
was given good common-school advantages 
and is now a man of broad information upon 
general subjects. Upon leaving the home of 
his parents to undertake his own support and 
to assume the responsibilities of manhood, he 
came west to seek a home, arriving in Sacra- 
mento in 1877, and engaging in the stock busi- 
ness. The following year he went into Ore- 
gon, and from there, in 1880, came to Modoc 
county, and for ten years was em])loyed on 
the ranch owned by Cox & Clark, meanwhile 
gaining a knowledge of the soil of Surprise 
valley and its possibilities, as well as saving of 
his earnings a sum sufficient to assist him 
when entering upon independent farming. 

The marriage of Mr. Turner took place 
November 28, 1886, and united him with Miss 
Sally C. Nugent, who was born in Illinois, and 
in 1878 became a resident of Surprise valley. 
Three children, Raymond, Georgia and 
Robert, comprise their family. Mrs. Turner 
is a niece of Jacob Bittner, who came to Sur- 
prise valley in the spring of 1864 and pre- 
empted a tract of raw land. From that be- 
ginning he added to his holdings until he ac- 
(|uired about nine hundred and sixty acres, all 
of which he improved and rendered profita- 
ble for agricultural purposes, or for meadow 
and pasturage. Mr. Bittner, better known by 
liis friends as "Uncle Jake," was a native of 
Pennsylvania and crossed the plains in a very 
early day, settling at Carson, Nev., where he 
engaged in teaming and mining. From there 
he came into California and began to raise 
stock and farm ])roducts. In politics he 
voted the Republican ticket, and fraternally 
he was a charter member of the blue lodge of 
Masonr}-. \\'hen fifty-one years of age he died 
at Cedarville in i8gi, leaving to his niece, Mrs. 
Turner (for he had never married, and left no 



302 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



direct descendants), the bulk of his property, 
including the farm of nine hundred and sixty 
acres, four miles south of Cedarville, where 
she and Mr. Turner have made their home 
since 1891. 

In addition, Mr. Turner has other land, both 
in the valley and mountains, his possessions 
aggregating twenty-five hundred acres, of 
which a considerable portion is under alfalfa. 
Through a number of artesian wells on the 
ranch, it is possible for him to bring certain 
parts of the ranch under irrigation. His land 
is in such condition that three crops of alfalfa 
are raised yearly without irrigation. Hay 
and grain are other products of the ranch, and 
much of the land is utilized for the pasturage 
of stock, of which he has horses, cattle, sheep 
and hogs of fine breeds and in considerable 
numbers. Besides his landed holdings he is 
a stockholder and director of the bank at 
Cedarville. Fraternally he belongs to the 
Masonic blue lodge, and with his wife takes 
an interest in the Eastern Star, with which 
both are connected. Throughout all of his life 
he has maintained an intelligent interest in 
subjects pertaining to the welfare of town, 
county, state and nation, and the principles 
of the Republican party he supports when 
voting for the national officers. 



CHESTER WARREN CHAPMAN. D.D.S. 
Prior to the Revolution members of the Chap- 
man famil}' sought a home among the prim- 
itive surroundings of the colonies, establishing 
the name in Massachusetts, whence later rep- 
resentatives removed to Washington county, N. 
Y. In that location William Chapman engaged 
as a manufacturer and succeeded in building up 
for himself financial independence as well as a 
position of esteem among the citizens of that 
section. He married Rebecca Allen, thus allying 
his interests with those of another old and dis- 
tinguished family of New England. Her father, 
William Allen, was a noted astronomer, whose 
efforts in behalf of science placed him among 
the ablest men of this class, and whose calculus 



is still in general use. In their family was a 
son, Allen, who was born in Washington county, 
N. Y., in 1827, and in that location attained 
the years of manhood. His first employment was 
in his brother's shops at Amherst, Mass., where 
he continued until his decision to take up the 
profession of dentistry. He studied in Troy, 
N. Y., under the instruction of Dr. Ross, and 
upon the successful termination of his work as 
student in 1843 h^ became a partner in the lat- 
ter's office. For thirteen years the interests of 
the two remained identical, when Dr. Chapman 
disposed of his property in New York and sev- 
ered his connections with that section of the 
country by embarking on the ship, George Law 
(later known as the Central America that went 
down in 1858), bound for the Isthmus of Pan- 
ama, thence to California, then the Mecca of 
the fortune-seeking world. 

Dr. Chapman located in Nevada City, Nevada 
county, Cal, and throughout the remainder of 
his life was largely identified with the develop- 
ment and upbuilding of this place. When he 
made the trip to the state he brought with him 
$10,000 worth of dental supplies, all of which 
were destroyed by the big fire which occurred 
three months after his arrival. Besides engag- 
ing in the practice of his profession he also be- 
came interested in hydraulic mining on the south 
fork of the Yuba river, near Eureka, Nevada 
county, and in quartz mining on his ranch, near 
Nevada City, consisting of one hundred and six- 
ty acres of land on Indian flat. In 1896 he 
opened a mine on his ranch, erecting a five 
stamp, electric mill, the first installed in Nevada 
City. From his earliest location in the county 
Dr. Oiapman took a strong and abiding interest 
in the upbuilding of all movements tending 
toward the development of the community, and 
was particularly active along horticultural lines, 
setting out an orchard of three thousand trees 
and a large vineyard, the first in this vicinity ; 
at one time he was also identified with the dairy 
business as a partner of C. S. Abbott, of Salinas. 
During all of this time he continued the practice 
of dentistry, holding a place of leadership in his 
profession. From 1875 to 1895 he was located 
in Virginia City, Nev., after which he returned 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



303 



to Nevada City, Cal., and retired to private 
life, and July 7, 1897, passed away to an eternal 
rest. 

He was missed by all who had ever known 
him, for he added to a forceful character the 
qualities of an exceptional manhood, which won 
for him a wide friendship wherever he had made 
his home. No one ever asked him for help and 
was denied ; he never knew that help was needed 
that he did not spend both time and means freely 
in his effort to alleviate distress. As an instance, 
while on liis journe_\' to this coast he became 
acquainted with Joseph Watson, a young man, 
who told Dr. Chapman that he was compelled to 
work to pay his way, whereupon the latter im- 
mediately advanced the money from his own 
resources, trusting in the honor and honesty of 
a stranger. His liberality, of course, led him to 
trust man}- who should have been turned away 
without help, and in this way he was compelled 
to pay $43,000 on $80,000 promissory notes, on 
which he had been security. His friends advised 
him to take advantage of the bankrupt law : his 
reply and the course he pursued were in keeping 
with his entire life: "I went into it with my 
eyes open and I will pay every cent of it." In 
his fraternal relations he was a prominent Ma- 
son, having become a member of the organi- 
zation in New York in the early '50s, and was 
there raised to the degree of Royal Arch Mason, 
and was one of the early members of Nevada 
Commandery No. 6, K. T. Politically he was 
a stanch adherent of the principles advocated in 
the platform of the Republican party and was 
always a leader in its councils, although person- 
ally he never desired official recognition. 

Dr. Chapman's marriage occurred in Nevada 
City, March 24, 1861, and united him with Miss 
Nellie E. Pooler, a native of Norridgewock, 
Somerset county, Me., born May 9, 1847. Her 
father. John Ruxton Pooler, was born on the 
ocean off the coast of Nova Scotia, while 
his parents were on a return trip from Scot- 
land and England. He was reared in Maine, 
in which state he engaged in farming un- 
til 1852, when he came to California via 
the Isthmus of Panama, engaging in mining 
and later in horticulture in the vicinitv of 



Nevada City, where his death occurred in 
1881. He is survived by his wife, who at till- 
age of ninety years still resides on the old 
homestead a mile and a half from Nevada City. 
In maidenhood she was Mathilda J. OVHara, a 
native of Maine, and a daughter of John and 
Mary J. (Patterson) O'Hara, representatives of 
colonial families ; her maternal grandparents 
were both killed prior to the Revolutionary war 
in a siege by a filibustering Tiritish ship. Mrs. 
Pooler followed her husband to California in 
1855, making the journey via Nicaragua and 
bringing with her her only daughter, Mrs. Chap- 
man, who died April 7, 1906. The latter re- 
ceived her education principally in California, 
and after her marriage studied dentistry under 
the instruction of her husband. In 1882 she 
began practice in Nevada City, being the first 
woman to engage in this work on the Pacific 
coast. She made a success of her profession and 
followed it until compelled to relinquish it on 
account of ill health. She was an honorary mem- 
ber of the Phi Alpha Upsilon, of San Francisco, 
and a charter member of the Order of Eastern 
Star. A woman of great literary ability, she 
was not only a leading member of the Shakes- 
pere Club, but wielded an uplifting influence in 
many circles, and was a leader in society by 
reason of the culture and refinement which dis- 
tinguished her entire life. A Qiristian in the 
truest sense of the word, though not a follower 
of doctrines and creeds, she made liberality the 
principle of her life, both in the giving of her 
time and means, counting nothing lost that 
meant the ujjlifting of a needy one. Not only 
was her death a sad blow to her family and im- 
mediate friends, but was felt as a public loss 
to her home town, having been a continuous res- 
ident of Nevada City since 1855. 

Two children blessed the union of Dr. Chap- 
man and his wife, namely, Sargent Allen and 
Chester Warren. The former received his edu- 
cation in the public schools of Nevada City, the 
California Military Academy of Oakland and 
Cooper Medical College of San Francisco and 
studied dentistry with his father. He is now 
engaged in the practice of dentistry in Virginia 
City, Nev.. where he maintains a well-equipped 



304 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL .RECORD. 



office in keeping- with the leading practitioners 
in the state. 

Chester Warren Chapman was born in Ne- 
vada City, Cal, June i8, 1864, and received his 
preliminary education in the public schools of 
Nevada City and Virginia City. Later he at- 
tended the California Military Academy of Oak- 
land, from which institution he was graduated 
May 19, 1882. A natural aptitude for the work, 
as well as a principled thoroughness taught him 
from childhood, induced him to excel in his 
studies, while at the same time he took an active 
part in the business affairs of tlie academy ; he 
set the type and did the greater part of the dis- 
tribution of the California Cadet, and was other- 
wise identified with the aiifairs of the school. Re- 
turning home after his graduation, he took 
charge of his father's ranch near Nevada City, 
which he conducted for six years, and at the 
same time prosecuted the study of dentistry un- 
der the instruction of his parents, remaining with 
them until 1888, when he enrolled as a student 
in the dental department of the University of Cal- 
ifornia. Following the completion of his course 
in the latter institution he went to Philadelphia, 
Pa., and continued his studies in the Pennsylva- 
nia Dental College and also the JefTerson Med- 
ical College, graduating from the former insti- 
tution February 27, 1891, and having all but 
completed the last year at tlie latter. Because 
of the constantly increasing practice which was 
telling upon the time of his mother, he was then 
compelled to return to Nevada City and engage 
in the practice of dentistry, since which time he 
has devoted himself to an active prosecution of 
his work. He has met with the success which 
has characterized the eiiforts of the entire Qiap- 
man family in this line and has risen to a posi- 
tion unsurpassed in this section of the state. 

May 15, 1895, Dr. Chapman was united in 
marriage with Miss Maggie Organ, a native of 
Nevada City and a daughter of William J. Or- 
gan, a successful contractor and a pioneer set- 
tler of this place, and three children, Allen, 
Sargent and Muller, have been born to them. 
Dr. Chapman is identified with the upbuilding 
movements of Nevada City, having served for 
the past four years as president of the city board 



of trustees and this year was re-elected for an 
additional period of two years. He is also pre- 
siding as chairman of the joint commission of 
city and library trustees who are now erecting 
the $10,000 Carnegie library building. Inter- 
ested in governmental affairs he organized in 
Nevada City Section 16 of the Navy League of 
the United States, the first to be established in 
the United States outside of range of cannon 
balls from war vessels, and is now serving effi- 
ciently as chairman of the same. He is a strong- 
advocate of Republican principles and takes an 
active part in all political affairs. For son-ie time 
he has acted as chairman of the Republican 
county central committee and has been an active 
member of every county convention for the last 
twenty years, as well as a frequent attendant 
at state conventions. For four years he served 
as foreman of Fireman Company No. i, is now 
chief of the fire department, and to him is due 
much of the credit for having brought the de- 
partment to its present efficiency. He is pron-i- 
inent in every public gathering that is inspired 
by a patriotic purpose and is untiring in his 
efforts to ally the younger generation with all 
movements of public utility or useful design. In 
the midst of his busy cares he has still found 
time to ally himself with various social and frat- 
ernal organizations, being especially prominent 
in the Native Sons. He is a charter member of 
Hydraulic Parlor No. 56, in which he is past 
president, for the past seven years has been a 
member of the Grand Parlor, and is chairman of 
the Donner Monument Committee of the Grand 
Parlor. Fraternally he is a Mason and is a 
member of Nevada Lodge No. 13, F. & A. M., 
in which he is past master ; he was raised to 
the Royal Arch degree in Nevada Chapter No. 
6, R. A. M., and the Knight Templar degree 
in Nevada Commandery No. 6, K. T., while he 
also belongs to Islam Temple, A. A. O'. N. M. 
S., of San Francisco. 

Personally Dr. Chapman is a man of many 
parts. Inheriting to a goodly degree the qual- 
ities which have been prominent in his life- 
work, he has also added to them a development of 
his strongest and most forceful characteristics. 
Reared to a conscientious use of his native abil- 





'^^^ 



^-^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



305 



ities he has carried the precepts of childhood in- 
to the fultillmeiit of his more mature years, and 
whatever the resuUs of his efforts in any line all 
who know him recognize the manifest integrity 
of his purpose. He is in the enjoyment of a 
splendiil practice of his profession and occupies 
a high place among professional men ; as a citi- 
zen he ranks among those who may safely be 
counted upon in time of need, always a patriot 
before partisanship, and loyal to the best inter- 
ests of comnumity, county and state ; as a friend 
exercising the same faith and loyalty. During 
the time of the great earthtpiake and fire at San 
Francisco, although he had but recently buried 
his mother, he went in his official capacity as 
the representative of Nevada City and offered 
the assistance of his home town to the stricken 
people of the state's metropolis, and remained 
at San Francisco for three weeks, assisting in 
various capacities and looking out particularly 
for the welfare of Nevada county unfortunates. 



J. EUGENE NILES. In the annals of Mo- 
doc county the name of J. Eugene Niles holds a 
place of prominence. An active and influential 
business man of Adin, he has been an important 
factor in promoting the material interests of the 
place, and by his liberality and enterprise is still 
contributing to its growth and prosperity. He 
is extensively engaged in the manufacture of 
flour, is owner, with his son, of the only planing 
mill in Big Valley, and as the representative of 
various insurance companies, writes, doubtless, 
more policies than any other agent in this part of 
the county. A son of Anthony Niles, he was 
lx)rn May 28, 1853, at Eagle. Clinton county, 
Mich., where he lived until about seven years 
old, then moved with his parents to Portland, 
Ionia county, where he remained the following 
eight years and received a part of his education 
there. 

A native of New York State, Anthony Niles 
accompanied his parents to Michigan when 
young, and soon after becoming of age was there 
married to Kate E. Jenkins, who had also re- 
moved to that state with her parents, going there 



from New York, where she was born and edu- 
cated. In 1868 he migrated with his family to 
California, coming by wa\- of the Isthnuis of 
T^anama, and settling in Siskiyou county, where 
he and his good wife are still living. Since com- 
ing to this state he has been engaged in mining 
])ursuits, in which he has met with satisfactory 
success. 

As a young man, J. Eugene Niles was for a 
number of years employed in agricultural pur- 
suits in Siskiyou county, living there until 1888. 
Fonning in that year a copartnership with the 
late Irvin Shepard, he purchased of J. Bouchard 
and G. LaPoint the Adin Flour mills, which 
were at that time equipped with the burr proc- 
ess. Progressive and enterprising, the new firm 
of Shepard & Niles converted the mill into an 
entirely different kind of a plant, putting in roll- 
ers, installing an electric light plant, and increas- 
ing its capacity to forty-five barrels per day. As 
a manufacturer of fine flour, Mr. Niles has es- 
tablished a wide and favorable reputation, the 
product of his mills, under the name of the Adin 
Mills Extra Family Flour, being shipped not 
only to the leading markets of California, but to 
the principal cities and towns of Nevada, finding 
a ready market wherever used. In 1900 Mr. 
Niles bought from Groves & Knight a planing 
mill, which he has entirely remodeled, installing 
new machinery, and as head of the firm of J. E. 
Niles & Son has established an extensive plan- 
ing business, his mill being the only one of the 
kind in the vicinity. In addition to being one of 
the foremost manufacturers of Modoc county, 
he also carries on a large and remunerative in- 
surance business, being agent for the Queen's 
Fire Insurance Company of New York, the Lon- 
don and Lancashire Fire Insurance Company of 
London, and the Citizens' Fire Insurance Com- 
pany of Alissouri. He takes great interest in lo- 
cal enterprises, and is a stockholder in and the 
secretary and treasurer of the Big \*alley Co- 
operative Association of Adin and president of 
the Adin Investment Company, of which he w'as 
one of the promoters. 

At Ashland, Ore., in 1877, Mr. Niles married 
Mary J. Helman. and they are the parents of 
three children, namely :" Sylvester J., junior 



306 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



member of the firm of J. E. Niles & Son ; Mrs. 
Edna M. Auble of Adin; and Myrtle D., living 
at home. As a Republican Mr. Niles has taken 
an active interest in party affairs, serving on the 
county central committee, but has never been an 
aspirant for office. Fraternally he belongs to 
Lookout Lodge No. 211, A. O. U. W. ; to Adin 
Lodge No. 273, I. Q. O. F., of which he is past 
Noble Grand, and for a number of years has 
been its treasurer, and is one of the charter mem- 
bers of Court Adin No. 8531, A. O. F., of which 
he was the first Sub-Chief and afterwards served 
as Chief Ranger. With his wife he is a member 
of Mystic Jewel Rebekah Lodge No. 82. Mrs. 
Niles has passed through the chairs and repre- 
sented the lodge in the Grand Lodge. Through 
the Adin Improvement Association, of which 
Mr. Niles was the instigator and is now serving 
as president, he was the means of installing a 
water system for fire protection in Adin. This 
is supplied with a pump having a capacity of 
six hundred gallons per minute, pumping direct 
from the creek, and having over twelve hundred 
feet of six-inch mains. Mr. Niles is a charter 
member of Adin Fire Company No. i. 



JOHN MILTON RHODES. The course of 
a long and busy life has brought many changes 
to Mr. Rhodes, not the least of which was his re- 
moval from the east to the then new and unde- 
veloped west, and his subsequent identification 
with agriculture instead of the banking business. 
Of eastern ancestry, he was born in the village of 
Middlebury, Ohio, February 12, 1817, being a 
son of Henry and Esther (Mason) Rhodes, na- 
tives, respectively, of Rhode Island and Con- 
necticut. His parents, who were married in 1815, 
moved to the Western Reserve during the very 
early period of its settlement and were among the 
pioneers in the agricultural upbuilding of Ohio. 
During the war of 181 2 the father served in the 
commissary department of the United States 
army, making his headquarters in the city of 
Buffalo until the close of the war. When quite 
advanced in vears, in 1858, he came to California 
via New York Citv and the Isthmus of Panama 



and settled in Yolo county, where he took charge 
of a tract of sixteen hundred acres owned by his 
son, John M., and on that place he remained un- 
til his death. Both he and his wife lived to be 
seventy-seven years of age and both were buried 
in Capay valley, but their remains were later re- 
moved to the Sacramento cemetery. The ances- 
try of the mother was traced directly back to 
Capt. John Mason, who immigrated to America 
with the Pilgrim Fathers and had the honor of 
effectually subduing the hostile Pequods as early 
as 1637. 

Owing to the limited means of the family and 
the scarcity of educational advantages, it was not 
possible for John Milion Rhodes to secure a good 
education. At fourteen \ears of age he was 
taken into a store at Massillon. Ohio, owned by 
his uncle, Jesse Rhodes, with whom he continued 
as a clerk until 1835. During the ensuing seven 
years lie was employed as accountant with W. P. 
Dixon & Co., a leading dry goods establishment 
of New York City. Returning from there to 
( )hio. he engaged with his brother, James, in the 
produce and mercantile business at Canal Ful- 
ton. About four years later he moved to Mans- 
field, Ohio, where he conducted a similar busi- 
ness alone. On the organization of the Fanners' 
Branch of the State Bank of Ohio, he was elect- 
ed the first cashier, and continued in the same 
capacity until 1850, when he resigned to enter 
upon other activities. 

A partnership that was formed with James 
Spurdy and Stephen B. Sturges resulted in the 
removal of Mr. Rhodes to California for the 
purjxise of founding a bank in Sacramento, where 
he succeeded in establishing upon a firm basis 
one of the first financial institutions of the city, 
conducted by the firm of Rhodes, Sturges & 
Co., under the title of the Sacramento City 
Bank. Immediately after coming to the west by 
way of the isthnnis he entered upon the banking 
business, in which he experienced many vicissi- 
tudes, having been burned out twice and incur- 
ring frequent losses through floods. Upon dis- 
posing of his banking interests in 1857 he moved 
to Yolo county, where previously he had pur- 
chased a one-half interest in seven and one-half 
leagues, known as Rancho Canada de Capay. In 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



307 



1865 he returned with his family to Sacramento, 
after which lie sokl portions of the ranch at dif- 
ferent times inilil 1S91, when the entire tract was 
disposed of. 

The milling business was the next industry to 
engage the attention of Mr. Rhodes, who about 
1870 acquired a flour mill at Woodland and 
later acquired another mill at Knight's Landing, 
both of which he superintended for several years. 
About 1883 he sold his milling properties and 
came to Lassen county, where he bought the 
Evans ranch of seventeen hundred and eighty- 
eight acres partly under cultivation. Since com- 
ing to this ranch he has sold a part of the land 
and has given a considerable acreage to his chil- 
dren, so that now he retains only two hundred 
and eighty-two acres, of which eighty acres are 
in timber land. Formerly he raised large quan- 
tities of grain, but of recent years hay has been 
bis princijjal product, and much of the crop is 
fed to his stock, the remainder being sold in 
the markets of the state. Since coming to the 
ranch he has planted fruit trees of various kinds, 
all of which are now in bearing and furnish an 
abundance of fruit for the use of the family. 

In Chillicothe, Ohio, October 12, 1846, Mr. 
Rhodes married Miss Mary Jane Beall Christ- 
mas, a native of Canton, that state. Her father, 
William Hogg Qiristmas, was born January 4, 
1799, in Georgetown, Virginia, and died in Can- 
ton, Ohio, September 18, 1836. He married Har- 
riett Beall, who was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, 
November 27, 1803, and died in Mansfield, Ohio, 
June 16, 1882. The ancestry in this country is 
traced through Mrs. Rhodes' maternal grand- 
father. Gen. Reasin Beall, of Wooster, Wayne 
county, Ohio, to the original immigrant, who, as 
early as 1636, bought the land on which now 
stand the cities of Washington and George- 
town. The record of her grandfather was 
worthv of his honored name, for he won prom- 
inence at the time of his service in command of 
a regiment coincident with the service of Gen. 
William Henry Harrison in northwestern Ohio. 
In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes there 
were originally nine children and six of these 
are now living. During the existence of the 
Whig party Mr. Rhodes gave his support to its 



principles and later became an advocate of the 
Republican party, to which he still adheres. Dur- 
ing his residence in Woodland he was elected in 
1878 as a delegate from his county to the con- 
stitutional convention of the state ; also in the 
same city held the office of iriember of the Ixiard 
of trustees. During his residence in Sacramento 
he was an active worker in the Independent Or- 
der of Odd Fellows and treasurer of the local 
lodge, but relinquished fraternal connection up- 
on his removal from the citv. 



EDWARD ALONZO MARTLV. Some time 
during the '50s, when the tide of immigration 
was bearing many thousands to the unknown 
west, Frank H. Martin, a native of Pennsylvania 
and a young man of fearlessness, daring and en- 
ergy, crossed the plains to try life under new 
conditions. Like the majority of the early com- 
ers, he proceeded at once to the mines and sought 
for the gold which directly or indirectly had 
lured all of the pioneers to this Eldorado. No 
special success met his efforts in the mines of 
Shasta county and eventually he turned his at- 
tention to agriculture, making his home in the 
Palouse country in A\ ashington after a brief so- 
journ in Oregon. After coming to the Pacific 
coast he met and married Martha Armstrong, 
who was born in Kentucky and died in Oregon. 
In their family were three sons and three daugh- 
ters, Edward Alonzo being the eldest of the six 
and a native of Stillwater, Shasta county. Cal.. 
born July 30, 1866. Possessed of self-reliant 
character, he was well (|ualified to take upon him- 
self the burden of self-support, whicli the lim- 
ited means of the family rendered imperative. 
When only eight years of age he began to herd 
sheep and from that time forward he made his 
own way. The necessity of self-support pre- 
vented him from attending school for some years, 
but after he was tliirteen he worked for his 
board with the privilege of attending school dur- 
ing certain months of the year. 

Drifting to Susanville as early as 1879. Mr. 
Martin secured a position with J. C. Blake, an 
uncle, who at that time lived near the town. 



308 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



During the following: years he earned his liveli- 
hood and also carried on his studies through the 
common-school hranches. In 1882 he went to 
Sutter count} , hut after six years he returned to 
Lassen county, where for several years he was 
employed with the Lassen Mail as a compositor. 
Afterward, for about four years, he held the 
position of under-sheriff to J. C. Qnurch. At the 
expiration of his term he resumed the printing 
business in the office of the Adi'ocatc and next 
leased the Johnston house, later, however, be- 
coming proprietor of the Emerson house bar, 
which he has conducted since Mar'^h, 1901. In 
addition he has a farm of one hundred and sixty 
acres near Standish and carries on stock-raising 
with Spaulding Brothers ; also has mining inter- 
ests at Inskip, Butte county, at Antelope valley 
in Lassen county and in the Wildhorse mine in 
Cottonwood district, Nevada. His marriage 
united him with Miss Lizzie McLeod, of Susan- 
ville, a native of Nova Scotia, and a daughter of 
Daniel IVlcLeod, member of an old Scotch familv 
and a pioneer of Virginia. The only daughter of 
this union is named Bernys. 

On the reorganization of the city of Susan- 
viile. in 1901, Mr. Martin was elected council- 
man, and at the expiration of his term again was 
chosen to serve in that capacity. Politically a 
Democrat, he was at one time a member of the 
county central committee. At the county con- 
vention of his party in 1902 he was nominated 
for sheriff, but the Democrats being in the mi- 
nority he lost the office by twenty-five votes. In 
fraternal relations he is connected with Silver 
Star Lodge, I. O. O. F. : the Order of Rebekahs. 
to which his wife also belongs ; Lassen Lodge 
No. 149, F. & A. M., in which he was made a 
Mason and of which he is junior warden; and 
in addition holds membership with Lassen Parlor 
No. 99, Native Sons of the Golden West, of 
which he was at one time president. 



EDMUND HIGGINS HAMLEN. A traveler 
in the Sierra valley finds few spots more beau- 
tiful than the Inroad tract which was formerly 
owned bv Mr. Hamlen and situated two and one- 



half miles west of Sierraville. It was on the 22A 
of June, 1859, that Mr. Hamlen settled on this 
place and bought a squatter's title to seven hun- 
dred and twenty acres, of which one hundred 
acres were timbered land and the balance well 
adapted for meadow and pasture. The land lies 
at the upper end of the valley and at the foot 
of the mountains. Through the dooryard runs 
a beautiful mountain brook that furnishes an 
abundance of water for irrigation and renders 
possible green, pasturage for the stock through- 
out the entire year. Another noticeable feature 
of the ranch is the fact that here may be seen 
die headwaters of the North Fork of the Feather 
river. While the spot is one on which Nature 
has lavished great beauties, the land has the ad- 
ditional advantage of being capable of producing 
large returns for the rancher's labor, and Mr. 
Hamlen made a specialty of the dairy industry, 
keeping about fifty cows in his dairy and selling 
the milk to the creamery. 

The village of China, in the county of Kenne- 
bec, Me., is Mr. Hamilen's native place, and 
January 16, 1836, the date of his birth. The 
genealogy of the family is traced back to the 
year 1639 in the United States, at which time 
James Hamlen, of England, landed at Barnstable, 
Mass., and for many years afterward his de- 
scendants were active in the development of New 
England. Among the most distinguished mem- 
bers of the family was Hannibal Hamlin, vice- 
president of the United States during the presi- 
dency of Abraham Lincoln. Calvin, father of 
Edmund H., was bom and reared in Qiina, Me., 
and l>ecame a farmer, but in December, 1849, 
left home and friends and set sail from Boston 
for California via the Horn. His ship, Martha 
Cleves, landed in San Francisco harbor in June 
of 1850, and at once he proceeded to the mines 
at Bullard's Bar and Long Bar, where he worked 
for four months with fair success. Returning 
to San Francisco he took passage for the east. 
The ship became short of provisions and an ox- 
team and driver were secured to haul the bag- 
gage, while the passengers walked two hundred 
miles to Lake Nicaragua. Finally reaching 
home in safety, he at once made preparations for 
a second trip to the Pacific coast. April 25, 1851, 




cJ^c^A-^^^-^^-^"^^^^^^^^^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPIJICAL KKCORD. 



311 



he afjain started for California, this time by way 
of Panama. Landing at San I'Vancisco in May, 
he went from there to Biillard's bar, thence to 
Poor Man's creek in Phimas coimty, next to the 
mines near Downieville, where he saw the Span- 
ish woman hung in 1852. As before, he met 
with fair success in the mines. During the fall 
of 1853 he returned via Panama to Maine and 
settled on the farm where his boyhood years had 
been passed. There he remained until his death, 
which occurred at the age of eighty-four years 
and eleven months. Politically he was a stanch 
and active Deniocrat, while in religious views he 
inclined toward the Baptist faith, in which de- 
nomination he had been reared. His wife, who 
was Phoebe Jordan, was a member of an old 
family of Cumberland county, Me., and died on 
the home farm in 1872, at the age of seventy-five 
years. 

Inspired by the success of his father in the 
western mines, Edmund Higgins Hamlen early 
decided to seek his fortune on the Pacific coast. 
December 31, 1856, he set sail from New York 
for the Isthmus of Panama, thence sailed up the 
ocean and arrived at San Francisco on the 29th 
of January, 1857. Next he traveled to Sacra- 
mento by boat, and from there went to Sierra 
county, where he first worked in the timber and 
then engaged in mining and prospecting for six 
months with fair success. June 22, 1859, '^^ 
came to the ranch in Sierra valley which was 
the scene of his labors for so many years, and 
which he had owned for nearly a half century. 
Taking up a squatter's title, he later engaged in 
the cultivation of the land and the raising of 
st0':k'. In 1875 he rented the ranch and removed 
to Buffalo Meadows, Washoe county, Nev., 
where he conducted a hotel stage station, also 
owned a one-fourth interest in the toll road from 
Reno to Fort Bidwell and Surprise valley, oper- 
ating the same for six years. Returning to his 
California ranch, three years later he sold his 
Nevada interests and from then until selling the 
ranch. November 21, 1905, concentrated his at- 
tention upon ranching and dairying. 

The marriage of Mr. Hamlen took place Oc- 
tober 9, 1865, and united him with Mrs. Hattie 
Hasselton, who was born in New Hampshire and 
3 



came to California in 1863. They are the par- 
ents of three children, namely: Edmund Henry, 
who is engaged in dealing in cattle and horses 
and makes his home in Sierra county; Calvin 
Marshall, who was his father's assistant on the 
home ranch ; and Rose Edna, who married 
George Miller and lives at Sierraville. In poli- 
tics Mr. Hamlen votes the Republican ticket, 
while fraternally he holds membership with 
Sierra Valley Lodge No. 184, I'. & .\. M., of 
Sierraville. Thirty-seven years have passed 
since he was made a Mason, and now only two 
besides himself are living who were members at 
the time of his first identification with the blue 
lodge. Though his life has been one of great 
activity, he is still alert, keen and capable, with 
the vigor of a man much younger than he. and 
possessing much of the strength that in younger 
years rendered possible the most arduous tasks. 
Throughout the region where he has made his 
home since early days he lias a host of warm 
personal friends, who have been attracted to liim 
by his sterling traits of mind and heart. 



HORACE P. McBETH. The county clerk 
and auditor of Plumas county is one of the ris- 
ing and influential native sons of California and 
has always made his home in the county wdiere 
he still resides, having been born in Butte val- 
ley January 12, 1872. The family has been 
prominently identified with the pioneer history 
of this locality. His father, John McBeth, 
known and honored as a resolute and adventur- 
ous pioneer, was born in New York City in 1823 
and passed the years of youth in that metropolis, 
where he obtained a common school education 
and earned his first wages by clerking in a gro- 
cery. During the year 1849, memorable in the 
history of California, he left his home city and 
sailed for Galveston, Tex., whence he traveled 
overland to San Francisco, .^fter a tedious but 
comparatively uneventful trip he arrived on the 
Pacific coast September 2 and during the winter 
remained in San Francisco as clerk in a store. 
As soon as the weather permitted work in the 
mines he started for the mountains, leaving the 



312 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



city March 8, 1850, and going to Mormon Island 
for a time. Following the trend of gold-seeking 
along the lakes, he reached Plumas county in 
September, and here, as before, prospected in the 
mines. Eventually he became identified with 
many enterprises of the county. In addition to 
mining he owned a ranch, cut timber and manu- 
factured lumber, and at Greenville carried on a 
general store in partnership with J. D. Compton 
from 1876 until 1883. Meanwhile he also held 
the office of postmaster and was agent for the 
Wells-Eargo Express company. 

On giving up his business at Greenville in 
1883 John McBeth returned to his ranch in 
Butte valley and became interested in raising 
stock. The years passed uneventfully until 1897, 
when he moved to Big Meadow and took up 
ranching as before. The following year the Re- 
publicans in the county convention nominated 
him for countv treasurer and he was duly elected 
to the office, which he was filling at the time of 
his death, April 6, 1899. All through his active 
life he was influential in local affairs and a factor 
in the material development of his county. From 
1886 to 1890 he served as member of the county 
board of supervisors. In 1894 he was a candi- 
date for county clerk and auditor and came 
within nineteen votes of being elected. As coun- 
ty treasurer he was faithful, efficient and reli- 
able, and filled the position with the utmost dili- 
gence until an attack of pneumonia resulted in 
his death. 

The marriage of John McBeth united him 
with Charlotte Emmons, who was born in New- 
York in 1849 and was but a few months old 
when her parents came via Panama to Califor- 
nia. Her father, William Emmons, was a native 
of New York City and a ship carpenter by trade. 
After bringing his wife and two children to Cal- 
ifornia in 1849 lis settled at Stockton, but soon 
went to the mines on the north fork of the 
Feather river in Plumas county and followed the 
uncertain fortunes of a miner. After having met 
with alternate successes and reverses, about 1864 
he went to Vallejo, and afterward worked in the 
navy yard until his death in 1902, at seventy- 
five years. Mrs. Charlotte McBeth remained in 
Plumas county and vicinity until 1902, when she 



moved to San Francisco and since has made that 
city her home. 

Through all of his life Horace P. McBeth has 
been familiar with the sights and scenes in Plu- 
mas county. When thirteen he secured work in 
a grocery in Greenville, this county, where he 
remained in one store for a period of about eight 
years, meanwhile gaining a thorough knowledge 
of business methods as employed in a general 
store. From Greenville he went to Prattville as 
a clerk and also for a time worked in Butte val- 
ley, but returned to Quincy in 1899 at the time 
of his father's death and, under appointment by 
the board of county supervisors, succeeded him 
in the office of county treasurer, April 17, 1899, 
remaining in that capacity until the expiration of 
the term, December 31, 1902. Meanwhile he 
had been elected auditor and county clerk on the 
Republican ticket by a majority of more than 
two hundred and is now engaged in his official 
duties. On the 4th of July, 1904, he married 
Mrs. Leo Stephenson, who was born in Reno, 
Nev., and reared in Lassen county, Cal. In fra- 
ternal relations he is associated with Greenville 
Lodge No. 252, I. O. O. F., and is also a mem- 
ber of Plumas Lodge No. 60, F. & A. M., of 
Quincy. 



JARED STRANG. At the foot of the 
mountains, three miles west of Sierraville, lies 
a finely-improved ranch through which flows the 
headwaters of the South Fork of the Featlier 
river. \\'hen ]\Ir. Strang came to the Sierra 
valley in May of 1858 there were only four 
women living in all this part of the country, and 
only one man survives who lived here at the time 
of his arrival. In the fall subsequent to his 
arrival he built a shanty on the ranch which he 
now owns. From that day to the present he has 
been interested in ranching. At first he bought 
and sold cattle, but eventually he turned his at- 
tention exclusively to the dairy business, and in 
1902 erected on his ranch a creamery which is 
still in operation. The home place comprises 
about four hundred and thirty acres of valley 
land, in addition to which his sons own a timber 
tract of two hundred and forty acres adjoining, 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



313 



so that it is possible to secure an abumlaiico of 
pasturage for the herd of milch cows. 

On Prince Edward Island, off the coast of 
New Brunswick, Jared Strang was born March 
12, 1836, being a son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth 
(Scirman) Strang, also natives of that island. 
His maternal grandfather, who was of Scotch 
extraction, was a Tory and for that reason left 
the colonies to place himself under the protection 
of the British flag. At the time of his death 
he had attained the age of one hundred and nine 
years. Tine paternal grandparents had removed 
from New York to Prince Edward Jsland. and 
when Jared was quite small the parents again 
established the family in the States, settling in 
Massachusetts three miles from Plymouth, where 
the father engaged in farm pursuits.- In the 
fall of 1857 he arrived in California and at 
once proceeded to the nu'nes near Downieville. 
In the spring of 1838 he came to the land west 
of Sierraville and with his son, Jared, engaged 
in stock-raising, farming and teaming. In 1868 
the son purchased the father's interests and the 
latter thereupon returned to Massachusetts, 
where he died in 1884. at the age of eighty- 
four years. In politics he was a Republican, 
■active in support of the party and such friends 
as were candidates for official honors. 

The boyhood years of Jared Strang were 
passed without special event on the home farm, 
his education being such as the neighboring 
schools afforded. At the age of nineteen years 
he started out to make his own way in the world. 
For one year he was employed as a fishennan on 
the banks and for a similar period fished in 
Massachusetts bay. April 15, 1858, he set sail 
from New York for the Isthmus of Panama and 
from there proceeded up the Pacific ocean to 
San Francisco, where the ship cast anchor after 
a voyage of twenty-two days. From there he 
went to Downieville, and in May arrived in the 
Sierra valley, where he was employed in cutting 
hay. later with his father hauled hay to \'irginia 
City, also freighted to Downieville before any 
road had been built for wagons to tliat camp. 
In 1874 he abandoned teaming and turned his 
pttention to the raising, buying and selling of 
cattle. For vears he was accustomed to travel 



through Oregon, W'ashinglon, California and 
Nevada in his search for cattle. In the spring 
of 1 89 1 he gave up dealing in stock and since 
then he has devoted his entire time to ranch 
pursuits and to the management of a dairy num- 
bering upwards of seventy-five cows. In 1902 
he erected a creamery and began t(j buy milk 
from neighbors. Shortly afterward he turned 
the creamery and ranch over to his youngest 
sons, who now operate the land and the creamery 
with fair success. 

The first marriage of Mr. Strang took place 
in November, 1864,, and united him with Miss 
I'lleanor Mickey, who was born in Illinois and 
in i8(')4 accomiianied her parents across the plains 
to California. .\t her death she left three chil- 
dren, namely : Ste])iien L., now living at Dutch 
Flat. Cal. ; Jared W., who follows the teaming 
business in Sierra '/ity : an<l Ida, wife of L. A. 
Beardon, of Fruitvale, this state. The second 
marriage of Mr. Strang united him with Mrs. 
Lulu C. Robbins, who was born in Auburn, Me., 
and by whom he has two sons, Arthur and El- 
mer, now renting the home ranch. For a num- 
ber of years Mr. Strang filled the office of school 
trustee and his interest in educational matters 
has been continuous and deep. Politically he 
votes with the Republicans and in fraternal rela- 
tions for thirty years or more has affiliated with 
Sierra Valley Lodge No. 184. F. & A. M., in the 
work of which he maintains a deep interest. 



GEORGE P. VON GERICHTEN, M. D. A 
man of culture and talent, devoted to his profes- 
sion, George P. \'on Gerichten, M. D., well 
deserves the reinitation which be enjoys of being 
one of the most skilful and faithful physicians 
of Las.sen county. Although be has been located 
in Janesville but four and a half years, he has 
already built up a fine practice, and by his geniil 
manners and kindly courtesy has endeared him- 
self to all classes of people. A son of Frederick 
W. Von Gerichten. he was born February iq, 
1875, in San Francisco, for several yenrs the 
home of his parents. 

Having received his preliminary education in 



314 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the ijriniarv schools of San Francisco, George 
P. Von Gerichten was graduated from the Oak- 
land public school with an honorable record for 
good scholarship. Some time later he purchased 
the Eagle drug store in Oakland, running it for 
four vears, during which time he met with suc- 
cess in its management. In the meantime he 
read medicine, and in 1898 entered the Cali- 
fornia Medical School at San Francisco, from 
which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. 
in 1 90 1. On November 26 of that year he 
began the practice of his profession in Janes- 
ville. where he is meeting with flattering results 
in his chosen work, having gained an extensive 
and remunerative patronage in the city and vicin- 
itv, his rides oftentime extending seventy-five 
miles. The doctor is an excellent man of busi- 
ness, and the owner of some town property of 
value. 

In Oakland, Cal., in December, 1895, Dr. Von 
Gerichten married Delia D. Robertson, who was 
born in Battle Mountain, Nev., and they have 
one child, a daughter named Ruth. In his polit- 
ical affiliations the doctor is a sound Republican, 
and since 1904 has ser^-ed as health officer and 
assistant county physician. He belongs to the 
State Eclectic Medical Society, to JanesVilk 
Parlor, N. S. G. W. ; to Oakland Lodge, K. O. 
T. M. ; and is a member of Janesville Lodge, 
No. 232, F. & A. M. 



DAVID COWEN BERRY. The tract of 
land forming the ranch owned and occupied by 
Mr. Berry is a source of just pride to its owner, 
whose efforts have been instrumental in giving it 
a position among the very finest ranches of the 
Sierra valley. Comprising six hundred and 
forty acres of land, it is a noteworthy fact that 
every foot of the ground can be cultivated if so 
desired. The location at the foot of the moun- 
tains, three miles west of Sierraville, is attractive 
and picturesque. An abundant supply of water 
may be secured from the headwaters of the 
South Fork of the Feather river, which also sup- 
plies power for the operation of the creamery 
and for other purposes, and enables him to main- 



tain a cold storage plant for butter. Stock-rais- 
ing and dairying form his principal industries. 
On the ranch may be seen twenty head of horses, 
perhaps three hundred head "of stock cattle and 
about sixty head of milch cows. The butter 
from the dairy is sent to the different mining 
camps throughout this section of the country, 
and its sale forms an important addition to the 
family income. The ranch-house burned to the 
ground in 1905 and immediately afterward a 
beautiful residence was erected, a modern struct- 
ure, with hot and cold water and elegant finish- 
ings, and said to be as fine a house as the valley 
can boast. 

From Quebec, Canada, where he was born 
May 14, 1861, David C. Berry was taken to Ver- 
mont at the age of four years by his parents, 
and there passed the years of youth on Governor 
Peck's farm, of which his father was retained as 
manager for tv^'enty-nine years. The Berry fam- 
ily lived in the house with the governor, who 
taught the bov at night and gave him the benefit 
of his culture and broad education. At the time 
of the governor's death he was nursed by the 
Berry family. At that time David C. Berry was 
a youth of seventeen years and he remained on 
the farm for another year. In October of 1880 
he arrived in California, proceeded direct to 
Sierra county and secured employment on the 
ranch he now owns. After working for four 
years in the employ of another, he rented the 
tract for one and one-half years and then bought 
a section, incurring a heavy debt to acquire the 
title of the property. The interest on the debt 
amounted to $1,000 per annum and might have 
proved discouraging to a man of less fortitude 
than Mr. Berry, but he was young, hopeful and 
energetic, and eventually he acquired a clear title. 
Indeed, it was only seven years before he had 
settled th.e indebtedness, his wise judgment as a 
stock-raiser and dairyman having contributed to 
this satisfactory result. 

The marriage of Mr. Berry took place June i, 
1885. and united him with Miss Nellie Miller, 
who was born in Australia, but removed to Cali- 
fornia in girlhood. She is a sister of J. J. Miller, 
in whose sketch the family history may be found. 
The Berrv family consists of two children. The 




7 V^ /^ji^^-e^^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORt). 



317 



daughter, Agnes H., is a studcMit in Mills Col- 
lege, and the son, Chester, attends local schools. 
Although steadily refusing office for himself, Mr. 
Berry always has been willing to aid friends who 
were candidates for office, and he has been a 
firm and constant supporter of Republican prin- 
ciples. In fraternal relations he holds member- 
ship with Sierraville Lodge No. 140, I. (). O. F., 
also is identified with the Woodmen of America. 
While now he has attained a success which ren- 
ders continued labor unnecessary, he is a man 
of such active temperament that idleness is irk- 
some, so he retains the full management of his 
ranch and works as constantly and arduously as 
in the days when stern necessity demanded en- 
forced labor. As a stock-raiser he is said to be 
one of the most successful men in the valley. In 
the raising of draft horses he has been markedly 
successful, nor has his success been less notice- 
able in the raising of Durham cattle, while in se- 
lecting milch cows he has the knowledge gained 
only by experience, and has proved the keenest 
of judgment in retaining on the ranch only such 
animals as may be made profitable to their owner. 



FRED HIKES. The Bank of Lassen county, 
with which Mr. Hines is closely associated as 
president and a director, ranks as one of the sub- 
stantial financial institutions of northeastern Cal- 
ifornia. From its organization, October 29, 
1892, until 1895, he held the office of vice-presi- 
dent, in which capacitv he continues to the present 
writing, meanwhile establishing the bank's 
finances upon a solid basis and controlling its 
investments with a keen and watchful eye. 
With a capital stock of $50,000. fully paid, 
the bank has been from tlie first in a position 
to engage in the loan business, by which means 
a gratifying surplus fund has accumulated, and 
this fund has been increased by the sagacious 
investment of the deposits of customers. Asso- 
ciated with the president on the board of direct- 
ors are the vice-president, W. \\'. SchoU, also 
John Cahlan, James McDcrmott and C. B. Clark. 

The Hines family is of German extraction and 
was established in .\merica In- Ernest Hines. a 



native of the vicinity of Bremen and during early 
manhood a hardware merchant of that city. 
After coming to the United States he made a 
brief sojourn in Massachusetts, then worked at 
i'ittsburg, Pa., and from there drifted westward 
to Fort Dearborn, but was not sufficiently im- 
pressed with the present site of Chicago to re- 
main at that place. After going to Michigan he 
followed the trade of mason and builder and 
later tilled the soil of his farm near Clinton. 
Lenawee county, that state, where his eldest son, 
Fred, was born March 14, 1836. When past 
seventy years of age he died at Manchester, near 
his farm homestead, and his wife, Katherine, 
also died in Michigan, she being eighty-four at 
the time of her demise. Of their ten children 
five are now living. Four sons participated in 
the Civil war, namely : John, a member of the 
Fourth Michigan Infantry, who was killed at 
the capture of Jeflferson Davis ; Edward, also a 
member of the Fourth Michigan, who was killed 
at Little Rock ; and Henry and Edwin, who were 
also members of a Michigan regiment; the latter 
died in 1905 and the former now resides at 
Chelsea, that state. 

The meagre opportunities offered by the dis- 
trict schools of Lenawee county gave Mr. Hines 
little encouragement in the acquisition of knowl- 
edge, but notwithstanding limited advantages he 
has become a man of broad intelligence. As he 
was growing toward manhood he heard much 
concerning the discovery of gold mines in Cali- 
fornia and eagerly embraced an opportunity to 
come to the far we.st with Dr. Minor in April 
of 1853, traveling with teams and stopping nights 
at hotels as long as these were to be found, 
after which camp was made at night. On the 
present site of Omaha, where he camped, there 
was then not a single house and the land was 
still owned by the government. West from there 
he traveled via Forts Laramie and Bridgcr. 
thence to Salt Lake, on to the head of the Hum- 
boldt river and via the Honey Lake route to old 
Shasta, where then not a house was to be seen. 
While in the Honey Lake valley an Indian shot 
one of the four horses attached to the light 
wagon, after which the travelers pursued their 
wav with one horse in the lead. During this 



318 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



trip j\Ir. McClay was killed by Indians within 
twelve miles of the present site of Susanville. 

Arriving at Shasta, September 28, 1853. IMr. 
Hines secured board at a wayside hotel in re- 
turn for doing chores mornings and evenings. 
During the daytime he looked for work, but find- 
ing none, he was glad to accept an offer of $50 
per month from the landlord. After six weeks 
there he went into the mines at Buckeye, but his 
experience of three vears at this occupation was 
discouraging, and in the summer of 1856 he 
came to the Honey Lake valley. After a short 
stav he went to the Humboldt river, where he 
bought broken-down cattle from emigrants, 
bringing them to the Honey Lake valley and 
turning the stock loose after branding them. 
Returning to the mines at Buckeye he remained 
there during the winter of 1856-57, and upon his 
return in the spring found the cattle and horses 
in splendid condition. Driving the cattle to 
Ouinc}-, I'lumas county, he there traded them for 
an outfit to make another expedition on the 
plains, supplying himself with sugar, coffee, tea, 
bacon and flour to exchange with emigrants. 
Many of these he found in destitute circum- 
stances, and he always gave them enough sup- 
plies to take them to the next post. Subsequently 
he located a claim on the Susan river three 
miles below Susanville. During 1856, 1857 ■^^'^ 
1S59 he was on the plains trading and buying 
cattle, and in the winter of 1861-62, with L. N. 
Breed as partner, established a trading post on 
Smoke creek, called Smoke creek station, which 
was later sold to the government. During the 
winter of 1857-58, in Mr. Hines' log cabin, he 
with others originated the idea of making a new 
territory, as what is now known as Lassen county 
was supposed to be a part of L^tah territory. 
They drafted boundary lines and sent them to 
Washington, D. C. The trouble which brought 
on the Sage Bush war, in which Mr. Hines was 
one of the active participants, changed the sup- 
posed boundary and made Lassen county a part 
of California. On his farm near Susanville Mr. 
Hines engaged in the stock business and raised 
hay and grain, cutting the hay with scythes and 
cradles, and harvestinsj the grain with the old- 



fashioned McCormick reaper after the primitive 
flail had been abandoned. 

After having accumulated five hundred aicres 
of fine bottom land Mr. Hines lessened his hold- 
ings by sales from time to time, and in 1902 dis- 
posed of the old home, since which time he has 
devoted his attention principally to the Bank of 
Lassen Count}-, the Bank of Washoe County at 
Keno, Nev. (in which he is financially inter- 
ested), and the Pacific Jupiter Steel Company at 
San Francisco, besides which he still has mining 
interests. Though not a partisan, he is a stanch 
Republican, and for years officiated as chairman 
of the county central committee, while at this 
writing he acts as state committeeman. In the 
early days he served one term as county sheriff 
and three terms as member of the county board 
of supervisors. During the war he assisted in 
organizing the first L^nion League Club in this 
part of the country. After coming to Lassen 
comity he married, in May of 1864, Mrs. Eveline 
(.Strong) Allen, who was born in Sandusky, 
Ohio, and died at Susanville. Subsequently he 
was united in marriage at Pacific Grove with 
Miss Emma Strong, who was born in Shasta 
county, her father, Walter Strong, having .been 
an early settler in this region. In Lassen Lodge 
No. 149, F. & A. M., Mr. Hines was initiated 
into Masonry, since which time he has become 
associated with Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. M., 
Lassen Commandery No. 13, K. T. (in which he 
has officiated as commander several terms), and 
Islam Temple, N. M. S., of San Francisco, while 
his wife holds membership with the kindred 
Order of the Eastern Star. To Mr. Hines be- 
longs the distinction of being the only citizen 
of Lassen county who resided here as early as 
1856. Not only is he the oldest surviving settler, 
but he is one of the most influential men of the 
county, his thorough familiarity with its condi- 
tions of soil and climate, his long association with 
its people and his thorough knowledge of its 
possibilities giving to him a prestige as unusual 
as it is merited. 



WILLIA^I A. LAVERY. M. D. Prominent 
among the leading jihysicians and surgeons of 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



319 



Siorra county is William A. I_^vcry, M. D., of 
Sierra City. Cultured, talented, and with a 
thorough knowledge of his chosen profession, he 
has been very successful, and although he has 
been in this county but a comparatively short 
time, he has established an enviable reputation 
for professional knowledge and skill, and has 
acquired a position of note in business, social 
and fraternal circles. A native of Ireland, he 
was born, August 20, 1873, in I'elfast, where 
he acquired his public school and academical edu- 
cation. Subsequently entering Queen's College, 
he was there graduated with the degree of M. D. 
Immigrating to the Ihiited States in 1896, the 
doctor immediately crossed the continent, coming 
from New York to California. Locating in San 
Francisco, he took a post-graduate course at the 
California Medical College, after which he be- 
gan the practice of medicine in that city. 

Locating at Sierra City in January, 1900, Dr. 
Lavery's ability and skill as a physician and sur- 
geon soon became known in this vicinity, and he 
has here built up an extensive and lucrative pat- 
ronage among the best class of people. He is 
much interested in mining and miners, being a 
part owner of the Prospect mine, and being 
surgeon for the Sierra Buttes, the Keystone and 
the Mountain mines. He is also medical ex- 
aminer for different insurance companies, includ- 
ing the New York Life, the Mutual Life of New 
York, the Connecticut Mutual, and the Work- 
man's. Politically he is a stanch Republican ; 
and fraternally be is a member of Harmony 
Lodge No. 164, F. & A. M., and of Scepter 
Lodge, No. 262, I. O. O. F., both of this place, 
and of Sierra Qiapter, No. 21, R. A. M., of 
Downieville. 



ALVIN EUGENE De FOREST. Conspicu- 
ous among the successful agriculturists that bring 
to their calling good business methods and ex- 
cellent judgment is Alvin Eugene De Forest, 
who owns and occupies one of the best equipped 
and regulated ranches in Lassen county, his farm 
lying about two and one-half miles south of Su- 
sanville. He was born in Johnson county, Iowa, 
a son of Clinton De Forest, and is of French 



Huguenot descent, the family name in France 
having been De la Forest. After the revocation 
of the edict of Nantes the emigrant ancestor 
from whom Mr. De Forest is a lineal descendant 
went first to Holland, from whence he came to 
this country. 

A son of Jacob P. De Forest, Clinton De For- 
est was born October 14, 1821, in Troy, N. Y. 
His grandfather, Peter De Forest, was a life- 
long farmer in New York state, and a man ot 
considerable prominence. Jacob P. De Forest, 
born near Albany, X. Y., served as major of 
a company during the war of 181 2. He was a 
personal friend of President Martin \'an Buren, 
and under his administration was sent to St. 
Louis, Mo., as inspector of the post. He re- 
mained there some time, engaged in the stove 
and tinware business, but died in Iowa. He 
married Eliza Eddy, a daughter of General Eddv, 
of Revolutionary war fairie. who had command 
of a division of the army at the battles of Sara- 
toga and Yorktown. General Eddy passed away 
at the remarkable age of one hundred and two 
years. 

Clinton De Forest went with his parents to 
St. Louis, where he attended the pul)lic schools, 
and also assisted his father in the store. Leav- 
ing h6me in 1841. he went with the Indian trad- 
ers. Bent & St. \'rain, across the plains to the 
Rocky Mountain region, but in the fall of 1842 
returned to St. Louis. In 1843 '^e crossed the 
plains with (ien. John C. Fremont, going as far 
as P'ort Hall, when, as one of twelve messengers, 
he was sent back to St. Louis to carry reports 
to the government. He subsequently went to 
Pleasant Valley, Johnson county, Iowa, where he 
improved a farm. In 1849 '^e came with ox- 
teams to California, and the following vear re- 
turned to Iowa by way of the Isthmus and New 
Orleans. In 1863 he came with his family across 
the plains to this state, locating in Honey Lake 
valley. Taking up land, he was there engaged 
in agricultural pursuits until his retirement from 
active business, and siiK:e that time has been a 
resident of Susanvillc. March 28, 1848, he mar- 
ried Mary Ellen Hart, who was born in Pike- 
town, Ohio. March i, 1831. Twelve children 
blessed their union, namely : Mrs. Sarah Law- 



320 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



son, of Idaho ; Lorenzo, of Eagleville : Alvin E. ; 
Daniel, of Tehama county; Gilbert E., residing 
near Susanville ; Mrs. Harriet Benjamin, of Los 
Angeles; Mrs. Mary Benjamin, who died in Su- 
sanville ; Clinton, living near Janesville ; Walter, 
of Idaho ; Florence, who died at the age of seven 
years ; William, of Napa ; and Arthur, of Indian 
Valley. 

In the spring of 1863 Alvin Eugene De Forest 
came with the famil>- to the Pacific coast, cross- 
ing the plains with horse teams, and being three 
months en route. Brought up on the home farm, 
he attended the common schools of Susanville, 
and from his earliest boyhood assisted in the 
farm labors. At the age of fourteen years he 
began working for wages for the neighboring 
farmers during the haying and harvesting sea- 
sons. In 1877 he bought a farm near Baxter 
creek, and for six years carried it on successfully. 
Selling out in 1883. he bought from Philip Gou- 
maz two hundred acres of his present ranch, 
lying near Susanville, and subsequently pur- 
chased the one hundred and sixty acre ranch of 
Mr. Bantley. This is all meadow and grain land, 
and he has it well ditched, so that he can irrigate 
any part of it at any time, taking the water from 
Gold run. Pie is exceedingly prosperous in his 
undertakings, raising large crops of alfalfa, tim- 
othy and wheat, putting up as many as six hun- 
dred bushels of wheat. At one time he also car- 
ried on a substantial business as a cattle raiser 
and dairyman. During the winter he feeds beef 
cattle, fattening about one hundred and seventy 
head every year, having large and convenient 
feed vards. Plis ranch is one of the best in north- 
ern California for stock, and is well supplied with 
substantial barns and outbuildings, and a good 
residence, the estate being a credit to its owner 
and an ornament to the neighborhood. In the 
fall of 1905 he took up one hundred and sixty 
acres of timber land in Lassen county. 

In 1877 Mr. De Forest married Florence Ed- 
wards, who was born in \'ermont. the youngest 
daughter of David Edwards, and a sister of Mrs. 
Hurley, of Susanville, in whose sketch, which 
appears elsewhere in this work, may be found 
further parental history. Mr. and Mrs. De For- 
est have two children, namely: Lorenzo Eu- 



gene, engaged in the dairy business, and Grace 
Lalola. Politically INIr. De Forest is a stanch 
advocate of the principles of the Republican 
partv, and for a number of years has been a 
member of the county central committee. Fra- 
ternally he belongs to Lassen Lodge No. 149, 
F. & A. M. ; to Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. M. ; 
and to the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
Both Mr. and ]\Irs. De F'orest are members of 
the Order of the Eastern Star. 



JAMES HENRY ELLEDGE. A short dis- 
tance to the south of Standish lies one of the 
fertile farms of the Honey Lake valley, a tract 
owned and occupied by James Henry Elledge 
and improved with one of the finest farm homes 
in Lassen countv. a neat and substantial house 
erected in 1904-05. On coming to this locality 
in 1897 he took up one hundred and sixty acres 
under the homestead laws. At that time the ap- 
pearance of the land, covered with a dense 
growth of sage brush, was uninviting; it re- 
quired an optimistic temperament to predict for 
it a condition of productiveness and profitable 
cultivation. However, the owner proved to 
have made a wise investment, for the tract is 
now under cultivation, largely in alfalfa, the 
successful production of which is rendered pos- 
sible by the facilities for water furnished by the 
Colonial Irrigation Company of the Honey Lake 
valley. After acquiring the original quarter 
section a tract of eighty acres was purchased, 
and this also is under alfalfa. 

Born in Missouri, November 20, 1861, James 
Henrv Elledge is a son of .\dam D. Elledge, to 
whose sketch upon another page the reatler is 
referred for the family history. When the fam- 
ilv came to California the subject of this nar- 
rative was an infant of one year, hence his ear- 
liest recollections are of the west. At first the 
home was in Lassen count}-, but later removal 
was made to Marysville, where he attended the 
public schools for a short time. Eventually, 
however, he returned with his parents to Lassen 
countv and here has since resided. At an early 
age he began to work for wages, following anv 




1 

1 




HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



323 



occupation wliich rendered possible an honest 
livelihood, and August 14, 1889, he began to 
work for Leavitt & Hutchinson, under whom he 
rose to be manager and superintendent of their 
interests, but since 1897 he has given his atten- 
tion largely to the improvement of his ranch and 
to the raising of horses, cattle and alfalfa. Like 
all public-spirited citizens, he maintains an in- 
telligent interest in affairs affecting the welfare 
of county, state and nation. Politically he gives 
his allegiance to the Republican party. 

The first marriage of Mr. Elledge took place 
in 1886 and united him with Miss Jennie Spen- 
cer. At her death she left a son, Lute, who since 
has been cared for by an aunt, Mrs. Charles 
Spillers, of Ferndale, Humboldt county, this 
state. In 1894 Mr. Elledge was united in mar- 
riage with Grace, daughter of Benjamin Leavitt, 
an honored pioneer of Lassen county, mention 
of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. 
Three children bless this union, Edith, Fannie 
and George, all of whom are being carefully 
trained by the parents iq the hope that they may 
be fully prepared for such responsibilities as life 
may bring to them. 



ALEXANDER THRALL ARNOLD. Since 
early manhood a resident of Lassen county, Mr. 
Arnold has been associated intimately with the 
growth and development of this portion of Cali- 
fornia and holds an honored position among its 
pioneers. The family which he represents has 
long been associated with American agricultural 
progress and his father, Nathan, for years was 
a farmer in Delaware county, Ohio, having re- 
moved thither from his native locality in New 
York. Delaware county is his native place and 
June 12. 1833, the date of his birth, he iK-ing the 
youngest and the sole survivor of a family of 
three sons and one daughter born to Nathan and 
Elizabeth (Cutler) Arnold. His brothers. Cutler 
and LeRoy (the latter a soldier in the Mexican 
war) were California pioneers of 1849, and in 
1857 came to Honey lake, where they remained 
for many years. 

When onlv fifteen vears of age Mr. Arnold 



began to be self supporting, and whatever success 
he has achieved may be attributed to his unaided 
exertions dating from that period. His first 
step toward independence was in the learning 
of the tinner's trade at (Galena, Ohio, and at the 
age of seventeen he went to Franklin county, 
whence in 1853 lie started for New York. On 
the ship Yankee Blade he sailed to Panama and 
thence to San Francisco, from which city he 
proceeded to Contra Costa county, joining his 
two brothers there. After eighteen months in 
that county he proceeded to the mines in what 
IS now Plumas county and engaged in mining, 
teaming and trading. During 1857 he came to 
Honey lake and since then he has been a resident 
of Lassen county, with the exception of a brief 
period devoted to teaming and mining in the 
Black Rock country. 

The marriage of Mr. Arnold was solemnized 
in Susanville, December 27, 1864, and united 
him with Miss Susan Engle Roop, in whose 
honor Susanville and the Susan river were named. 
Born in Ashland county, Ohio, Mrs Arnold was 
the only daughter of Hon. Isaac Newton Roop, 
whom she accompanied to California in 1862, 
sailing from New York on the Qiampion and up 
the Pacific on the Orosaba. Crossing the country 
to Carson, she came from there to the village 
which her father named in her honor. Born of 
her marriage were eight children, namely : Susan 
M., wife of T. D. Goodfellow. of Los .\ngeles ; 
I. N., of Giico, this state; Dora, who married 
H. L. Robinson, of Oakland : .Mexander T. and 
Thomas, who died respectively at four and three 
months; Carl V., living at Susanville; Mark 
Eugene, who died at seventeen years ; and Med, 
at home. In religious views Mrs. Arnold is of 
tlie Presbxterian faith, while Mr. Arnold inclines 
toward the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Both are identified with the Order of 
the Eastern Star, and he is further allied with 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen and Las- 
sen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. M., in which in 
1863 he was initiated into Masonry. After the 
death of his father-in-law. Governor Roop, he 
succeeded to the management of the waterworks, 
which he superintended for many years, and also 
purchased the interests of the other water com- 



324 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



pany in the spring on Susan river. In addition 
he conducted a dairy and raised considerable 
alfalfa for feed, besides ha\ing thirty acres in 
orchard and meadow, and thirty-five acres in 
grazing land. His business interests were further 
enlarged through ownership of a livery stable 
in Susanville, but this he sold after five years. 
For some time he has not been actively engaged 
in business, but he still retains charge of his 
affairs and investments, and in their management 
finds sufficient to occupy his thought and atten- 
tion. 



CHARLES ODETTE, Sr. In its lineage 
the Odette family is of French extraction and 
from Continental Europe some of its represent- 
atives emigrated to Canada several generations 
gone by. Peter, father of Giarles Odette, having 
been of Canadian birth and parentage. At dif- 
ferent periods of his life Peter Odette followed 
the occupations of lumberman, mechanic and 
carpenter, his lumber interests causing him tem- 
porarily to reside in Monroe county, Mich., but 
eventually he returned to Canada and there died. 
His wife, who bore the maiden name of Margaret 
Malbuff, was like himself of Canadian birth and 
French ancestrv. In their family were eleven 
children, all of whom attained mature years, and 
three of the sons established their homes in Cal- 
ifornia, namely : Charles and Frank, who are 
partners in business at Susanville; and Joseph, 
who removed from this state to Nevada and now 
resides at Reno. 

The si.xth among the eleven children compris- 
ing the family. Charles Odette was born in Can- 
ada near the \'ermont line, October lo. 1840, 
and as a boy lived in Canada and Michigan. 
From his earliest recollections he has been self- 
supporting. As a small boy he proved a valu- 
able assistant to his father, whom he gave his 
entire time, to the exclusion of any educational 
advantages. Those who are familiar with his 
broad fund of information learn with surprise 
that he had no school advantages, but acquired 
his education in the school of experience and by 
habits of close observation and thoughtful read- 
ing. When he was fourteen the family removed 



to Michigan and there he worked in the lumber- 
ing business and on a fami. After his return 
to Canada he was similarly employed. His per- 
manent residence in the United States dates from 
1862, when he crossed the line into Vermont and 
took up farm pursuits. The outlook in that oc- 
cupation not being bright he went to Massa- 
chusetts and learned the carpenter's trade, which 
later he followed in that state and Connecticut, 
and also in the west after 1875. the year of his 
removal to California. After a short sojourn in 
San Francisco he removed to Virginia City, Nev., 
and secured work at his trade, and later for a 
vear was engaged as a contractor and builder. 
From Virginia City he went to Verdi, Nev., 
where he followed the building business. 

It was during 1877 that Mr. Odette came to 
northeastern California, at which time he began 
to work in the Indian valley, later followed his 
trade at Ouincy, and then went back to the 
Indian valley to resume the building business 
there. Since the fall of 1884 he has made his 
home at Susanville, where now he owns a com- 
fortable residence and city property. Here, as 
in the other places of his residence, he has en- 
gaged in contracting and building. On account 
of the several fires in the town, he has rebuilt a 
number of structures twice and even three times. 
From 1883 to 1887 he operated the Stockton saw- 
mill, eight miles from Susanville. During 1891 
he built the Odette saw and planing mill five 
and one-half miles west of town and this he still 
operates, having his brother Frank as a partner 
in the enterprise for some years past. They own 
seven hundred acres of timber land near the mill, 
and from this they cut the timber which, by the 
aid of an engine of thirty-five horse power is 
manufactured into lumber and then hauled prin- 
cipally to Honey lake by teams, although they 
also have a lumber yard in Susanville. 

The first marriage of Mr. Odette united him 
with Miss Sophia Mitchell, who was born in 
\'ermont of French descent and died in Plumas 
county, Cal., leaving three children, viz. : 
Charles, Jr., a carpenter living in Susanville : 
Mrs. Nellie Hopkins, of San Francisco; and 
Piertha, who died in Carson, Nev. The second 
marriage of Mr. Odette was solemnized at Green- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



325 



villc, Plumas county, on the 4th of July, 1883, 
and united him with Mrs. Sarah Goodfellovv, by 
whom he has two children, namely : Lyda, wife 
of David Ward, of Susanville ; and Albert. Po- 
litically Mr. Odette favors Republican principles 
and in religion both he and his wife arc con- 
nected with the Susanville Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in which he officiates as a trustee. Mrs. 
Odette was born in Salt Lake City, being a 
daughter of Robert and Giarlotte ( Bowring) 
Till, natives of England. During early life Mr. 
Till taught school in England, but as early as 
1850 he became a pioneer of Salt Lake City and 
there he died. Later his widow was married to 
Moses Bull, of Michigan, who died in Washing- 
ton, and at this writing Mrs. Pull makes her 
home in Redding. Cal. Of her first marriage 
there were three children, namely : Mrs. Char- 
lotte Thorn, who died in Washington; Sarah J.; 
and John W.. who took his stepfather's name and 
is now a mining expert at Redding. As a girl 
Mrs. Odette attended the public schools of Butte 
county, this state, and shortly after completing 
her education she became the wife of William 
Goodfellow, their marriage being solemnized in 
Plumas county in 1872. Of Canadian birth and 
parentage. Mr. Goodfellow came to the Pacific 
coast in early life and became a quartz mill op- 
erator. At the time of his death, which occurred 
at Greenville, he was thirty-four years of age, 
and he left besides his widow two sons, Thomas 
D., now of Los Angeles, and William Arthur, 
who makes Susanville his home. 



JULES ALEXANDER. Those who possess 
a thorough knowledge of the business enterprises 
of Lassen county state that its leading commer- 
cial establishment is the department store at Su- 
sanville conducted by the finn of Alexander & 
Knoch. Adequate facilities for the display and 
sale of the stock are furnished by the fireproof 
mercantile building, 35x122 feet in dimensions, 
the accommodations of which are increased by a 
gallery extending around the entire building. 
Each department is complete in itself and ]jro- 
vided with everything desired in the line of its 



specialty. Dry goods of every kind and quality 
from the cheapest prints to the elegant broad- 
cloths fill one department ; another is given over 
to clothing of the latest styles ; in another are 
shoes of all styles, while still others are occupied 
with hardware and groceries. Two warehouses 
furnish accommodations for storage, while yards 
are utilized for the exhibition of agricultural im- 
plements of the most modern kinds. 

The senior member of the firm is a Frenchman 
by birth and descent, and is a son of Abraham 
and Janet (Meyer) .-Mexander, natives of Alsace. 
For some years his father engaged in trading in 
Brazil, but in 1849 lie joined an expedition of 
gold-seekers and came to California via Cape 
Horn. Soon, however, he returned to France, 
where he became a large land owner and ex- 
tensive dealer in stock. After the death of his 
wife, which occurred when she was fifty-three, 
he crossed the ocean to the United States and 
settled in New York city, where he died at sev- 
enty-four years of age. Of his five children four 
are still living. One of the sons, Joseph, is pro- 
prietor of The Hub in San Francisco; another, 
Abraham, carries on mercantile pursuits at Ba- 
kersfield, this state. The youngest of the familv, 
Jules, was born at Reishofifen, Alsace, August 6, 
1859, and received an excellent education both 
in German and French. After coming to San 
Francisco in 1875 he attended night school and 
thus perfected himself in the English language. 
Since May of 1877 he has been a resident of 
Susanville, where for a time he clerked under 
Green & Asher, then was with Partridge & Hver, 
and on the death of Mr. Partridge in 1881, he 
lx>ught the business in partnership with Simon 
Blum of Martinez. The firm of Blum & Alex- 
ander continued in business for about four vears 
with the junior member as manager, and then 
Mr. Levy purchased Mr. Ulum's interest, and 
still later the title was changed to A. &. J. Alex- 
ander, continuing as such until the fire of Julv, 
1893, destroyed the building and stock. On the 
readjustment of the business and the purchasing 
of a new stock, the firm of Alexander & Knoch 
was organized and since then has built a new 
store equipped with modern facilities. 

The management of the large business does 



32G 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



not represent the limit of Mr. Alexander's ac- 
tivities. For about fifteen years, until he sold 
out in 1903, he owned a ranch on Horse lake and 
engaged in raising stock for the markets. On 
the organization of the California & Oregon Tele- 
graph Company, of which he was a leading pro- 
moter, he was elected vice-president and a di- 
rector, which positions he still occupies. Under 
the supervision of the company lines have been 
built through Plumas, Lassen and Modoc coun- 
ties, Cal. to Lakeview, Ore., and into Reno, Nev., 
where connection is made with the Western 
Union Telegraph Company. Another enterprise 
in which he holds stock is the Susanville Cream- 
ery Company, of which he is now president. Po- 
litically a strong Republican, he has served his 
party as a member of the county central commit- 
tee and since 1902 has been a member of the Su- 
sanville city council. Thoroughly loyal to his 
adopted country and its institutions, he supports 
all projects for the permanent advancement of 
his coujity. state and nation, and by his patriotic 
spirit furnishes another illustration of the high 
quality of California's foreign-born citizens. Fra- 
ternally he holds membership with the Benevo- 
lent Protective Order of Elks at Reno, also with 
Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. 1\L (in which he 
was made a Mason in 1885), and Lassen Chapter 
No. 47, R. A. M., at Susanville. By his mar- 
riage, which was solemnized in 1888, he became 
united with a young lady of Susanville. Miss Rae 
Knoch, who was born and reared here, and is a 
graduate of Mills College. The record of her 
family appears in the sketch of her father, David 
Knoch. upon another page of this volume. The 
two children of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander are 
named Janet and Edith. 



FRANK PRINGLE CADY. The Lassen 
Water, Light and Power Company, of which 
Mr. Cady acts as president, and in which he is 
the principal stockholder, occupies a noteworthy 
position among the modern industries of north- 
ern California. The connection of Mr. Cady 
with the incorporated company dates from its 
inception, and previous thereto he had been asso- 



ciated with the development of the waterworks 
which he purchased from H. L. " Cain early in 
the vear 1899. The supply for Susanville comes 
from the springs in the caiion on the side of a 
hill near the Susan river and is more than ade- 
c|uate for all the demands of the present or the 
possibilities of the future. By means of steel 
pipes the water is brought to the reservoir above 
the city and from there is piped through the town 
as needed, furnishing force sufficient to throw 
an ample supply over any residence. Besides 
being the prime factor in the waterworks sys- 
tem, Mr. Cady was instrumental in building the 
electric light plant, in the operation of which 
both water power and steam may be utilized in 
the ratio of seventy-horse power. 

The citizen to whose energy the development 
of the company is largely due ranks among the 
native sons of California, and was born near 
Ripon, San Joaquin county, on the Stanislaus 
river, September 7, 1857, being a son of Stoel 
Cady, in whose sketch the family history ap- 
pears. As a boy he attended the country schools 
and then studied in the Stockton schools, after 
which he took the complete course and was grad- 
uated from the .Stockton Business College. In 
1877 he opened a general mercantile store at Sa- 
lida, Stanislaus county, where also he acted as 
ticket agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad 
and agent for the Wells-Fargo Express Com- 
pany. During the spring of 1880 he came to 
Lassen county and bought a stock ranch in the 
Big valley country north of Hayden Hill, where 
he engaged in raising cattle for some years with 
varying success. Removing to Susanville in Jan- 
uary of 1889, he sold the ranch two years later, 
and now owns a comfortable residence on Pine 
street. While living in the San Joaquin valley 
he was married, at Stockton in 1877, to Miss 
Orilla Kime, who was born at Campo Seco, Cala- 
veras county, this state, the daughter of a pio- 
neer. The only child of their union, Leon Roy, 
is now a student in a San Francisco school. 

Always an ardent Republican, Mr. Cady has 
been active in the local affairs of the party. Dur- 
ing his service in the city council in 1904 he was 
especially interested in securing water plugs for 
fire protection. In 1888 his party nominated him 




lAMES I>. ISVKRS 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



3-2'J 



for the sheriff's office and he was elected by a 
fair majority, assuming the duties of the office in 
January, 1889, for a term of two years. In 1890 
he was again chosen for the position, which he 
occupied until January of 1893. The following 
year he was elected county assessor, and served 
in that capacity for a term of four years, retiring 
in January, 1890, since which time he has given 
his attention to the development of the water 
and lislit supply for the city of Susanville. Since 
coming to this city he has joined the local lodge 
of Odd Fellows, in which he now acts as vice- 
grand. At this writing he also fills the office 
of president of Lassen Parlor No. 99, Native 
Sons of the Golden West, and his fraternal rela- 
tions are further extended through his member- 
ship in the Order of Rebekahs, to which also his 
wife belongs. 



WILLIAM McCLELL.\ND. Noteworthy 
among the pioneer settlers of Honey Lake 
valley is William McClelland of Susanville, 
who has resided in Lassen county for upwards 
of forty years, during which time he has been 
identified with its growth and development, 
being especially interested in promoting its 
agricultural industries. A son of the late Rev. 
Isaiah McClelland, he was born March 27, 
1835, in Crawford county. Pa., near Mead- 
ville, where his grandfather was a pioneer 
farmer. 

After his ordination in the Methodist de- 
nomination, Rev. Isaiah McClelland removed 
to Illinois from Pennsylvania, his native state, 
from there coming to California in 1872. He 
spent his declining years in I'lumas county, 
dying in Greenville, but being buried at Janes- 
ville. He married Martha M. IJyers, who was 
born in Crawford county. Pa., and died in Mil- 
ford, Lassen county, Cal. She was a sister of 
the late James Davis By-ers, for many years 
one of the best known and most prominent 
citizens of this section of the state. 

A native of Penn.sylvania, James Davis By- 
ers was born in Crawford count\^ February 8, 
182^. and at the age of five years he was left 
fatherless. Early dependent in a measure upon 



his own resources, he left school at the age of 
thirteen years, entering the store of John 
McCaun, in Ilartstown, Pa. In 1842 he moved 
with the family to Licking county, Ohio, liv- 
ing first in Utica, and then in Newark, where 
for eight years he was employed in the mer- 
cantile establishment of John Taylor. He took 
an active part in public affairs, and in the 
spring of 1848 was elected constable, at the 
same time being deputy sheriff of the county. 
His health failing, he came to California not 
very long afterwards, and at Rough and 
Ready, Nevada county, opened a general store. 
In the spring of 1851 Mr. Byers began min- 
ing at Hopkins, Plumas county, subsequently 
becoming one of the locators of the Washing- 
ton quartz claim on Eureka mountain. Then 
with his brother. Hunter I'yers, who came 
with him to the coast, he ]>urchased land in 
Colusa countv. and embarked in stock-raising, 
the brother, who died in San Francisco in 
1890, being manager of the ranch. In the 
meantime Mr. Byers looked after the mining 
interests of both, and for awhile was deputy 
sheriff of Plumas countv. In 1854 he opened 
the first butcher shop in Johnsville, and 
in the fall of 1855 was elected sheriff of Plu- 
mas county, and the following year was re- 
elected to the same office. In 1858 he came 
to Honey Lake vallev. bought a claim on Bax- 
ter creek, and engaged in the stock business. 
He lived for several years at Janesville, where 
he was engaged in mercantile pursuits for a 
while, although he was princi])ally interested 
in stock-raising, having a large ranch of three 
thousand acres near Honey Lake. In 1863, 
while serving as deputy sheriff' under .Sheriff' 
Pierce, Mr. Byers was sent to Lassen county 
to collect the taxes, but the citizens, claiming 
that they were in Nevada, refused to pay, 
and the result was the Sage Brush war, in 
which he, as an officer, took an active part. 
He served one term in the state legislature, 
and was largely instrumental in having passed 
the bill to create Lassen county, and in 
giving to it the name of the old pio- 
neer of this part of the state. In May, 
1864, he was elected the first sheriff of the 



330 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



new county ; in 1873 he was elected to the 
general assembly; and from 1868 until 
1871 was county supervisor. He was a 
stanch Republican in politics, and was a 
Master Mason. A man of excellent business 
ability and judgment, he accumulated consid- 
erable wealth, owning valuable property at 
Janesville, Ouincy and Susanville, and a $10,- 
000 farm in Licking county, Ohio. Mr. Byers 
never married, but from 1864 until his death 
made his home with Mr. and Mrs. McClelland. 
He willed to Mrs. McClelland his stock ranch 
of three thousand acres, on the Tule. and her 
son-in-law, Mr. Fortney, the executor of the 
will, superintends this farm. 

The oldest of a family of ten children, nine 
of whom grew to years of maturity, and of 
whom five survive, William McClelland re- 
ceived a common school education in Craw- 
ford county, and when a boy learned the mill- 
er's trade, working in his father's grist mill. 
He subsequently served an apprenticeship at 
the trade of a carriage maker, after which he 
resumed milling, taking charge of the Davis 
mill, in Mercer county. Pa. In 1863 he came 
to California by the Nicaragua route, arriv- 
ing in San Francisco, on the Moses Taylor, 
in May of that year. The ensuing three 
months he was employed as a miller in Co- 
lusa county, and in September, 1864, located 
in Susanville, the following winter running 
a grist mill in ]\Iilford. He was subsequently 
engaged in farming and dairying on the By- 
ers farm for eighteen years, living there until 
1882, when he bought sixty-five acres of land 
adjoining Susanville on the south. Here he 
engaged in horticultural pursuits, raising the 
finest fruit produced in the county, and hav- 
ing the largest and best improved orchard 
of any in the vicinity. Mr. McClelland has 
also been interested in stock-raising, after the 
death of Mr. Byers living on the Tule ranch 
until 1901, when he moved with his family 
into Susanville. 

August 12, 1858, in Mercer county. Pa., Mr. 
McClelland married Sarah A. Merchant, who 
was born near Mercer, a daughter of Jacob 
Merchant. She is of French descent, her pa- 



ternal grandfather having emigrated from 
France to Pennsylvania when a boy of four- 
teen years. Jacob Merchant, a life-long farm- 
er, spent his seventy-nine years of earthly 
existence in Mercer county. He was a Dem- 
ocrat in politics, and a Methodist in his re- 
ligious belief. He married ]\Iary Davis, who 
was born in Mercer county. Pa., and died 
in Nebraska, in the ninety-sixth 3'ear of her 
age. She bore her husband eleven children, 
four of whom are living. Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
Clelland are the parents of three children, 
namely: Ella M., wife of J. A. Fortney, of 
New Standish ; Ida, wife of J. D. Andrews, of 
Reno, Nev. ; and James H., also on the old 
Byers ranch. Politically Mr. McClelland is 
a steadfast adherent of Democratic principles. 



DAVID JOHNSTON. It might well be a 
source of gratification to a man if, in looking 
back over the years of a busv life, he recalls no 
deed to cause remorse and regret and no inten- 
tional act of wrong-doing toward his fellow-men. 
As Mr. Johnston reflects concerning the activities 
of a life now drawing toward its twilight, he can 
face the past without sorrow and the future with- 
out fear, for in all his actions he has been guided 
by the highest principles of honor. While attain- 
ing a fair degree of financial success he has 
gained that which is more to be desired— the 
respect and admiration of associates. Through- 
out all of Lassen county he and his wife are 
affectionately alluded to as "Uncle Dave" and 
"Aunt Cal," and none speaks of them save with 
words of praise. Since their retirement from 
ranching they have made their home in Hall's 
addition to Susanville. where thev have a cozv 
and comfortable residence. 

The Johnston family is of English extraction. 
William, who was the son of Robert (a game- 
keeper and weaver by occupation and a life-long 
resident of England), was born in Northumber- 
land in 1798, and during boyhood learned the 
trade of a cotton spinner, which he followed, 
after coming to the United States, at Kinder- 
hook, Columbia county, N. Y. As early as 1842 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



331 



he became a pioneer of Michigan, where he took 
up a tract of unimproved farm land near Albion, 
Calhoun county, and there six years later death 
came to him ere yet his plans had been consum- 
mated for the improvement of the farm. While 
still a resident of England he had married Mary 
Rogers, who was born in that country and died 
in Michigan. Of their ten sons six attained 
manhood, namely : Robert, who came to Cali- 
fornia in 1851 and died at Susanville ; David, 
now a resident of Susanville; John, who. enlisted 
in the Nineteenth Michigan Infantry during the 
Civi! war and served as assistant paymaster 6i 
the army until he was drowned at Fort Fisher; 
William, now living in Michigan ; George, who 
died in Michigan ; and Henry, who was a soldier 
in the Third United States Infantry and now re- 
sides in Michigan. 

A native of Carlisle, Northumberland, Eng- 
land, born June 13, 1827, David Johnston was 
only two years of age when the family settled in 
Columbia county, N. Y., hence his earliest recol- 
lections are associated with .'\merica. It was 
not possible for him to attend school with any 
regularity, for he was obliged to earn his own 
livelihood froni early boyhood, being only seven 
years old when he was made a bobbin boy in a 
cotton factory. When he was fifteen the family 
removed to Michigan and there he aided in the 
clearing of a farm until his father's death in 
1848. Two years later he crossed the plains 
with a team of small jxinies and a light wagon. 
Thirty days after leaving home he arrived at the 
Missouri river and in seventy-six days landed at 
Ringgold, Eldorado county. At Diamond Springs 
he began to work in the mines and later worked 
at Michigan Flat, from which place he went to 
the south fork of the Yuba river and then re- 
turned to Michigan Flat, where he met with a 
fair degree of success in his mining ventures. In 
1853 he returned via Panama to Michigan, where 
he engaged in farming near .\lbion, Calhoun 
county. 

Two years after his return to his old home 
;tate ]\Ir. Johnston established domestic ties. 
September 20, 1855, he was united in marriage 
with Miss Caroline .Augusta Mear, who was born 
aear Taunton, Somerset county, England, being 



a daughter of John and Joan (Poole) Mear, also 
natives of Somerset. In a family of four chil- 
dren those besides Mrs. Johnston were as fol- 
lows : Mary, wife of William Johnston, of Mich- 
igan ; Anna, Mrs. Henry Johnston, of Michigan ; 
and John M., who died in Colorado. For nine 
years John Mear followed a seafaring existence, 
being accepted at nineteen years of age on an 
English man-of-war cruising in the Mediter- 
ranean sea. While on board ship he learned the 
trade of an armorer. On his return to England, 
when disembarking at Portsmouth, King Will- 
iam patted him on the head and presented him 
with a Bible. On settling down as a landsman 
he learned and followed the blacksmith's trade. 
In 1842 lie came to the United States and settled 
at Skaneateles, N. Y., where he engaged in 
blacksmithing. From there he went to Albion, 
Mich., to take up the same occupation, and he 
remained in that place until his death at fifty- 
two years. His wife had died prior to liis de- 
parture from the east. 

.•\fter having engaged in farming in Michigan 
for some years, in 1863 Mr. Johnston came via 
New^ York and Panama to California, making 
the Atlantic voyage on the Ocean Queen and 
then sailing up the Pacific on the Golden Age. 
When he landed at Susanville. the home of his 
brother Robert, he was almost penniless, his 
means having been exliausted in paying the trav- 
eling expenses of himself and wife. For a time 
he worked on ranches, then engaged in teaming 
with oxen to Nevada and dififerent parts of Cali- 
fornia. Under the employ of Captain Pierce he 
blazed out a road to Idaho. While on this jour- 
ney, at Soldier's Meadows, two men quarreled 
and one of them, Barnhard, killed the other. 
Regan. The assailant was then hanged bv the 
members of the party. Indians were trouble- 
some, and it was necessary to have men on guard 
every night. W'hile Mr. Johnston engaged in 
hauling his wife helped by teaching school and 
w-as the first woman teacher at Johnstonville, a 
postoffice named for their family. With the sav- 
ings of their united efforts in 1870 they bought 
one hundred and sixty acres near Johnstonville, 
and later purchased the Robert Johnston ranch, 
which gives them the title to three hundred and 



832 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



twenty-seven acres in one body, situated on the 
Susan river, just above the mill. Irrigation ren- 
ders possible the raising of alfalfa, which is one 
of the main crops of the ranch, although grain is 
also raised in large quantities. While Mr. John- 
ston still owns the property, since the spring of 
1896 he has rented it to a tenant and has made 
Susanville his home. 

Reared in the Episcopalian faith, Mr. and Mrs. 
Johnston have always remained in sympathy with 
that religion, but with characteristic broadness 
of spirit they have aided worthy movements fos- 
tered by other denominations. Their family con- 
sists of two daughters. The elder, Margaret, is 
the widow of Charles W. Moore and resides in 
Pacific Grove. The younger, Helen J., is the 
wife of Gilbert E. DeForest, of Jolmstonville. 
At the time of the World's Fair of 1893 Mr. 
Johnston visted Chicago and then went on to 
Alichigan, where he renewed the associations of 
his younger years and enjoyed the companion- 
ship of those who remained of his old-time 
friends. Since the organization of the Repub- 
lican party he has been an adherent of its policy 
and has voted for its candidates and platfonn. 
It has been his privilege to witness much of the 
development of the west, and as he contrasts the 
conditions of the twentieth century with those 
noticeable when he first came to California and 
voted for its admission as a state, he realizes the 
wonderful progress wrought during the past 
fiftv years or more and is proud of his connection 
with the commonwealth as one of its pioneers. 



JOHN BOYLE. Although a resident of Cal- 
ifornia for a comparatively few years only, Mr. 
Boyle held a position of respect and honor among 
his neighbors and acquaintances in the Sierra 
valley, and when death ended his labors there 
were many to mourn his loss and offer tributes 
of sympathy to his wife and children. Of 
Canadian birth and parentage, he was born near 
Montreal in Alarch of 1833 and as a boy attend- 
ed local schools, afterward taking up the trades 
of tanner and shoemaker. On leaving home to 
take up the burden of self-support he went to 



Illinois and secured employment in a tannery at 
Rock Island, where he assisted in the tanning of 
hides and the manufacture of shoes. In recogni- 
tion of his efficiency he was promoted to be fore- 
man of the shop and later operated a tannery of 
his own, also a shoe store in connection with 
the same. Meanwhile a brother, James Boyle, 
had removed to California in an early day and 
had taken up a tract of land from the govern- 
ment, his claim being situated in Sierra county 
three miles from the village of Sattley. The ill- 
ness of this brother caused John Boyle to come to 
California in 1876 and assume the management 
of the ranch, which was bequeathed to him by 
the original nwner at his death, unmarried, in 
1876. From that time the inheritor of the es- 
tate gave his undivided attention to its manage- 
ment, devoting its acreage to stock-raising and 
general farm products. .A.t his death, which oc- 
curred December 3, 1881, he left the property to 
his wife, who has since superintended the land 
with the aid of her children. 

While making his home in Illinois John Boyle 
was united in marriage at Rock Island, in Octo- 
ber, 1862, with Miss Catherine Touhey, who 
was born in County Oare. Ireland, June 20, 
1844, and at the age of nine years accompanied 
her parents to the United States, settling in New 
Jersey, but after three years removing to Rock 
Island, 111. In 1877 ^''s- Boyle came to Cali- 
fornia and joined her husband on the ranch in 
Sierra county, where she still resides. The prop- 
erty comprises three hundred and twenty acres 
in the home ranch in the valley and six hundred 
and forty acres of pasture land also in the val- 
ley, the whole being adapted to stock-raising and 
general ranching. A specialty is made of the 
dairy business and a herd of milch cows is kept 
numbering upwards of twenty-five cows. For 
years the estate has been conducted in the same 
family name and the title has never gone out of 
the family since the tract was entered from the 
government. In religious views the family have 
always been earnest adherents of the Roman 
Catholic church, while in matters political Mr. 
Boyle gave hi's support to the Democratic party. 

Nine children were born to the union of Mr. 
and Mrs. Boyle, namely : Mary F., who mar- 




o£ja.^(^^ny^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



335 



ried Levi Garfield and lives in the Sierra valley ; 
James F., who has a position as foreman of a 
large ranch in Nevada and also carries on a sheep 
business ; John P., who manages the home place 
in the interests of his mother ; Harriet AL, who 
died at six years of age ; Elizaheth, who mar- 
ried D. R. Jacks and lives in San Francisco: 
Alargaret G., who died at three years of age; 
Kate L., who, in 1899. became the wife of 
James Giblin, a rancher in Plumas county; Jo- 
sephine R., a teacher in Plumas county ; and 
Cecilia B., who was married December 31, 1902, 
to Benjamin Myers, a rancher of Plumas county, 
and a son of George F. Myers, mentioned else- 
where in this volume. 



HON. ISAAC NEWTON ROOP. Indis- 
solubly associated with the history of Susan- 
ville and Lassen county is the name of Gov- 
ernor Roop, who as a pioneer, statesman and 
attornev, as well as in the responsible position 
of first provisional governor of Nevada, wielded 
an important and permanent influence upon 
his contemporaries and powerfully affected the 
development of subsequent years. Descended 
from one of the colonial families of Maryland, 
he was born in Carroll county, that state, March 
13, 1822, and was a son of Joseph and .Susan 
(Engle) Roop, whom in 1838 he accompanied 
to Ashland county, Ohio. After years of pains- 
taking industry in farming and stock-raising in 
that section, his father in 1858 removed to Iowa 
and settled in Keokuk county, where he died an 
aged man. The lineage of the family is traced 
to Germany. 

When the family settled in Ohio Isaac New- 
ton Roop was a youth of almost seventeen years, 
and it was not long before he became self-sup- 
porting, his first business connections being with 
a grist and sawmill. While living in Ashland 
county, December 24. 1840, he married Miss 
Nancy Gardner, who was born in Allegheny 
county. Pa., December 22, 1822, and, like him- 
self, was of German ancestry. Her father. John 
Gardner, immigrated from Germany to the Unit- 
ed States and settled in Pennsylvania, but later 
removed to Ohio, where he engaged in the car- 



riage-manufacturing business. Eventually he 
moved to Ottawa, Intl., and there passed his 
closing years of life. Mrs. Nancy R(X)p dicil in 
Ohio June 20, 1850. at the age of twenty-seven 
years, leaving three children, namely : Susan, 
Mrs. Arnold, of Susanville, Lassen county; John, 
a physician of Oklahoma, w-ho during the Civil 
war Vvas a member of the Seventh Iowa Infan- 
try and served as an aide to General Grant; and 
Isaiah, who enlisted in the Twenty-third Ohio 
Infantry, was wounded at South Mountain, and 
died of small pox while still in the service. 

In September following the death of his wife 
Mr. Roop started for California, traveling via 
the Nicaragua route as a passenger on the ship 
that brought news of the admission of California 
to the Union. Going to Shasta county he joined 
a brother, Josiah Roop, who conducted a general 
store, and in this enterprise he became a part- 
ner, as well as serving as postmaster at Shasta. 
Misfortune, liowever, soon overtook him in the 
burning of Shasta. A large hotel which he had 
built and his store building as well, June 14, 
1853, burned to the ground, entailing a loss of 
$to,ooo, and leaving him penniless. The fire 
occurred at 9 a. m., and after saving the post- 
ofSce books left his own property in the building 
to save the lives of the school children. Dis- 
heartened by the turn of affairs he left the town 
on horseback to find a more fortunate location, 
and thus drifted into Lassen county. Reaching 
a lake remarkable for the honey dew on the 
grass and trees near by, he named it Honey Lake 
and he was the first settler in the valley around 
this body of water, locating here in the spring 
of 1854. On what is now the site of Susanville 
he erected a house and built a store for a trad- 
ing post, later securing the establishment of a 
postoffice, of which he acted as postmaster until 
death. June 7, 1854, he platted one hundred and 
sixty acres and laid out the town which he named 
in honor of his only daughter, and fhe same year 
built the first saw mill in Lassen county. Inter- 
ested in horticulture, in 1863 he planted a small 
orchard, water for which was secured by irriga- 
tion. With his brother be dug the first ditch 
here and started the original waterworks, their 
beginning of course being upon a small scale. 



336 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



The activities already enumerated by no means 
represented the limit of Governor Roop's encr- 
f^ies. Admitted to the bar at Carson, he engaged 
fn the practice of law, and at the time of his 
death was filling the office of district attorney. 
During the 6o's he served one term as a mem- 
ber of the legislature of Nevada, for at that 
time Honey Lake valley was claimed as a part 
of Nevada. Another honor conferred upon him 
was in his election as the first provisional gov- 
ernor of Nevada. -Cvhich position he filled, as all 
others to which he was called, with ability, in- 
telligence and a high degree of statesmanship. 
.A.11 through his life he was a pronounced Re- 
publican, devoted to the welfare of his party and 
enthusiastic in support of its principles. Fra- 
ternally he was a Mason of the Royal .-\rch de- 
gree, and in religion he was identified with the 
Methodist Episcopal Chiuxh. Generous in dis- 
position, he donated to Lassen county the site of 
the court house and gave to Susanville the site 
of its public .school and cemetery. Every i)ub- 
lic enterprise received the encouragement of his 
support and his financial assistance, and no man 
was a larger factor than he in the development 
of local projects. In the annals of Susanville 
no name occupies a position of more permanent 
honor than that of Governor Roop. 



PROF. FRANK GRAIN SCHOFIELD. A 
man of scholarly attainments, active, ambitious 
and capable, Prof. Frank Grain Schofield, of Su- 
sanville, is carrying on a inost successful work 
as principal of the I-as.sen county high school, of 
which he has had charge since its opening in 
1903. He is eminently qualified for the impor- 
tant work in which he is engaged, and among 
the ])rominont educators of this section of the 
state holds a noteworthy position. A son of 
Jesse W. Schofield. he was born March 22, 1865, 
in Lexington, Alo., being the second child in a 
family of five children, all of whom are living. 

Of Scotch and Welsh ancestry, Jesse W. Scho- 
field was born in Pennsylvania, the son of a 
farmer, who migrated to that state from old 
Virginia. In early manhood he moved to Lex- 



ington, ATo., where he established a planing mill 
which he operated until his death. He was a 
man of nnich force of character, well known in 
public life and in fraternal circles, serving for 
several years as judge of the county court, and 
being a Allaster Mason. He married Andalusia 
Z. Eddy, who was born in Chenango, N. Y., 
and died in Missouri. She came of substantial 
Revolutionarx' stock, and was directly descended 
from one of the early Puritan families of New 
England 

llrought up in his native town, Frank G. Scho- 
field obtained his preliminary education at a pri- 
vate school, being prepared for college at an 
early age. Going then to Colorado, he taught 
school for awhile in Monument, and then spent 
three years at the Denver University. Return- 
ing east, he attended the imiversity at Rochester, 
N. Y., for a year, and then entered the Uni- 
versity of Ohio, at Athens, where be was gradu- 
ated with the degree of A. V>. in 1895, and from 
which he received the degree of A. M. in 1897. 
Throughout his college career Mr. Schofield was a 
close student and a hard worker, paying his own 
way by teaching or by other labors. Returning 
to his alma mater in 1896. he was there the in- 
structor in English for a year. In iSij" he ac- 
cepted a position in Dunkirk, Intl., and for five 
years served as principal of the high school in 
that place. Resigning in 1902, he came to Cali- 
fornia, and the ensuing year was engaged in 
post-graduate work at the Leland Stanford, Jr., 
University. On the opening of the new Lassen 
county high .school, at Susanville, in 1903, be 
was elected principal, and has since filled this 
responsilile position in a most creditable man- 
ner. Under his efficient management rapid prog- 
ress has been niade in all the departments, and 
the attendance has largely increased, the num- 
ln'r (if pupils registered the first year having 
been but forty, while in the second year sixty 
names appeared upon the roll. Since the comple- 
tion of the new county high school building in 
1905, this institution has enjoyed greater facili- 
ties, and now in addition to the regular high 
school course has a good commercial course of 
study and a thorough course for teachers of all 
grades. 




(^{B^Ji 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



339 



June 9, 1898, in Dunkirk, Ind., F. C. Schofiek! 
married Martha E. Nickerson, who was born in 
Montgomery county, Ohio, a daughter of James 
B. Nickerson, and granddaughter of Clark Nick- 
erson. a pioneer fanner of Clinton county. Ohio. 
She is of New England ancestry, being a de- 
scendant of one William Nickerson, who emi- 
grated from England to this country in 1637, 
settling in Massachusetts. James B. Nickerson 
was torn in Clinton county, Ohio, and having 
received a fine education was for many years 
engaged in teaching school, being well known 
as an educator in Clinton and Montgomery 
counties, Ohio, and in Jay county, Ind. He 
served for four years in the Civil war, being cap- 
tain of Company B, Fortieth Ohio Volunteer In- 
fantry. He is an active Republican in politics, 
a devoted member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, and belongs to the Baptist Church. Oc- 
tober 25, 1865, Captain Nickerson married Mary 
McEwen, who was Ijorn near Dayton, Ohio. Her 
father, the late Robert G. McEwen, was born 
near Hamburg, Pa., but moved from there to 
IMontgomery county, Ohio, where he followed 
farming for many years. He was a man of prom- 
inence, and served in the state legislature. Mr. 
and Mrs. Schofield have one child, Andalusia. 
Mr. Schofield is a member of the State Teach- 
ers' Association, and of the Sigma Alpha Ep- 
silon, of Denver. He is a Republican in his 
political affiliations, and both he and his wife 
imited with the Baptist Church while living in 
Dunkirk. Ind. 



WRIGHT PATRICK HALL. While the 
commonwealth of Massachusetts was yet in 
the early period of its colonial history the Hall 
family became established among its pioneers, 
the first of the name in America having been 
Richard Hall, who as early as 1673 became as- 
sociated with the little town of Bradford, in the 
eastern part of the state. Next in line of de- 
scent was Joseph, whose son, Ebenezer, a native 
of Bradford, established the family name in New 
Hampshire and died at Concord. The follow- 
ing generation was represented by Daniel Hall, 
who was born in New Hampshire and there spent 



his entire life, with the exception of the period of 
his active service in the Revolutionary war. 
Among the children of this Revolutionary sol- 
dier was a son, Jeremiah, who was born in Con- 
cord, N. H., and married Judith Rolfe, after 
which he removed to Maine in company with two 
other members of the Hall family, two members 
of the Rolfe family, three members of the Ab- 
bott family, and Jeremy Farnham, the little party 
becoming very early settlers of Rumford, Ox- 
ford county. After the establishment of the fam- 
ily at Rumford a son was born, to whom was 
given the name of Davis Hall, and whose birth 
occurred July 12, 18 10. 

After having learned the carpenter's trade 
Davis Hall went to Watertown and there mar- 
ried Mary Ann Patrick, who was born at Jaf- 
frey, Cheshire county, N. H. On the paternal 
side she traced her lineage to county Antrim. Ire- 
land, whither the family had removed from Scot- 
land. Early in American history they came to 
Massachusetts and settled at Fitcliburg, but in 
1809 became identified with the village of Jaf- 
frey in New Hampshire. In 1840 Davis Hall 
removed to Waltham, Mass., where for thirty 
years he was employed in the Newton chemical 
works. In that city his wife died March 20, 
1880, at seventy years of age, and he then left 
the east and joined his son in California, where 
he died September 23, 1883, aged seventy-one 
years and ten months. Among his five children 
Wright Patrick was the eldest ; Davis, a pioneer 
of California, held the office of county clerk of 
Plumas county, and was also United States 
deputy surveyor for many years, he died at 
Ouincy in 1887 ; Samuel came to the west with 
his eldest brother and now resides at Quincy ; 
William came west in i860 and is a resident of 
Lassen county; and Edwin died in Susanville. 

At the family homestead in Rumford, Me., 
Wright Patrick Hall was born April 26, 1834, 
and from there he accompanied the family to 
Waltham, Alass.. in 1840. After having ac- 
quired a common-school education, at the age of 
seventeen years he entered upon an apprentice- 
ship to the hatter's trade, at which he served for 
four ^•ears. Ci^on the expiration of his time he 
embarked in business for himself in Waltham, 



340 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



where he conducted a hat store until 1857, the 
date of his removal to the west. Having dis- 
posed of his interests in Massachusetts, he took 
passage on the ship, Moses Taylor, from New 
York to Aspinwall, and after crossing the isthmus 
boarded the old ship John L. Stevens for San 
Francisco. After landing he proceeded immed- 
iately to what is now Plumas county and en- 
gaged in mining at Howland Flat. During De- 
cember of 1858 he made a trip to Honey Lake 
valley and in i860 returned to this locality as a 
permanent resident, renting a dairy during the 
first summer, but in the fall taking up land six 
miles below Susanville, where he embarked in 
the dairy business. At the time of the Virginia 
City mining excitement he sold luitter in that 
camp for seventy-five cents a pound. For a time 
he was in partnership with John P>atcheld€r. but 
this connection was ultimately dissolved. In 
1862 he went to Truckee (now Reno) and took 
toll on the lake ferry while the bridge was build- 
ing, after which he took toll on the bridge for a 
vear, and then spent two years in the saw-mill 
business at Crystal Peak. From there he re- 
turned to his ranch. 

Adjoining Susanville on the east stands the 
ranch of four hundred and eighty acres which 
Mr. Hall purchased in 1873 and on which he 
conducted general farm pursuits, at the same 
time carrying on a dairy ranch of one thousand 
acres at Eagle lake and in the Papoose valley. 
The butter from the dairy found a ready market 
in Virginia City at high prices. In 1885 he sold 
the ranch and about the same time sold off lots 
on Main street through his place. During 1895 
he laid out and platted one hundred and sixty 
acres, known as Hall's addition. Three hundred 
and twenty acres of the land were sold in 1904, 
since which time he has owned only the home- 
stead of fourteen acres. An ardent Republican, 
he has served as secretary of the county central 
committee of his party for thirty-five years, for 
nine years held office as county clerk of Lassen 
county, filled the positions of road overseer and 
school trustee, for five years acted as register of 
the United States land office and for a similar 
period served as receiver of the same office, be- 
sides which from 1898 to 1902 he held the office 



of county treasurer, and in 1902 he was again 
elected county treasurer, which office he now 
fills, together with that of county tax collector. 
In all of his positions he has proved himself 
efficient, reliable, trustworthy and intelligent. 
Fraternally he is connected with Silver Star 
Lodge, I. O. O. F., at Susanville, in which he is 
past noble grand, and at one time he was active- 
ly connected with the Encampment. Initiated 
into Masonry in Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. 
M., he is past master of that body, also holds con- 
nection with Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. M., 
Lassen Commandery No. 13, K. T., and the 
Order of the Eastern Star, in which also his 
wife is active. His marriage was solemnized in 
Quincy, Cal., and united him with Miss Mary 
Jane Stickney, who was born at Whitingham, 
^^'indham county, \t.. and by this union there 
are four children, namely: Charles E., employed 
as a drug clerk in San Francisco/, Mary Ellen, 
wife of John Spaulding, of Susanville; Lewis 
Davis, cashier of the Bank of Lassen county ; 
and Frederick D., who carries on farm ])ursuits 
near Standish. 



JOSEPH B. WILLIAMS. Conspicuous among 
the active and enterprising young business men 
of Susanville is Joseph B. Williams, who as 
proprietor of the only jewelry establishment in 
the cit>' is closely associated with its mercantile 
interests, holding an honored position among 
the leading merchants of this part of Lassen 
county. A son of the late Crayton A. Williams, 
he was born December 23, 1872, in Summit, Pike 
county. Miss. The family came to California in 
1874, locating in San Francisco, and after a resi- 
dence of about one year removed to Cloverdale, 
Sonoma county, where the family has since re- 
sided and where the father died in 1895. There 
the children were brought up and educated. 

Having obtained a good common school educa- 
tion, Joseph B. Williams began work at the 
jeweler's trade, serving an apprenticeship of 
three years. Becoming proficient, he secured a 
position with the firm of G. W. Ryde & Son, in 
San Jose, where he remained thirteen years, his 
long term of service with his employers bearing 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



343 



evidence of his capability and fidelity. Embark- 
ing in bu.sincs.s on bis own account in 1902, Mr. 
Williams settled in Downieville, Sierra county, 
where he ran a store for a year. Coming to 
Lassen county in May. 1903. he opened a store in 
the Emerson building, putting in a fine stock of 
jewelry, thus establishing a trade which has since 
rapidly increased, until he is now one of the most 
prosperous business men of the place. Energetic 
and progressive, Air. Williams has risen to his 
present position among his fellow-men through 
his own exertions, and is an excellent represent- 
ative of the self-made men of our times. Pru- 
dent and thrifty, he has acquired considerable 
property, and owns some real estate in the city. 
At Nevada City, Cal., in 1903, Mr. Williams 
married Emma M. Kayser, and they have one 
child, \'erne. Politically Mr. Williams is iden- 
tified with the Republican party, and fraternally 
he belongs to Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. 
M., and to Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. M. 
With his wife he is a member of the Eastern 
Star Chapter and Court Amaranth No. i. Dur- 
ing the summer of 1906 Mr. Williams erected 
a building on Main street, 40x60 feet, constructed 
of .stone taken from the (|uarries adjacent to the 
city. 



ZETUS NEWELL SPALDING, M. D. The 
records appertaining to the early settlement of 
America show that Edward Spalding crossed the 
ocean from England with Sir George Yeardley 
about 1619 and settled in Virginia, having fully 
established himself in that colony by the year 
1623. From the records of the Braintree colony 
in Massachusetts it is learned that Edward Spald- 
ing arrived there about 1634 and it is the sup- 
position that he came north in one of the trading 
vessels common to that day. From Braintree he 
removed in 1653 to Qielmsford, which town he 
assisted in founding, and afterward served for 
many years as selectman, also filling other posi- 
tions of local influence. The second generation 
in America was represented by Andrew, who 
was born November 19, 1652, and married Han- 
nah Jefes. Another Andrew, grandson of Ed- 
ward, w\as born at Chelmsford March 25, 1678, 



and followed the occupation of a farmer, also, 
like his father, was an earnest Cliristian and a 
deacon in the church. In the next generation 
was Andrew, born at Chelmsford December 8, 
1701, and one of the founders of New Ipswich, 
N. H. The head of the next generation also 
bore the name of Andrew ; the latter was born 
at Westford, Mass., served for three years in 
the Revolutionary war, married Abigail Martin, 
and became a man of prominence in New Ips- 
wich, N. H., where the closing years of his life 
were passed. 

Tracing the genealogy down another genera- 
tion we find that the head of the family was 
Benjamin, who was born at New Ipswich, N. H., 
March 24, 1762, and died at Craftsbury, Vt., May 
II, 1838. His wife bore the maiden name of 
Azubah Gates. At the time of the attack on 
Lexington he hastened to the scene and after- 
ward served throughout the Revolution under 
Capt. Samuel Paine. During 1780 he raised a 
company to assist in defending the western fron- 
tier and about the same time he was made a cap- 
tain under Col. Moses Nichols, with whom he 
served in the defense of West Point. Simeon, 
son of Capt. Benjamin Spalding, was born Feb- 
ruary 26, 1791, and married Betsey Chamber- 
lain, by whom he had, among other children, a 
son, Z. N. Spalding, whose name introduces this 
article and whose birth occurred at .\lbanv, Or- 
leans county, Vt., August 13, 1819. While he 
was yet a small child, in 1826, he accompanied 
his parents to Peru, Huron county, Ohio, and 
subset|uently made his home in North Norwich, 
a town in the same county that now bears the 
name of Havana. After having concluded the 
studies of the grammar schools and Norwalk 
Academy, in 1840 he began the study of medicine 
under Dr. Hugh F. Prouty, of Monroevillc, 
Huron county, Ohio, and later completed his 
medical studies under Dr. IMoses C. Sanders, of 
Maxville, Perry county, Ohio, one of the cen- 
-sors of the Cleveland Medical College, where in 
1846 he received his degree. 

Upon establishing himself in practice Dr. 
Spalding opened an office at Roxana. Eaton 
county, Mich., where he remained for a number 
of years. From there, April 6, 1852, he started 



344 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



across the plains with ox-teams, and after an 
uneventful journey landed in Sierra county on 
the 1 2th of August. After an experience as a 
miner that brought him the hardships and the 
rewards of such a life, he turned his attention to 
other pursuits, and during the spring of 1855 
began merchandising at St. Louis, Sierra county. 
A fire that occurred in July of 1857 caused a total 
loss and forced him to begin anew in the world. 
At that time he came to Susanville wholly with- 
out means, and here he embarked in the practice 
of his profession. During the same year (1857) 
he received an appointment as acting assistant 
surgeon of the United States army on the Cali- 
fornia coast and remained in that capacity among 
the Indians until the close of the Civil war, after 
which he resumed professional work in Lassen 
county. For several terms he held office as 
county superintendent of schools, also as county 
coroner and public administrator, and filled the 
position of county physician. After coming to 
this part of the state he took up Masonic rela- 
tions, becoming associated with Lassen Lodge 
No. 149, F. & A. M. ; Lissen Oiapter No. 47, R. 
A. M., and Lassen Comniandery No. 13. K. T. 
When he died, May 17, 1898, he was mourned 
bv the people of the county where for so long he 
had made his home. His demise was regarded as 
a loss to professional and business circles, to the 
Masonic fraternity and to the general public. 

The marriage of Dr. Spalding was solemnized 
at St. Louis, Cal, August 11, 1857, and united 
him with Mary Ann Brown, who was born in 
Sussex, England, July 16, 1840. During her 
childhood years, after the death of her father 
in New York and after the marriage of her wid- 
owed mother to C. P. Sheffield, she accompanied 
the family to California, settling in the north- 
eastern part of the state, where ]\Ir. Sheffield 
engaged in the manufacture of lumber. At a 
later date he removed to San Francisco and be- 
came identified with the Pacific Saw Manufac- 
turing Company, in which enterprise he accumu- 
lated large means. In the family of Dr. and 
Mrs. Spalding there were twelve children, and 
five of these are now living, namely : Mrs. Ida 
Ruggles, of Los Angeles ; John Bridger, of Su- 
sanville : Wilbur Fiske, supervisor of Lassen 



county and a farmer near Madeline ; Jennie and 
Claire, who are residents of Susanville. 



JOHN BRIDGER SPALDING. A repre- 
sentative position among tlie business men of 
Lassen county is held by John Bridger Spalding, 
a life-long resident of this portion of California 
and tlie son of Dr. Z. N. Spalding, numbered 
among the influential and honored pioneers of 
Susanville. It was in this city that the gentle- 
man was born whose name introduces this ar- 
ticle and who now wields a wide influence as a 
capable and progressive citizen. Born October 
II, 1864, he was given excellent educational ad- 
vantages during his boyhood years and with an 
ambition to acquire a broad and varied knowl- 
edge he availed himself to the utmost of every 
opportunity offered. When nineteen years of 
age he entered into partnership with his father 
in the drug business in Susanville, the two con- 
tinuing together until the doctor's death. 

The drug store of which Mr. Spalding is now 
the proprietor is said to be the most commodious 
and substantial store of its kind in Lassen county. 
All modern conveniences may be found here for 
the proper management of the business and a 
thorough survey of the stock shows that a full 
line of drugs is carried, in addition to the other 
articles usually carried in such a business, includ- 
ing stationery, rubber goods, toilet supplies, etc. 
The store has been occupied since May, 1894, 
superseding the occupancy of a building across 
the street that was totally destroyed by fire in 
1893. The comfortable residence built and occu- 
pied by Mr. Spalding is presided over by his 
wife, formerly Mary Ellen Hall, and a native 
of Honey Lake valley, being a daughter of W. 
P. Hall, treasurer of Lassen county. Their fam- 
ily consists of four children, Leah Blanche, 
Wright Leslie, Zella May and John Mervyn. 

Ever since casting his first vote Mr. Spalding 
has been an adherent of the Republican party 
and a believer in its principles. Some years ago 
he was made a Mason in Lassen Lodge No. 149, 
F. & A. M. ; since then he has become affiliated 
with Lassen Oiapter No. 47, R. A. M. ; Lassen 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFX'ORD. 



345 



Commandery No. 13, K. T., in which he is gen- 
eralissimo; and Islam Temple, N. M. S., of San 
Francisco. By virtue of his birth in this state 
he has become a memJDer of the Native Sons of 
the Golden West, in the interests of which order 
he has maintained considerable activity and has 
served efficiently as president of Lassen Parlor 
No. 99, in Susanville. The mantle worn by his 
father has fallen upon him and he receives the 
respect of his fellow-citizens in the same measure 
extended to his father during the latter's lifetime. 
Both as the proprietor of the drug store and as 
agent for the Wells-Fargo Express Company, he 
has become closely allied with the business de- 
velopment of his home town, and has aided in 
the promotion of its commercial activities. 



JUDGE FRANK A. KELLEY. The Kelley 
family, represented in Lassen county by Judge 
I'rank A. Kelley, of Susanville, is of New Eng- 
land ancestry, Vermont having been their home 
for several generations. Frank Anson Kelley 
was born in Danby, Rutland county, September 
17, 1853, a son of George F. Kelley. who was a 
native of Otter Creek, same county. The latter 
was one of a large family of sons who were 
reared on a farm, but in young manhood all fol- 
lowed the marble business. One brother, T. A., 
came to California and later sent back such glow- 
ing reports that George F. Kelley decided to 
follow him, in 1858 bringing his wife and two 
children on the Champion to the Isthmus of 
Panama, thence on the Piloses H. Taylor to San 
Francisco. He located three miles south of 
Santa Rosa, Sonoma county, on a four hundred 
acre farm, a part of a Spanish grant : he refused 
to buy the property and for years fought the 
claim. He finally carried the matter to Wash- 
ington, but this being at the time of the war 
the president was unable to give the necessary 
time and attention to the affair, and his death 
later ])revented the fulfillment of his promise 
made at that time to look up the claim. In 1866 
he was forced from his location and with the 
loss of all he had gained since coming to Cali- 
fornia he was compelled once more to begin a 



career. In the same year he came to Lassen 
county and in Honey Lake valley bought a 
ranch ten miles below Susanville ; he had contin- 
ued to add to this property until at his death, 
aged fifty-nine years, he owned two thousand 
acres devoted to pasturage and the raising of 
hay. He married Emily Button, also a native 
of Vermont and a daughter of Anson Button, 
a farmer, and the representative of an old New 
England family. Her great-grandfather on the 
paternal side served valiantly in the Revolu- 
tionary war, in which he would have come to his 
death had it not been for a little pocket Bible, 
which received the impact of the bullet meant 
for him. Airs. Kelley survives her husband and 
now makes her home on the old ranch in Las- 
sen county. Of the five sons born to them three 
attained maturity, namely : Clarence G., an at- 
torney, who died in Susanvile ; Frank Anson, of 
this review ; and Edgar A., also an attorney, 
having graduated from Hastings Law School, 
but who, instead of practicing his jjrofession. en- 
gages in farming and stock-raising on the old 
homestead. 

P'rank Anson Kelley was but five years old 
when he was brought to California by his par- 
ents, and thus practically his entire life has been 
spent among western scenes and conditions. He 
received his preliminar\- education in the public 
schools of Sonoma county, after which, in his 
new home in Lassen county, he attended the 
Johnstonville school in Honey Lake valle\'. At 
the age of seventeen years he went to Winne- 
mucca, Nev., and became foreman on a cattle 
ranch for his uncle, I. V. Button, with whom he 
remained for three years. He owned several 
patents and in this interest went to San Fran- 
cisco, where he met an old schoolmate, A. O. 
Colton, a son of F. D. Colton, a prominent at- 
torney of that place : he there became interested 
in the intricacies of the law and a little later 
entered the offices of Colton, Wilson & Trout 
with the intention of mastering the study. May 
4, 1886. he was admitted to the practice of his 
profession and for two years remained a resident 
of San Francisco. The death of his father made 
i( imperative for him to return to Lassen county 
and look after the interests of the large estate ; 



346 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



he engaged, however, in ranching only until his 
election in 1889 to the office of district attorney. 
He served one term in that capacity and in 1890 
was nominated for judge of the superior court, 
but was defeated in the election that followed by 
Judge Mastin. In 1896 he was renominated by 
the Republican party and was elected over three 
opponents by eleven votes. He took the oath of 
office in January, 1897, and served efficiently to 
the close of his term, when he was renominated 
and re-elected by a majority of one hundred and 
sixty votes, being the only judge of the county 
re-elected to a second term. 

In San Francisco Judge Kelley was united in 
marriage with Miss May Livingston, a native of 
Oregon, and a daugliter of D. C. Livingston, an 
early settler of the Pacific coast, and now a resi- 
dent of Susanville. The judge and his wife have 
had five children, of whom four are living: 
George F. (a dentist of Truckee, Gal). Maud 
M., Fred E. and Ruby B. Judge Kelley has al- 
ways been a stanch adherent of the principles 
advocated in the platform of the Republican 
party, and has taken an active interest in their 
promulgation. Fraternally he is a member of 
Silver Star No. 128, I. O. O. F., of Susanville, 
of which he is past grand. 



THOMAS ABNER RAMSEY. Prominent 
among the active and enterprising agriculturists 
of Honey Lake valley is Thomas Abner Ramsey, 
who displays pronounced skill and ability in his 
agricultural work, his farm lying one mile south 
of Susanville, being in an excellent state of cul- 
tivation, while the improvements are substantial 
and valuable. A native of Iowa, he was born 
February 12, 1858, in Mt. Pleasant, Henry 
county, a .son of J. T. Ramsey. His paternal 
grandfather, Thomas Ramsey, born either in 
Virginia or Kentucky, moved from the latter 
state to Jeffersonville, Ind., where he bought and 
operated a saw-mill for a number of years. On 
retiring from active pursuits he settled in Mt. 
Pleasant, Iowa, where he spent his last years. 
Born in Kentucky, J. T. Ramsey moved with 
the familv to Indiana, and later went to Mt. 



Pleasant, Iowa, where he was a contractor and 
builder, carrying on an extensive business, and 
also owned a farm. In 1887 he came to Gali- 
fornia, locating in Janesville, Lassen county, as 
a contractor, and was there busily employed until 
his death, which was caused by an accident in 
1890. His first wife, whose maiden name was 
Laura McMurphy, was born in Illinois, and died 
in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, leaving two children, 
namely : Mrs. Mattie Reed, of Petaluma, Gal. ; 
and Thomas Abner, of this review. By his sec- 
ond marriage he had six children, three sons and 
three daughters, all of whom reside in Honey 
Lake valley. 

Spending his early life in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, 
Thomas Abner Ramsey laid a substantial 
foundation for his future education in the com- 
mon schools, and subsequently continued his 
studies at Howe's Academy. At the age of 
eleven years he began working as a farm labor- 
er in summer, in the winter seasons doing 
chores for his board and going to school. Com- 
ing to Janesville, Gal., in 1877, ^^c secured work 
on a farm in this valley. Industrious, prudent 
and thrifty, he accumulated quite a sum of money, 
and in 1882 bought four hundred acres of tule 
land on the lake shore, and for six years carried 
on a substantial dairy business. Disposing of 
that property in 1888, Mr. Ramsey, with his 
father-in-law, J. T. Masten, bought the ranch 
on which he now resides. It is situated about a 
mile south of Susanville, and contains seven 
hundred and thirty-six acres. He has made im- 
provements of great value on the place, includ- 
ing the erection of two residences and two sets 
of farm buildings. A thoroughgoing farmer, he 
carries on general farming after the most ap- 
proved methods of modern times, irrigating his 
land with water from the Susan river, his ditch 
being one of the first ones out of the stream. 
He raises alfalfa and hay, having about six hun- 
dred tons a year of the latter, and has fifty-five 
head of cattle in his dairy. He milks fifty cows, 
separates the cream with a De Laval separator, 
and delivers it to the Susanville creamery. He 
is also somewhat interested in stock, feeding 
cattle for the winter markets. He raises consid- 
erable wheat, and with two of his neighbors 





. ^•y-y v 




-C^^^CCh.-^^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



349 



owns a steam tliresluT. with wliicli he uses either 
a hinder or a header. 

In Honey Lake valley Mr. Ramsey married 
Minnie Masten, who was horn in Colusa count}-, 
Cal., a daughter of J. T. Masten, who came to 
this state in 1872, and is now a resident of Pa- 
cific Grove. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey are the par- 
ents of four children, namely : Frank, Roy, Mas- 
ten, and Aberta M.' In national politics Mr. 
Ramsey is identified with the Republicans, but 
in local affairs is independent, voting for tlie 
best men and measures. He was made a Mason 
in Janesville Lodge, and is now a member of 
Lassen Lodge No. T49, F. & A. M. Both Mr. 
and Mrs. Ramsey belong to the Order of the 
Eastern Star and to Court Amaranth No. i. 



WILLIAM BROCKMAN. An extensive 
landholder and a well-to-do agriculturist, Will- 
iam Brocknian is prosperously engaged in his in- 
dependent occupation on one of the pleasantest 
and most desirable homesteads in Lassen county. 
His home farm is finely located about three miles 
east of Susanville, and comprises over four hun- 
dred acres of land under a high state of cultiva- 
tion. On this he has made all the improvements, 
which are many and valuable, invariably attract- 
ing the attention of the passer-by, and indicating 
to what good purpose the owner has employed 
his time and means. A son of John Frederick 
Brockman. he was born November 22, 1836, in 
Germany, near Hamburg. His great-grandfather 
on the paternal side was interested in the mer- 
chant marine service, and on account of business 
aflfairs moved from England to Germany. His 
son, Christian Brockman, grandfather of Will- 
iam Brockman, was a physician and surgeon, 
anil located near Hamburg, Germany, where for 
many years he was superintendent of a hospital. 

Born near Hamburg, John Frederick Brock- 
man was an extensive manufacturer until his 
death, at the early age of thirty-six years, being 
employed as a carriage and wagon maker in his 
native city. He was a man of honest worth and 
an active member of the Lutheran church. He 
married Catherine Iluscn. wlio was born near 



Hamburg, the descendant of an old family, and 
died there in 1843. *^^''^ years prior to the death 
of luT husi)and. .^he bore him, five children, 
three of whom are living, William being the old- 
est child and the only one on the Pacific coast. 

Left an orphan at the age of nine years, Will- 
iam firockman was brought up by his grand- 
father. Dr. Brockman, who educated him at the 
Hamburg Gymnasium. While a boy he served 
as messenger on the staff of General Wrangel, of 
the First Sleswick-Holstein Regiment, serving 
during the Revolution on the courier staff, from 
1848 until 185 1. At the age of seventeen he 
began a three years' apprenticeship at the trades 
of a blacksmith and carriage maker under his 
uncle, Peter Brockman. Immigrating to Amer- 
ica in 1856, he settled in Davenport, Iowa, where 
he followed his trade in the carriage works for 
three years. Starting then for the Pacific coast 
by way of the Isthmus, he sailed from Panama 
on the Orazaba, arriving in San Francisco in De- 
cember, 1859. Going to the Butte county mines, 
he worked at his trade about six months, and in 
the spring of i860 built a shop on Honcut creek 
.ind was there engaged in blacksmithing three 
years. Goint;' from there to Plumas county, he 
worked as a blacksmith and wagon maker one 
year. In 1864 he located in Susanville. buying 
a blacksmith shop that stood on the present site 
of the Emerson house, and here had ample work 
on account of the great amount of freighting 
from Idaho and Nevada. 

In the fall of 1866 Mr. Brockman purchased 
his present home ranch, which was then in its 
primitive condition, the only improvement on the 
place being a rude shanty. He at once began 
work, and in the time that has since elapsed has 
made wonderful transformations in the place. 
He has erected a convenient set of farm build- 
ings ; has placed the land under irrigation : set 
out the first orchard on the bottom ; and has now 
one of the most valuable and productive grain 
and stock farms in the county. He raises hay 
and alfalfa, feeds many cattle, and makes a spe- 
cialty of breeding and raising stock, keeping 
Red Durham cattle and French Percheron 
horses, the latter of which he imported. Besides 
the home ranch, he also owns a thirtv-fivc hun- 



350 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



dred-acre stock ranch on Madeline plains, and a 
tine farm of five hnndred acres near Milford. 
both valuable estates. 

Mr. Brockman was married in Susanville to 
Mrs. Elizabeth (Collins) League, who was born 
in Iowa, and died on the home farm, leaving two 
sons, namely : Willis C, on the Madeline stock 
ranch : and John Frederick, on the home ranch. 
In Davenport, Iowa, Mr. Brockman married 
Wilhelmina Reuman, a native of Sleswick-Hol- 
stein, Germany, and of this union three children 
have been born, namely : Carl S., on the Mil- 
ford ranch ; and Lizzie M. and Edna M., at home- 
In national politics Mr. Brockman is an ardent 
Republican, but in local matters he votes with 
the courage of his convictions, independent of 
party restrictions. Fraternally he belongs to 
Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. M., of which 
he was master two terms ; to Lassen Chapter No. 
47, R. A. M.. which be served as high priest 
twelve years; of Lassen Commandery No. 13, 
K. T., of which he was commander two terms ; 
to the Order of the Eastern Star, to which Mrs. 
Brockman also belongs, and of which he is past 
worthy patron: to Silver Star Lodge No. 126, 
I. O. O. F., of which he is past grand ; to the 
Encampment, of which he is past chief patriarch ; 
and was formerly a member of the Canton, and 
both he and his wife belong to the Rebekahs. 
In his religious views he is a Lutheran. 



WILLIAM EMMET AGEE. Prominent 
among the energetic and progressive business 
men of Honey Lake valley is William Emmet 
Agee, a keen, wide-awake representative of the 
manufacturing interests of Lassen county, own- 
ing and operating a lumber and shingle mill 
near Janesville. Since taking possession of his 
plant he has built up an extensive trade in 
dressed lumber, shingles, and box material of 
all kinds, his mill having a capacity of five thou- 
sand feet in twelve hours, while his lumber yard 
nearby is one of the largest in this part of the 
county.- Mr. Agee was torn January 7, 1869, 
in Lewis county. Mo., which was also the birth- 
place of his father, Louis Philip Agee. He comes 



of distinguished ancestry, tracing his lineage 
back to the days when the Hugiienots flourished 
in France. After the revocation of the edict of 
Nantes by Louis XIV the emigrant ancestor 
went from France to Holland, from there immi- 
grating with his family in 1690 to America and 
settling in Virginia. There Frederick Ayers 
Agee, Mr. Agee"s grandfather, was born and 
reared, his early home being in Buckingham 
county. He subsequently removed to Missouri, 
becoming a pioneer settler of that state, and one 
of its leading agriculturists. 

Succeeding to the occupation of his ancestors. 
Louis PhilTp Agee -was- cHg^ed. iii agiicuituiai 
pursuits in Lewis county. Mo., during his brief 
life of thirty-three years. He married Mary 
Agnes Gregorv. the daughter of John Gregory. 
a farmer. She was born in Lewis county. Mo., 
and died in Texas, when but twenty-eight years 
old. Oi the four children born of their union, 
all are living, William Emmet, the subject of 
this sketch, being the oldest child. 

Left an orphan when ten years of age, Will- 
iam Emmet Agee has since been more or less 
dependent upon his own resources, and a brief 
resume of his life furnishes a forcible illustra- 
tion of the splendid success that may be obtained 
in the industrial world by a man of brain and 
brawn. Securing work on a farm, he received 
wages during the summer seasons, and in the 
winter attended school, doing chores in the mean- 
time for his board. At the age of seventeen 
vears he entered La Belle Academy, which he 
attended three winters, paying his own expenses 
while at the institution. He subsequently con- 
tinued his residence in Missouri, being employed 
in farming and carpentering for a few years. 
In 1892 he came to California in search of a 
favorable opening, and first engaged in farming 
in Solano county, afterwards working at the 
carpenter's trade in San Francisco one summer. 
Locating in Plumas county in 1895, he was em- 
ployed m mining on Indian creek for four years. 
Locating in Janesville in 1899. he rented from 
J. E. Jellison his present mill, of which he ob- 
tained possession by purchase in 1900. First 
buying stumpage, he engaged in the manufacture 
of lumber, shingles and box material, and after- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



351 



wards bought eighty acres of standing timber, 
which he is rapidly converting into dressed lum- 
ber of all kinds. His plant is equijjped with a 
twenty-tive-horse-power engine, run by water 
power, the water being pipetl through a steel ])ipe 
seven hundred feet in length, and coming from 
a mountain stream which has a fall of two hun- 
dred and sixty feet. In his labors Mr. Agee is 
meeting with marked success, the amount of 
shingles which he manufactures each vear ex- 
ceeding that of any other mill in the county, 
antl his productions being widel}' known in the 
leading lumber markets of this region. Besides 
his mill proiJerty, wdiich is located about two 
and one-half miles southeast of Janesville, he 
has a two-acre lot in town on which in 1902 he 
erected a fine residence and substantial outbuild- 
ings. 

In Buntingville, Lassen county, in 1902, Mr. 
Agee married Annie Belle Sharp, who was born 
in this valley, a daughter of the late J. P. Sharp, 
who located here in 1857, ''"d ^ sister of W. W. 
Sharp, county auditor and recorder, of whom a 
short sketch appears on another page of this 
work. Mr. and Mrs. Agee have two children, 
Orvis Freeland and Irene Marie. Politically 
Mr. Agee is a Socialist, and fraternally he be- 
longs to Janesville Lodge No. 223, I. O. O. F., 
of which he is past grand ; and both he and his 
wife are members of the Rebekahs. Mrs. Agee 
is a woman of culture and refinement, and a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church. 



THOMAS W. WJLSON. Travel through 
various portions of the country has given to 
Mr. Wilson an intimate acquaintance with the 
possibilities of the United States and the varied 
conditions of soil, climate and population. For 
a considerable period he has been a resident 
of Susanville, where, in addition to filling the 
office of sheriff of Lassen county, he carries on 
a lumber business. Five miles northwest of 
town he has a sawmill, which he purchased in 
1900, and this he has since remodeled and im- 
proved with steam power, /endering possible a 
capacity of twent}' thousand feet per day. The 
location of the mill in the center of a timber 



belt enables him to purchase fine qualities of tim- 
ber at reasonable rates. In 1904 he erected in 
Susanville a modern planing mill, where now he 
planes the lumber. The business is one of the 
nourishing mdustries of the county and has 
brought to its proprietor a deserved prominence 
and prosperity. 

Canada is Mr. Wilson's native country, but his 
ancestors came from the United States. His pa- 
ternal grandfather was a native of Vermont, and 
became a farmer of Franklin county, N. Y., 
where he died at a very advanced age. The 
father, Isaac P., was born and reared on a 
farm in Franklin county, and during the 50's 
was a member of a company that built mills, and 
embarked in the manufacture of lumber in Can- 
ada, where for thirty years lie continued in 
the lumbering business. Later, upon his re- 
moval to Minneapolis, he became a member of 
the lumber firm of A. C. Wilson & Co., and con- 
tinued in that city until his death at more than 
eighty-six years, since then his widow, who was 
Eliza Lyons of New York, has continued to make 
her home at Royalton, Minn. Of their five chil- 
dren four are living: Mrs. Robert Blackwood, 
A. C, and George E., residents of Royalton, 
Minn. ; while Thomas W., the eldest of the four, 
is the only one to settle in California. Born near 
Montreal, Canada, January 28, 1856, he received 
his education in the schools of Canada and New 
York. At the age of seventeen he went to Brush- 
ton. Franklin county, N. Y., where he entered 
the employ of an uncle in his sash and door 
factory. Later he engaged in lumbering in New 
York and Canada. 

When the discovery of gold at Leadville took 
thousands to that new gold camp of Colorado 
Mr. Wilson in 1879 tried his fortune in that 
place, but soon went on to Golden, the same 
state, and later crossed into Wyoming, where 
for a year or more he was employed by Rand, 
Briggs & Steedman, one of the earliest of the 
stock companies established in the west. Com- 
ing to California in 1882 he made a tour of in- 
spection through the state and then returned to 
Minnesota for the winter. In the spring' of 1883 
he came back to California and traveleathrough 
the northern part, settling in Big valley and em- 



352 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



barking in tlu- stock business. On the Pitt river, 
five miles from P.ieijer, in Lassen county, he 
bought a stock ranch and engaged in raising cat- 
tle and horses, but after his election as county 
sheriff he disposed of the land and stock. On 
the Republican ticket in 1898 he was first elected 
to the sheritif's office and took the oath of office 
in lanuarv. 1899, at which time he established 
his home in Susanville. During his first term 
as sheriff he also served as tax collector, but at 
his request the board of county supen.'isors trans- 
ferred that office and made it a part of the county 
treasurer's office. In the discharge of his duties 
as sherifl^, during both terms, he has proved him- 
self painstaking, efficient and reliable, a diligent 
defender of law and justice. By membership 
in the Sheriff's Association of California he has 
formed a wide acquaintance among the other 
incumbents of this office in the state, and by 
these he is known and respected as a man of 
abilitv and intelligence. 

By his first marriage Mr. Wilson became the 
father 6f three children, Dorothy. Rena, and 
George. His second marriage united him with 
Miss Lucy Thompson, a native daughter of Las- 
sen county, of which her father, George, was 
a pioneer. Before leaving Canada Mr. Wilson 
was made a Mason in Montreal and now belongs 
to Adin Lodge No. 250, F. & A. M., also is 
identified with Acacia Chapter No. 64, R. A. M., 
at Adin; Lassen Commandery No. 13, K. T., 
and Islam Temple, N. M. S., at San Francisco, 
while also he belongs to the Order of the Eastern 
Star, in which his wife is an officer. Both are 
actively connected with the Order of Amaranths 
No. I. Though not associated with any denomi- 
nation ]\Ir. Wilson is in sympathy with their 
work and contributes to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, of which his wife is a member. Liberal 
and enterprising, resourceful and reliable, he is 
well qualified to attain success in business as 
well as prestige in his official position. 



JOHN CAHLAN. Prominent among the 
intelligent, systematic and prosperous agricult- 
urists of L.assen county is John Cahlan, a pio- 



neer settler of Honey Lake valley, and owner of 
one of the largest and most productive farms in 
the vicinity of Susanville. A man of unques- 
tioned integrity and honesty, liberal and chari- 
table, he is recognized throughout the community 
as a citizen of worth, and is held in high esteem 
bv all w'.io know him. A son of J. H. Cahlan, 
he was born April 16, 1840, on board a merchant 
vessel, while his parents were crossing the At- 
lantic ocean. His father settled at Rondout, N. 
Y.. on arriving with his family in this country, 
and there his mother died at an early age, leav- 
ing three children, namely: M. T., John, and 
B. C. The oldest and the youngest of these sons 
enlisted during the Civil war, and have not since 
been heard from. 

When eight years of age John Cahlan went to 
Ogle county. 111., to live with an uncle, and from 
that time worked his own way through the world, 
obtaining his education in the winter terms of 
the district school near Lee Center, walking 
through the snow to the old log school house of 
pioneer times. In 1859 he joined an expedition 
bound for Pike's Peak, starting with John Drum- 
mond, Aldridge Worthington and W. H. Mc- 
Burney. The party crossed the Missouri river 
at Plattsmouth on March 18, and continued west- 
ward to Fort Laramie, and thence to Fort Bridg- 
er, where Mr. Cahlan and his friends changed 
their minds, deciding to come on to the Pacific 
coast instead. Coming into California by Honey 
Lake valley, they continued their journey to 
Marysville, arriving there in September. Mr. 
Cahlan worked at mining for a month, but was 
not at all satisfied. Going then to Sacramento, 
he bought three yoke of oxen and a wagon from 
Bert Ankeny, who told him to pay for them 
whenever convenient. Thus equipped Mr. Cah- 
lan began freighting to Virginia City,' paying 
$750 for the first two loads of goods. Meeting 
with encouraging success, he bought another 
wagon and three more yoke of oxen, and en- 
larged his operations, carrying on a most pros- 
perous trade until the summer of 1863, when his 
oxen were swept away by the floods of that sea- 
son and he lost everything. Nothing daunted, he 
immediately set to work to retrieve his losses, 
and followed farming and freighting for others 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



355 



until he was ac^aiii in funds, when he started 
once more for himself. He purchased mules and 
horses, keeping from ten to fourteen head, and 
again engaged in freighting to Virginia City. 
During the White Pine excitement he went there 
as a freighter, remaining until the completion of 
the railroad to that place. 

Locating then in Reno, Nev., Mr. Cahlan was 
there employed in freighting to \'irginia City 
until the railroad was completed to that city, 
when he disposed of his teams and outfit. In 
1873 he settled in Honey Lake valley, and, in 
company with W. W. Scholl, purchased the 
farms of Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Bacon, and 
at once began the improvement of this ranch, 
which he still occupies. He also owned a cattle 
ranch at Horse Lake, and raised considerable 
stock. In 1877 he went to Reno. Nev., where 
for four years he was president and manager of 
the Farmers' store, remaining there until burned 
out by the big fire. He then returned to his 
farm near Susanville, and subsequently bought 
out Mr. Scholl's interest in the ranch. Later he 
bought adjoining land, and has now a magnifi- 
cent farm of eleven hundred acres, which he is 
managing with signal success, his estate, with its 
fine residence and good farm buildings being a 
credit to his energy and sagacious judgment. He 
is an able financier, and is one of the stockhold- 
ers and a director of the Bank of Lassen County. 

Mr. Cahlan has been twice married. He mar- 
ried first, in Reno, Nev., Lottie Farley, who was 
born in Michigan, and died in 1876 on the home 
farm, leaving one son, Albert W., who grad- 
uated from the University of Nevada at Reno, 
and is now a resident of that city. January 26, 
1882, Mr. Cahlan married in Reno, Nev., Char- 
lotte Warren, who was born in Liverpool, Eng- 
land, a daughter of Edward Warren. Mr. War- 
ren was born in Ireland, but afterwards lived in 
England, where he was a land owner. In 1848 
he immigrated to New York, from there going 
to Sandusky, Ohio, where he was a bookkeeper 
for several years. Removing to Lawrence, Kan., 
in 1857, he was there during the border war and 
Ouantrell's raid. He bought land on the Kaw 
river, and began the improvement of a farm, re- 
siding there until his death, at the age of fifty- 



six vears, in 1858. His wife, whose maiden 
name was Ann Webster, was born in Ireland, 
and died in Kansas at the advanced age of 
eighty-eight years. Of the eight children born 
of their union, seven are living, Mrs. Cahlan 
being the youngest child. One son, Edward 
Warren, served in tlie Civil war, enlisting in 
Company E, Twelfth Kansas Volunteer Infan- 
try. Mrs. Cahlan is a woman of much talent and 
culture, and when young taught school in Law- 
rence, Kans., for a few years. In 1877 she was 
graduated from the University of Kansas, and 
immediately came to Reno, where she taught 
school four years. Mr. and Mrs. Cahlan have 
two children, Lena and Geneva. Politically Mr. 
Cahlan is a straightforward Republican, and a 
member of the county central committee. Fra- 
ternally he was made a Mason in Reno, and is 
now a member and past master of Lassen Lodge 
No. 149, F. & A. M. ; a member of Lassen Giap- 
ter No. 47, R. A. M. ; of Lassen Commandery 
No. 13, K. T., and of Islam Temple, N. M. S. 
Both Mr. and Mrs. Cahlan are members of Hes- 
perian Lodge No. 122, O. E. S. (of which he is 
past patron and she is past worthy matron), and 
of Court Amaranth, No. i. 



EMILIO RAMELLI. The substantial and 
well-to-do agriculturists of Plumas county have 
no more worthy rejiresentative than Emilio 
Ramelli, who is successfully engaged in his in- 
dependent calling in Vinton. Since becoming 
a land owner in the Sierra valley, twenty-seven 
years ago, he has Ialx)red unceasingly, and his 
untiring efforts and continued industry, com- 
bined with skill and practical judgment, have 
been well rewarded, his fine, large estate, with 
its improvements, being a credit to his energy 
and sagacity. Born in Switzerland, April 3. 
1856, he was there reared and educated, growing 
to a sturdy manhood. 

While yet a young man; Mr. Ramelli immi- 
grated to the United States, landing in New 
York City on March 20, 1879. Coming imme- 
diately to Plumas county, he settled in the 
Sierra valley, and during the five following vears 



356 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



worked on a ranch, in the meantime becoming 
familiar with the various branches of agricult- 
ure as carried on in his adopted country. Pur- 
chasing then one thousand acres which are now 
included in his present farm, paying a part only 
of the amount due, he began work on his own 
account. Meeting with excellent results as a 
farmer and dairyman, he paid ofif his entire 
indebtedness in a few years, and subsequently 
purchased seven hundred more acres of land, 
givmg him a large estate. He has now eight 
hundred and sixty acres of good grazing land, 
and nearly as many in his home place, which 
is worth from $15 to $40 an acre. On his 
ranch, which is well improved, and is supplied 
with artesian wells, he is carrying on general 
farming and dairying with satisfactory profits, 
keeping from forty to fifty cows of a good grade. 
March 6, 1886, Mr. Ramelli married Adeline 
Guscetti, who was born in Switzerland, June 
18, 1864, and came to America when a young 
lady, arriving in California January 6, 1885. 
Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Ramelli, namely: Mary O., born May 16, 1887; 
Addie, born May ii, 1888; Rudolph, born 
January 26, 1890; three who died in infancy; 
Jesse E., who was born September 9, 1902, and 
died January 29, 1905 : and Jessie Emma, born 
May 9, 1906. Mr. Ramelli has been a member 
of the Knights of Honor since 1892. 



WINSTON DECATUR COATES, A. B.. 
M. D. The family represented by this physi- 
cian and surgeon traces its lineage to the aris- 
tocracv of the south of ante-bellum da\'s and 
like others similarly situated sufl^ered reverses 
in connection with the Civil war, although, by 
reason of the residence of the parents of the 
doctor in the remote frontier regions of Texas, 
they were less seriously injured than others of 
the name nearer to the heart of the struggle. 
His father, William Duvall Coates, was born in 
Louisiana and grew to manhood on a farm in 
Mississippi, where he met and married Eliza W. 
Powell, a native of Mississippi and a member 
of an old southern family. Removing to Texas 



in 1856, during the early days of that country as 
a commonwealth of the United States, he settled 
upon a ranch and engaged in the raising of stock. 
Indians were numerous and often hostile and 
more than once he joined a company of volun- 
teers recruited for the purpose of subduing the 
savages on the frontier. His wife died at forty- 
nine years and he lived to be sixty-six, his 
last years being spent on the ranch where he had 
long engaged in stock-raising and general agri- 
cultural pursuits. 

On the ranch near Gatesville, Tex., Winston 
Decatur Coates was born March 7, 1858. As 
a bov he had such advantages as the common 
schools afforded, but these were meager. Grow- 
ing toward manhood he was filled with an ambi- 
tion to gain a first-class education and be able 
to take his place as a man among men. ^Vith 
this object in view his earnings were saved 
toward the payment of educational expenses. At 
the age of nineteen years he entered the South- 
western University at Georgetown, Tex., where 
he remained for a year in the preparatory de- 
partment and then spent three and one-half years 
in the work of the classical department, from 
which he was graduated with the degree of A. B. 
Supplementary thereto he took a course in a 
business college and later taught in the same in- 
stitution, after which he filled a position as book- 
keeper in El Paso. 

Coming to California in 1887 the young inan 
took up the study of medicine under Dr. W. F. 
Perr\-, of Perris, Riverside county, where he 
remained for two years as a private student of 
this successful physician. Next he matriculated 
in the California Medical College of San Fran- 
cisco, from which he was graduated in i8g6 with 
the degree of M. D. On taking up professional 
work he opened an office at Junction City, Trin- 
ity county, Cal., but fifteen months later he re- 
moved to Ventura. Two years afterward he 
removed to Oxnard, where he conducted med- 
ical practice until October, 1901. Since the lat- 
ter month and year he has been a resident of 
Loyalton, Sierra county, where he has built up 
an important practice and has gained a reputa- 
tion for skill in diagnosis and accuracy in treat- 
ment. During the greater part of his residence 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



357 



in Loyalton lie has officiated as healtli officer, but 
with that exception he has not accepted official 
positions, his identification with politics being 
limited to the casting of a Democratic vote at 
local and general elections. In fraternal rela- 
tions he holds membership with Loyalton Lodge 
Ko. 359, F. & A. M., and White Pine Lodge 
No. 45, I. O. O. F., also of Loyalton. Both 
of these organizations have benefited by his 
active participation in their activities, and other 
movements of a local nature have received his 
sympathy and encouragement. His first wife 
bore the maiden name of Zula E. Alexander and 
from this union a daughter, Annie lomo, was 
torn. Later he was united with Maude Feverly, 
who was born in Kansas and received a fair 
education in the grammar schools. Tliree chil- 
dren were born of their union, but one died in 
infancy, those now living being Cecil Marie and 
Winston Lloyd. Among the people of Loyalton 
and the surrounding country Dr. Coates has a 
high standing by reason of his superior attain- 
ments, broad medical knowledge, wise judgment 
as a physician and surgeon, and progressive spirit 
as a citizen. 



JOHN EDWARD BASS. Distinguished as 
a native born son of California, and the rep- 
resentative of an honored pioneer family of Las- 
sen county, John Edward Bass, superintendent 
of the County Hospital at Susanville, is especial- 
ly worthy of mention in this volume. A son of 
the late Richard D. Bass, he was born June i, 
1859, i" Honey Lake valley, where he was reared 
and educated. .\ Kentuckian by birth and breed- 
ing, Richard D. Bass removed in early manhood 
to Washington county, Mo., where he took up 
land, and was for a few years employed in tilling 
the soil. He served in the Mexican war, be- 
longing to a Missouri regiment. In 1852, fol- 
lowing the tide of emigration westward, he came 
with ox-teams across the plains to Plumas 
county, Cal., where he was engaged in mining 
for five years. Locating in Honey Lake valley 
in 1857, he settled in Elysian valley, near Janes- 
ville, and from a tract of wild land improved a 
ranch, on which he resided until his death, No- 



vember II, IQ04, in the eighty-third year of his 
age. He married Mary J. Carlyon, who was born 
in England, immigrated with her parents to Mis- 
souri when eleven years of age, and is now liv- 
ing on the home farm. In her sketch, which may 
be found on another page of this work, further 
parental and ancestral historv is given. 

The third in order of birth of the five sur- 
vivors of a family of eight children, John Ed- 
ward Bass was reared on the parental homestead, 
receiving his education in the Janesville schools. 
At the age of twenty-one years he engaged in 
business on his own account, becoming a cattle 
raiser and dealer. Removing to Las Cruces, N. 
Me.x., in 1887, he was engaged in farming near 
there for six years. In 1893 he returned to 
California, and for three seasons worked in the 
Plumas county mines. In April, 1900, he was 
appointed superintendent of the County Hospi- 
tal at Susanville, and has since performed the 
duties of his responsible position most ably, and 
to the satisfaction of all concerned. 

Mr. Bass has been twice married, and by his 
first union has two children, Grace and Cecil. 
For his second wife he married Edna Slackford. 
who was born in Lassen county, a daughter of 
E. T. Slackford, who immigrated to this coun- 
try from England and settled as a farmer in Las- 
sen county, where he resided until his death. 
Mr. and Mrs. Bass have one child, Irma Bass. 
Politically Mr. Bass is a Democrat, and frater- 
nally he is a member of Janesville Lodge No. 
232, F. & A. M. 



EBER GASTON BANGHAAT. The Bang- 
ham family was founded in America by a Quaker 
from England who settled in New Jersey prior 
to the outbreak of the Revolutionary war and 
became an enthusiastic defender of the principles 
of independence and liberty. Of his large wealth 
he gave lavishly to the colonial cause : indeed, 
so munificent were his donations of nionex' that 
his fortune was stmk in the service of his adopted 
couiUry and at the close of the war be was 
obliged to begin anew in the world. Though bv 
trade a tanner and currier, after he moved to 



358 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



New York, John Bangham, son of the original 
immigrant, hecame a farmer and cleared a tract 
of land near Somerset, Niagara county. As 
early as 1837 he removed with ox-teams to Michi- 
gan and settled on the Monroe road, twelve miles 
east of Aim Arbor, in Washtenaw county, where 
he not only conducted a farm, but a tannery as 
well. From there he went to Calhoun county, 
Mich., and bought land on Rice creek, eight 
miles northeast of Marshall, where he remained 
until his death at sixty-four years of age. In 
religious views he was an adherent of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church, and during the exciting 
period that culminated in the Civil war he be- 
came known as a pronounced Abolitionist. By 
his marriage to Anna Kellogg, who was born in 
Massachusetts and died in Michigan at eighty- 
four years, he had four sons and three daughters 
who attained mature years, and of these two 
sons are now living, Eber Gaston being the eld- 
est child of this union. At the opening of the 
Civil war two of the latter's brothers, Hiram 
and George K., also a half-brother, John Bang- 
ham, and another half-brother, Capt. Ephraim 
Marble (a veteran of the Mexican war), en- 
listed in the Ninth Michigan infantry, and Cap- 
tain Marble served at the head of a company in 
this regiment. 

Born near Somerset, Niagara county, N. Y., 
January 16, 1834, Eber Gaston Bangham was a 
resident of Michigan from the age of three years 
until he was seventeen, when, in 1851, he started 
for California via Independence, AIo. Secur- 
ing employment with Dr. J. P. Long, who had a 
herd of sheep destined for Barker valley in Cali- 
fornia, he drove his own horse across the plains 
and aided in caring for the flock, which was the 
first brought into Sacramento. It was during 
April that they left the valley of the Missouri, 
from which point they proceeded to Salt Lake, 
thence down the Humboldt and on to Sacramento, 
where a large crowd gathered to see their sheep. 
During the trip they had lost one-half of their 
herd of sixteen hundred head. After having 
herded the animals for thirty days, Mr. Bang- 
ham wc;it to the mines of Michigan Bar, where 
he bought an interest in a mine. In January, 
1852, he took passage on a boat at San Francisco 



and sailed to Panama, where he crossed the 
isthmus on foot, suffered an attack of the Pana- 
ma fever and was carried on board the boat at 
Aspinwall, where he remained ill during the en- 
tire voyage to New York. On his return to 
]\Iichigan he took up land adjoining the old 
homestead, but in 1858 sold out there and drove 
to Richland, Wis., where he spent one winter, 
and then started for California with a wagon 
and four mules. Following much the same 
route as before, he landed at Honey Lake in 
July of 1859. On a side trip he discovered 
Granite Springs and there established a trading 
post with emigrants ; the wells which he dug 
furnished the purest water and were well pat- 
ronized. In 1862 he divided his interests with 
his partners and afterward farmed alone four 
miles down the Susan river, where he had irri- 
gation for his crops and stock. 

Selling his ranch in 1868, Mr. Bangham re- 
turned to Michigan to visit old friends. The 
following year he crossed on the Central Pacific 
Railroad, arriving at Ogden on the first passen- 
ger coach that landed in that city. On his return 
to Lassen county he bought one hundred and 
sixty acres from William Dow four and one- 
half miles from Susanville, which he irrigated 
from the Susan river and Lassen creek. One 
acre of his ranch he donated to the Johnston- 
ville school district for the erection of a school 
house. In 1901 he rented the property to a son 
and spent eight months in Washington, after 
which he erected a residence in Susanville and 
now lives retired in this city. At Honey Lake, 
September 10, 1861, he married Miss Louise 
Borrette, who was born in Philadelphia. The 
Borrette family was founded in America b}- her 
grandfather, John, who was bom, reared and 
married in England, and for some years fol- 
lowed the tailor's trade on Long Island, but 
eventually returned to London and there died. 
Her father, Henry S. Borrette, was born on Long 
Island and graduated in medicine in the east. 
May 26, 1859, he left St. Louis with ox-teams 
and after a journey of six months and three 
days arrived at Honey Lake valley November 
19th; being snowbound here, he remained 
through tlie winter and then permanently lo- 





^ 



X 

^ 





HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



361 



cated in this place, practicing; his profession and 
also devoting considerable attention to music as 
a teacher of brass instruments. The first band 
at Susanville was organized under his super- 
vision, and he also gained note as a composer. 
Though now past ninety years of age, he is well 
preserved physicially and mentally ; and still 
makes Susanville his home. Many years ago he 
married Elizabeth WagstafF, who was born in 
England and died in Philadelphia ; her father, 
^^'illiam Wagstaff, crossed the ocean to America 
and settled in Philadelphia, where he followed 
the profession of a musician. One of the 
daughters of William Wagstafif was Mrs. W. G. 
Jones, who for sixty-seven years has been an 
actress. 

In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Bangham there 
are five children, namely : Nettie, who married 
John S. Borrette and resides at Honey Lake on 
the ranch formerly owned by Fred Hines : Frank 
H., who is postmaster and a merchant of Susan- 
ville ; Adeline O., a teacher at Riverside, Cal. ; 
Fred Sandusky, who has charge of the old home- 
stead ; and Ross E., w'ho manages the Susan- 
ville creamery. Always a stanch Republican, 
Mr. Bangham has been active in local work of 
his party. When the county was organized he 
was elected supervisor and served for one term, 
meanwhile assisting to establish the county affairs 
upon a substantial basis. As county coroner and 
public administrator he served until he refused 
to hold the positions longer. For \'ears he 
officiated as justice of the peace. During his 
service as road commissioner of Lassen county 
for two years he was obliged to superintend five 
miles of roadway until the law was repealed and 
the amount thus reduced. Interested in educa- 
tional aflfairs, he served ably as school trustee 
for years and meanwhile donated the ground for 
a schoolhouse and also secured ^uflScient funds 
by subscription for the erection of a building. 
In addition, he assisted in building the Susan- 
ville schoolhouse. Fraternally a Mason, he has 
the distinction of being the oldest member of 
Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. M., and is fur- 
ther identified with Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. 
A. M., in which he is past high priest; and Las- 
sen Commandery No. 13, K. T., in which he is 



past eminent commander. The first Union League 
organized in the northern part of the state re- 
ceived his warm support and encouragement, 
and he was present on the occasion of its formal 
establishment in the meeting held in an old log 
house above Susanville. Under commission by 
the governor of the state, he served as second 
and later as first lieutenant of the Honey Lake 
Rangers, and was one of the leading officers of 
that popular organization. 



HIRAM HENRY DAKIN. An identifica- 
tion of more than forty years with the agricult- 
v.ral and commercial develo])ment of northeast- 
ern California has given to Mr. Dakin a thor- 
ough knowledge of the possibilities of this re- 
gion as well as a deep-rooted belief in its future 
importance. Now retired from active connec- 
tion with business affairs and living (|uietlv at 
his home in Janesville, he still maintains an in- 
terest in aft'airs of general importance and still 
superintemls his properties, including an alfalfa 
farm of one hundred and si.xty acres in Janes- 
ville. where he has a fine apple orchard of twentv 
acres and a small dairy. 

Twenty-two miles northeast of Lansing, Mich., 
in the county of Ingham. Hiram Henry Dakin 
was born July 18, 1843, being the youngest son 
in a family of seven sons and five daughters, all 
of whom attained mature years and three are 
now living. His parents, Judson and Polly (Pad- 
dock) Dakin, were natives of Pennsylvania, and 
became pioneers of Michigan, where the father 
clearefl a farm from the woods of beech and 
maple. After a long period as a farmer there, 
in the fall of 1862 he landed in California in 
company with his youngest son. Four vears 
later he wait back to Michigan and there died 
in 1868, at sixty-two years of age. His wife 
also died on the old Michigan homestead. As 
early as 1859 two of the sons, Judson and John, 
crossed the plains to California and tried their 
luck as frontiersmen, with results suflRciently 
gratifying to cause them to write home glowing 
accounts of the prospects offered by the great 
undeveloped west. By this means the father 
and the youngest son, II. II., were induced to 



362 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



come to California in 1862, crossing the plains 
with horse-teams and journeying via Salt Lake 
City, Humboldt river and Honey lake to Mil- 
ford, where the older sons then made their head- 
quarters. Without any delay H. H. Dakin se- 
cured work on a ranch and for almost three 
years he remained in the employ of others. With 
the money thus accumulated he invested in a 
ranch of three hundred and twenty acres, where 
he engaged in raising grain, hay and stock. From 
Buntingville, the location of his ranch, in 1879 
he removed to Milford and purchased the mill 
which his brother had built in 1859 for the 
grinding of grist. 

After having acted as proprietor of the mill 
until 1882, Mr. Dakin then came to Janesville 
and built a new gristmill equipped with modern 
improvements and operated by steam. This he 
operated for four years and then sold, turning 
his attention to the management of the Janes- 
ville hotel, which he purchased and enlarged, op- 
erating the same in addition to a livery business. 
Eventually, in 1903, he rented the hotel and re- 
tired from business. Politically he has been a 
leader in local ranks of the Democratic party 
and has served efficiently as a member of the 
county central committee, also from 1879 until 
1897 filled the office of postmaster at Janesville, 
and for four years held the position of supervisor 
of the second district of Lassen county. As 
school trustee of his district he aided local edu- 
cational work for years. After coming to Las- 
sen county he was married near Milford to ]\riss 
Emma Parker, a native of Massachusetts. Their 
children are as follows: Walter, who is engaged 
in the stock business in Nevada ; Elmer, a grocer 
at Palo Alto, Cal. : Clarence, who is a rancher 
by occupation; Mrs. Ollie Holman, of Reno, 
Xev. : Mrs. Ivy Caubble, of Sparks, Nev. ; and 
Audrey, at home. Since coming to Janesville 
Air. Dakin has been associated with Janesville 
Lodge No. 223, I. O. O. F., in which he has 
officiated as postmaster five terms, and also af- 
filiates with the Susanville Encampment. In ad- 
dition he holds membership with the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen and with his wife 
takes an active part in the local lodge of the 
Rebekahs. 



GILBERT EDWARD De FOREST. Well 
deserving of mention in this volume is Gilbert 
F.. De Forest, a practical and progressive agri- 
culturist of Lassen county, living about three and ■ 
one-half miles east of Susanville. Thoroughly 
understanding the various branches of the voca- 
tion which he is following, he has met with un- 
disputed success in liis undertakings, and is 
carrying on farming and stock-raising with both 
profit and pleasure. A native of Iowa, he was 
born May 27, 1857, in Johnson county, a son of 
Clinton and Mary Ellen (Hart) De Forest, and 
comes of French Huguenot stock, the emigrant 
ancestor having come to America from France 
by way of Holland. Further ancestral and par- 
ental history may be found on another page of 
this work, in connection with the sketch of Alvin 
E. De Forest. 

In 1863, when a lad of six years, Gilbert E. 
De Forest came from Iowa to California with 
the family, being six months in crossing the 
plains. Brought up on a farm in Honey Lake 
valley, he obtained his early education in the 
common schools. Beginning the battle of life 
for himself at the age of fifteen years, he worked 
on neighboring ranches for several seasons. 
Having by prudence and economy saved enough 
money to start for himself, he rented the old 
Maxwell place, at Johnstonville, and ran it for 
three years, after which he rented the old Moore 
farm, which he managed foi" nine consecutive 
years. In 1893 he purchased his present farm, 
the old David Johnston ranch, and has since 
been prosperously engaged in farming and stock- 
raising, making a specialty of raising Short-horn 
cattle and draft horses. This farm, located three 
and one-half miles east of Susanville, on the Su- 
san river, is all subject to irrigation, and on its 
one hundred and thirty acres he raises excellent 
crops of alfalfa and timothy. He also rents 
from David Johnston, his father-in-law, the old 
Robert Johnson place of two hundred acres, a 
large hay ranch, and in partnership with Frank 
Johnston he owns a ranch of sixteen himdred 
acres in Ash valley, at the head of Ash creek, 
sixty miles north of here. This ranch is well 
watered, and has a good range, on which the 
owners keep seven hundred head of cittle. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



363 



On the ranch where he now Hves, January ii, 
1882, Mr. De h'orcst married Helen Joanna John- 
ston, who was born in Calhoun county, Mich., a 
daughter of David Johnston, whose sketch ap- 
pears elsewhere in this lKx>k. Four children have 
blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. De Forest, 
namely: Charles (engaged in farming with his 
father), Katie May, Gilberta and Margaret. 
Politically Mr. De Forest is a steadfast adherent 
of the Republican party, and for twelve years 
served as school trustee. Fraternally he is a 
member of Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. M. ; 
of Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. M. ; of Lassen 
Commandery No. 13, K. T. ; and both he and 
Mrs. De Forest belong to the Order of the East- 
ern Star. 



JOHN HENRY HAWKINS. Perhaps no 
milling industry throughout the northeastern 
part of California receives a larger share of 
the public patronage than does the Cedarville 
roller mill, and certainly no similar enterprise is 
more worthy of an enviable reputation. Since the 
property was purchased by Mr. Hawkins in 
1884, it has been improved by the introduction 
of modern machinery, including the change from 
the old-fashioned burr process to the more mod- 
ern roller mill system, an improvement that cost 
the present owner $8,000. In addition, since 
acquiring the plant, he has made other changes 
necessitating the expenditure of a large sum of 
money, so that the present mill presents few 
points of resemblance to the original structure 
built in 1 87 1. Steam is the motive power which 
gives the mill a capacity of fifty barrels every 
twenty-four hours. The owner not only does 
a general grinding of feed, but also makes a 
specialty of manufacturing a flour known as 
Ladies' Delight, made from selected Surprise 
valley wheat and of such superior quality as to 
give complete satisfaction to its patrons. 

Of old Virginian birth and ancestry, John Hen- 
ry Hawkins was born in Shenandoah county June 
28, 1854, being a son of Rhesa and Eliza 
Hawkins, who died respectively in 1865 and the 
latter part of 1864. Being orphaned while still 
very young, it was not possible for Mr. Hawkins 



to secure good educational advantages, though 
he attended the common schools for some years. 
.\t the age of seventeen he began to learn the 
trade of a miller, and ac(|uired a thorough knowl- 
edge of its many details while still a mere lad. 
From May 2, 1876, until February, 1877, he 
worked at his trade and in farming in Kansas, 
but at the latter date he came west to Reno, 
Nev., where he secured employment as a laborer. 
In June of 1878 he arrived in Surprise valley 
across the state line from Nevada and here he 
was employed at herding sheep for eleven 
months, after which he worked for wages in the 
flour mill at Cedarville, continuing as an cm- 
]3loye until the year 1884, when he purchased the 
mill. November 30, 1882, he n^arried Maude 
\'iola Drouillard, who is of French descent, and 
they have four children, Harry Sylvester, Jean 
Mary, James and John Henry, Jr. The family 
occupy a comfortable home in Cedarville which 
Mr. Hawkins erected a number of years ago and 
which is furnished in a neat and quiet style in- 
dicative of the refined taste of its owners. Politi- 
cally Mr. Hawkins has always given his support 
to the Dejnorratic party and has maintained an 
intelligent interest in matters affecting the wel- 
fare of the people of his town and county. 
Though not identified with any denomination, he 
contributes to the Methodist Episcopal Qiurch, 
with which his wife is actively associated, and 
is also a contributor to other organizations for 
the upbuilding of the race and the aid of the 
unfortunate. 



HENRY HARRISON ROBINSON. Long 
and intimate association with the agricultural 
development of Sierra county has given to Mr. 
Robinson an honored jjosition among its ranch- 
ers and stock-raisers. The ranch of which he 
is proprietor comprises three hundred and ten 
acres in the Sierra valley and lies two and one- 
half miles southeast of Loyalton. In addition to 
the improvements to be seen on all of the valley 
ranches, he has an orchard containing about 
eight hundred bearing trees of the best varieties 
of apples, and it is said by those qualified to 
judge that the entire valley can boast of no or- 



364 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



chard more desirable than his. Years have come 
and gone since he settled upon the ranch that 
remains his home to the present day. Many 
changes have been wrought in the appearance 
of the valley. Barren tracts have been made 
productive and the desert has been made to blos- 
som as the rose. In all of this task of culti- 
vation his has been a master mind. His ener- 
gies have been devoted to the work of improve- 
ment and he has been repaid in the increased 
values of lands and the increased desirability of 
the property for ranching purposes. 

The Robinsons are an old family of \'ermont. 
O. F. Robinson, who' was born and reared in that 
state, married Aliss Paulina Robinson, also a 
descendant of a pioneer family of \'ermont. and 
for many years after their marriage they con- 
tinued to reside on a farm in the locality fa- 
miliar to their childhood years. Eventually, how- 
ever, they removed further west. When seventy- 
six years of age the wife passed away in Illi- 
nois. Later the husband went to Iowa and 
there died at ninety-two years of age. Their 
son, Henry Harrison, was born in Franklin 
county, Vt., February 27, 1840, and as a boy 
received such advantages as were offered by 
neighboring schools. In 1854 he accompanied 
his parents to Wisconsin. One year later he 
started out to earn his own livelihood, going to 
Illinois, where he secured employment as a team- 
ster at Rockford. In addition he worked on 
a farm by the month. April 3, 1863, he married 
Miss Marion Parker, a native of New York. 
The following year, accompanied by his wife, he 
drove across the plains with his own horses and 
wagon. For a brief period they remained at 
Sierraville, but in the spring of 1865 he pre- 
empted one hundred and sixty acres of govern- 
ment land. Later his possessions were enlarged 
by the purchase of one hundred and sixty acres 
of railroad land. To the improvement of the 
land he gave his attention, but in addition he en- 
gaged in teaming from Truckee to the Plumas 
Eureka mine at Johnstown, Cal., continuing, 
however, to make his hoiue on the farm. About 
i8go he abandoned work as a teamster and since 
then has devoted his attention exclusively to 
ranch pursuits. In all of his work he has had 



the counsel and co-operation of his wife, a wo- 
man of attractive qualities of heart and mind. 
Their only daughter, Louise, was given a fair 
education and is now the wife of W. E. Reese, 
head bookkeeper of the Roberts Lumber Com- 
pany, with headquarters and residence at Loy- 
alton. 

Ever since casting his first presidential ballot 
for Abraham Lincoln Mr. Robinson has been a 
stanch supporter of Republican candidates and 
principles and has kept himself posted concern- 
ing measures for the benefit of his party. Al- 
ways interested in educational affairs, he has 
proved his interest by accepting the office of 
school trustee and discharging its duties with 
enthusiasm and fidelity. Before leaving the Mis- 
sissippi valley region he became identified with 
Masonry, being made a Mason of the blue lodge 
in Illinois during April of 1864, and after com- 
ing to Sierra county he assisted in the estab- 
lishment of the blue lodge at Loyalton. With his 
family he holds membership in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, to which he gives as his means 
permit and in which he officiates as a steward. 
Among the people of the county where for many 
years he has made his home he enjoys a repu- 
tation for honor, resourcefulness as a rancher, 
trustworthiness as a friend and progressiveness 
as a citizen. 



JOHN RAY PERKINS. Prominent among 
the industrious and well-to-do agriculturists of 
Honey Lake valley, Lassen county, is John Ray 
Perkins, an extensive stock-raiser and farmer, 
and an important factor in the development of 
the mining resources of northern California. A 
native of Indiana, he was born May 2. 1838, in 
Terre Haute, Vigo county, a son of William T. 
Perkins. 

William T. Perkins was born in East Ten- 
nessee, but when a lad of eight years moved 
with his parents to Indiana. He became a farm- 
er by occupation, and was there engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits during his early manhood. In 
1848 he migrated with his family to Burlington, 
Iowa, where he continued as a tiller of the soil 
imtil his demise. He married Elizabeth Ray, 




(M^^noyi't^ 




HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



367 



who was bom in \'igo county, Ind., and died on 
the home farm in Iowa soon after removin.q; there. 
Five cliildren were born of their union, and two 
are hving', Jolin Ray, the youngest of the sur- 
vivors, being tlie only one in California. One of 
the sons, F. K. Perkins, served in the Civil war, 
belonging to an Iowa regiment. 

A boy of ten years when his parents removed 
to Iowa, John Ray Perkins attended the Bur- 
lington schools, remaining at home until i860. 
In that year he came across the plains to the 
Pacific coast, journeying with ox-teams and 
horses in a train commanded by A. J. Evans, 
who employed him •to drive the loose cattle, of- 
fering him his board and $5 a month. On arriv- 
ing, however, Mr. Evans had no money to spare, 
so Mr. Perkins received his board only, as re- 
muneration for his services for five months and 
seven days. Passing through Honey Lake val- 
ley to Indian valley, Rumas county, Mr. Per- 
kins located in the latter place, and the follow- 
ing vear worked as a farm laborer. He then be- 
gan packing to the mines, traveling from Marys- 
ville through to Virginia City, and along the 
Humboldt. Coming again to Honey Lake val- 
ley in 1864, he bought the claim on which he 
now lives, and at once began the improvement of 
a ranch. He met with excellent success, and 
subsequentlv purchased adjoining land, and has 
now a valuable farm of seven hundred and four 
acres lying on Gold Run creek. It is admirably 
located, having a fine stream of water running 
through it, and many natural springs, rendering 
it especially fine for stock raising, the larger part 
of it having a range on each side. He raises 
large quantities of hay and grain, and is an ex- 
tensive cattle raiser and dealer. His land is rich 
in mineral ores, there being several good quartz 
leads on the place, the gold quartz producing a 
low grade of ore, worth from $4 to $8 a ton. 
He has also a ledge five feet wide, and owns a 
ten-stam]) mill, but this he does not work all of 
the time. 

October 21, 1868, in Susanville, Cal., Mr. Per- 
kins married Mary S. Burroughs, who was born 
in Cincinnati. Ohio, and came across the plains 
to this state in 1862 with her father, the late 
Frank P. Burroughs, whose death occurred in 



Fresno, Cal. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. 
Perkins eleven children have been born, namely : 
Mrs. \'ida M. Hunsinger, of Honey Lake val- 
ley; Mrs. Hilda Allison, of Ohio; Mrs. Belle 
Ray, of Crockett. Cal.; Mrs. Alinnie Monday, of 
Oakland; Mrs. Delphine Dobbins, of Susanville; 
Lee, engaged in farming in Honey Lake valley ; 
Mrs. Dai.sy Spencer, of Santa Rosa; Jules, at 
home; Otis, who died in 1904, aged sixteen 
years; Gladys, and John. Politically .Mr. Per- 
kins is a straightforward Republican, and for 
one term served as supervisor. Fraternally he 
belongs to Silver Star Lodge No. 135, I. O. O. 
F., of Susanville; to the Encampment; and with 
his wife is identified with the Rebekahs. 



FRANK KRUGER. But a short distance 
from Greenville lies the property where for years 
Mr. Kruger has engaged in ranch pursuits and 
where he has met with a gratifying share of 
prosperity. For the sum of $8,000 he purchased 
two hundred and fifty acres near town, besides 
which he took a quarter section of land adjoin- 
ing the main tract. From time to time he added 
to his holdings until at this writing he owns 
about five hundred acres in the home ranch. 
Subsequent to the original purchase he bought 
a tract of one hundred and sixty acres not far 
from the otiier place, so that he now has the 
title to a large acreage in the same locality. 
Three hundred acres of the tract are under fence 
and in the valley, while the balance is in timber. 
One of the interesting features of the ranch is 
the presence of a warm spring of mineral water 
on the land. 

Born in Prussia, Germany, November 7, 1837, 
Frank Kruger grew to manhood in his native 
country and under the supervision of his father, 
who was a miller, he gained a practical knowl- 
edge of the milling business. Upon leaving 
home he came to the United States and landed 
at New York November 25, 1854, after which 
he proceeded direct to Chicago, thence to St. 
Louis, and secured employment on a farm at 
$7 per month, later engaging in cutting railroad 
tics for eight months. Meanwhile he became 



368 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



familiar with tlie English language, so that he 
was better qualified to earn a livelihood in his 
new home. After a time he became ill and dur- 
ing one whole summer he was sick in St. Louis, 
unable to work. As soon as he had regained 
his strength he took a job of chopping wood 
at $1 per cord, at which he continued for five 
months. Next he was employed on a diving 
boat at St. Louis for two years, receiving $25 
per month. Later he worked as a carpenter at 
Castle Rock, Mo., but in a few months he be- 
came ill with typhoid fever and it was long ere 
he was again able to work. 

During the excitement caused by the discovery 
of gold at Pike's Peak Mr. Kruger and two 
comrades, with six yoke of oxen, drove from St. 
Louis to the mountains in about si.x weeks ; 
leaving their cattle they walked to the mining 
camps in about seven days, but they were not 
successful in the mines. When their property 
was divided Mr. Kruger received the wagon and 
two yoke of oxen, also a cow. With these he 
started on toward the Pacific coast. Misfortune 
befell him and the -other members of the expedi- 
tion. At the sink of the Humboldt all of the 
cattle died but two yoke and at Carson the 
balance were lost, so only a cow and wagon 
were left. These were sold and Mr. Kruger 
paid his passage through to Virginia City, where 
he landed almost penniless. During the winter 
he hired out to work in a tunnel at Gold Canon, 
for which he was paid $60 per month. In the 
spring he prospected and mined, then worked 
by the day to earn the amount needed for pay- 
ing the assessments on his claims. More than 
once he faced hardship and misfortune and 
finally, in 1865, he sold his claims for $150 and 
started out anew. 

Coming to Plumas county Mr. Kruger en- 
gaged in mining for himself on Grizzly creek 
about eighteen months, but met with little or 
no success. Next at Coppertown he failed to 
find any paying claims and in the futile search 
for gold exhausted his small savings. With $5 
that he borrowed he came to Indian valley, where 
he worked for $60 per month during the winter, 
and in the spring bought an interest in a mine 
on Wolf creek, where he was more successful 



than before. However, the burning up of the 
flume eventually caused the abandonment of the 
claim, and he then worked for a year in the 
Green mountain mines. On the change of 
ownership in the property he became foreman 
of the mine, besides which for seven and one- 
half years he kept the company's boarding house. 
When he took charge of the mine there was 
only a five-stamp mill running, and this he in- 
creased to forty stamps. He was also super- 
intendent of the Cherokee mine for eight months. 
On leaving the mines he bought the ranch near 
Greenville, which he still owns and superiiv- 
tends. 

While working in the mines Mr. Kruger mar- 
ried Miss Margaret Kelley, who died in 1896, 
leaving two children, Matilda and Frank E. 
The daughter, a prominent educator, is now 
superintendent of schools of Plumas county and 
a teacher in the Greenville schools. As early as 
1867 Mr. Kruger was made a Mason and now 
holds membership in Sincerity Lodge No. 132, 
F. & A. M.; Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. 
M., and Lassen Commandery No. 13, K. T., 
the first named in Greenville, and the two higher 
branches of the order in Susanville. 



JAMES PORTER SHARP. The Sharp fam- 
ily is of old and honored southern lineage, for 
years agriculturists of Tennessee, and the father 
of our subject, William Sharp, was at the time 
of his death the owner of a large and valuable 
plantation in Bedford county, that state. James 
Porter Sharp was born in Bedford county, Tenn., 
April 24, 1829, and during his boyhood years 
attended the district schools of that county. At 
the age of twenty years he went to Arkansas, 
where he was engaged in blacksmithing for four 
vears, and in the spring of 1853 he joined a 
party who were coming overland to California. 
After spending the first winter in Marysville he 
went to Plumas county, there following mining 
until 1857, when he came to Honey Lake valley, 
and in partnership with Lewis Stark purchased 
the ranch of Marion Lawrence, which is now 
known as the Broadwell place near Janesville. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



300 



In 1859 tlicv traded this property for cattle, all 
of which perished during- the hard winter of 
i859-T)0. In the sjiring of 1S60 Mr. Sharp went 
to Virginia City and worked in the mines for 
six months, later teaming from this valley to 
Virginia City and the Humholdt mines. In 1864 
he again took up farming and stock-raising, set- 
tling on a tract of land in what is known as the 
tules, where he stayed until the spring of 1876, 
when he sold this property to George Fry and 
purchased the Thompson property near Bunting- 
villc, where he remained until his death, June 
II. 1900. Though never active in politics, he 
always gave his stanch support to Democratic 
principles, and in fraternal relations he was a 
Mason of the Royal Arch degree. 

The marriage of l\Ir. Sharp, April 15. 1866, 
united him with Miss Lurana Walker, who was 
born in Randolph county, Ind., March 28, 1840, 
and during her childhood removed to Iowa with 
her father, William Walker, who settled upon a 
raw tract of land in Henry county, which he con- 
verted into a valuable property and which is 
still owned by her brother, Thomas B. Walker. 
After completing her education she commenced 
to teach school in Iowa and from there in 1865 
crossed the plains to California, where she taught 
one of the first terms of school in Lassen county, 
and has since that time made Honey Lake valley 
her home. In her family there are seven chil- 
dren, of whom we mention the following: Annie 
R., born February 17, 1867, became the wife of 
William E. Agee, of Janesville, on February 12, 
1902, and has since resided in that place, where 
Mr. Agee conducts a sawmill and general lum- 
ber business. Hattie M., born March 17, 1869. 
is now a resident of Susanville, Lassen county. 
William W., horn May 28, 1871, was engaged in 
farming and stock-raising until 1902, when he 
was elected auditor and recorder of Lassen 
county on the Republican ticket and has since 
made his home in Susanville and devoted his 
time to the duties of that office. John T., born 
August I. 1873, was on October 18, 1896, mar- 
ried to Miss Helen I. Ewing, of Los .\ngeles. 
For several years he conducted a blacksmith 
shop in Buntingr^'ille, this county, and in 1901 
purchased the property known as the Leith 
ranch, near that place, and has since then been 



engaged in farming and stock-raising. Mary 
Cordelia, Ixjrn February 15, 1876, is now a resi- 
dent of Susanville. Ivy Mabel, Ixirn Deceml>er 
21. 1878, on August 27, 1903, was married to 
Chester B. Toombs, who is employed in the gen- 
eral merchandise store of Brown & Wemple at 
Spoonville, this county. .Mbert Fenton, bom 
July 25, 1881, on June 14, 1905, was married 
tfi Miss Olive Irene Hess, of Pennsylvania, and 
is now a resident of San Francisco. 



CHARLES HARTSON. Perhaps no ex- 
ample could be found in lessen county more 
significant of the opportunities oflfercd by this 
portion of the state than that furnished by the 
life of Charles Hartson, who in a comparatively 
brief period has transformed an unattractive 
stretch of sage-hru.sh land into a valuable ranch. 
Starting with one hundred and sixty acres near 
Dewitt about 1890, he has increased his holdings 
and im])roved his lands. A\'hen he came here 
the sage brush gave little indication of any pos- 
sibilities possessed by the soil, and he was the 
first in all this region to attempt the transforma- 
tion of such land. In 1901 a corporation known 
as Hartson & Sons was formed under the laws 
of the state of Califomia, with himself as presi- 
dent, and capitalized at $100,000. The firm own 
and control about fifteen hundred acres, of which 
eight hundred acres are in alfalfa, and one of 
their specialties is the sale of alfalfa seed, which 
their land produces in noticeable quantity and 
purity. Usually they have from five hundred to 
six hundred head of cattle and also operate a 
dairy of forty cows, the milk from which is sold 
to a neighboring creamery. Such hay as is not 
needed for their own stock finds ready sale at 
fair prices. 

The agriculturist whose labors have rendered 
possible the building up of this homestead was 
born in \'emiont January 30, 1844. and is a son 
of F. and Sarah Hartson, lifelong residents of 
Vermont. The death of his father when he was 
five years of age and of his mother eight vcars 
later left him an orphan at thirteen, after which 
he became practically self-supporting, and earned 
a livelihood by work on a farm. In 1862 he 



370 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



left New England and sought the Pacific coast 
region, settling in the Sacramento valley at 
Nicolaus, where he remained fourteen months. 
In the fall of 1863 he went to Idaho, where he 
engaged in mining and trading for five years. 
From there he removed to Oregon and settled in 
Josephine county, where he acted as proprietor 
of a toll station and also kept a country hotel 
for nine years. On leaving that locality he 
bought a stock ranch in the eastern part of the 
same state in Lake county and for some three 
years engaged in raising stock there. 

From Lake county Mr. Hartson crossed the 
state line into California and settled in Lassen 
county, which since has been his home and the 
scene of his successful activities. After having 
carried on a hotel at Buntingville for three years, 
he sold out there and bought land on the Spoon- 
ville and Hot Springs stage route, about four 
miles east of Spoonvillc, where now the c(im- 
pany of which he is president owns large hold- 
ings. While living in Idaho he met and mar- 
ried Miss Jane Malatt, by whom he has seven 
children. The eldest, George Henry, who is sec- 
retary of the corporation, was born in Benton 
county. Ore., October 10, 1868, and is a young 
man of energy, a thrifty farmer, and fraternally 
identified with the Independent Order' of Odd 
Fellows at Janesville. January 7, 1903, he mar- 
ried Miss Carrie Love and they now have two 
children, Lawrence and Reah May. The eldest 
daughter in the family is Eva, wife of George 
Cain, of Standish. The second son, Frank Ed- 
ward, who is vice-president of the company, was 
born in Josephine county. Ore., April 5, 1872, 
and was united in marriage, November 18, 1897, 
with Miss Laura Smithers, by whom he has two 
children, Elmer and Myrle. The second 
daughter, Elsie, married Clarence Dakin and lives 
near her father's ranch. The third son, William, 
was born in California August 30, 1875, and De- 
cember 18, 1905, married Miss Rosa Benjamin, 
daughter of the late William M. and Mary 
(DeForest) Benjamin; fraternally he is associ- 
ated with the Janesville Parlor, N. S. G. W. The 
youngest daughters are Kittie, Mrs. John 
Holmes, living east of Standish, and Hattie, Airs. 
John T. Theodore, residing near the Hartson 



ranch. The father and all of the sons are stanch 
Republicans and the former has held local school 
offices, while in fraternal relations he holds mem- 
bership with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows at Janesville. The entire family have la- 
bored harmoniously and unitedly to develop their 
ranch and their combined efforts have been pro- 
ductive of gratifying results, as is attested by 
the irrigated lands, the four substantial resi- 
dences on the ranch and the neat improvements. 
At the present writing they are engaged in build- 
ing a private reservoir, in which they own a 
one-half interest and by means of which the en- 
tire tract will be under irrisration. 



I 



FRANK ODETTE. Although of Canadian 
birth and parentage. Mr. Odette is a typical and 
loyal citizen of the United States and no one sur- 
passes him in devotion to the principles for which 
our government stands. W'ith the exception of 
the first ten years of life he has made his home 
in the States, being for some years in New Eng- 
land, where he acquired a thorough knowledge 
of the carpenter's trade and also gained his first 
experience in contracting. From the east in 1874 
he came to the Pacific coast, and since 1876 has 
made his home in the northeastern part of Cali- 
fornia. For more than twenty years he has en- 
gaged in the lumber and building business at 
.Susanville. and since 1893. with his brother 
ClTarles. has conducted a saw and planing mill 
situated five and one-half miles from the town. 

Reference to the Odette family appears else- 
where in this volume, m the sketch of Charles 
Odette, a brother of the gentleman whose name 
introduces this article, and a partner with him 
in business. On the home farm near St. Johns, 
Ontario, Frank Odette was born January 13, 
1844, and there he acquired his primary educa- 
tion. At ten years of age he went to Vermont 
and later had limited advantages in the country 
schools of Franklin comity. Going next to Mas- 
sachusetts he served an apprenticeship to the 
carpenter's trade, and upon the expiration of his 
time went to Springfield, Mass., where he found 
employment in the building business. Still later 





Jfe^^ 



■c<,t-i-<^ J^f-T"^^-^^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



373 



he engaged in contracting at Waterbun-, Conn., 
and from there in 1874 crossed the continent to 
Cah'fornia, arriving at San Francisco in July and 
inimecHately securing work at his trade. The 
year 1876 fount! him a resident of Pkunas county, 
where he took up the Iniilding business at Green- 
ville. 

It was during 1884 that Mr. Odette came to 
Susanville to take up contracting and building 
and since then he has been interested in the erec- 
tion of a number of buildings, some of which, 
owing to the disastrous fires, he has rebuilt mcjre 
than once. With his brother, Charles, in 1893 
he organized the firm of Odette Brothers, and 
the two now operate a saw, planing and shingle 
mill, with a steam plant and modern equipment, 
and near the mill they own a tract of timber land 
from which, they secure the lumber for their 
work. For the convenience of customers they 
have their office and lumber yard in town. 

While living in the east Mr. Odette married 
Miss Sue Scott, who was born near Montreal 
and died in San Francisco in 1876, leaving two 
children, Georgie and Pearl. After coming to 
Susanville he was again married, choosing as 
his wife Mrs. Mary Yhob, a native of Bohemia, 
but a resident of California from girlhood. In 
his political opinions he favors Republican prin- 
ciples, and the men and measures of that part\- 
receive his stanch support in all elections. 



WILLIAM ARMS. The first of the Arms 
famdy to immigrate to America. William Arms 
(i), came from the Isle of Jersev and settled in 
Deerfield. Mass. His son William (2). who was 
born in 1692, married Rebecca Nash, and died 
m 1774. Born of the latter union in 1724 was 
Wdliam (3), who married Elizabeth Beldin- 
and died in 1794. To them was born a son Wilf- 
lam (4) in 1769, in his later years becoming a 
lawyer of note; his marriage united him with 
Mary Snow, and he passed from the scenes of 
earth in 18 13. Born of this latter marriage was 
another William (5), who became the father of 
W.lham Arms of this review. He was born in 
Massachusetts in May, 1794. wiien he was 



twenty years of age, in 1814, the father moved 
across the line into Canada East, ther.e spending 
the remainder of his life, which came to a close 
in February, 1853. By trade he was a l^lack- 
smith and foundryman. 

Born of the union of William (5) and Miran- 
da (Havens) Arms was William Arms of this 
sketch, who was the si.xth in direct line to bear 
the name. His birth occurred on the parental 
homestead at Stanstead Plains, Canada East, 
August 17, 1834, and in that locality he spent his 
boyhood )-ears. Supplementing a common- 
school education he attended Kimball Institute 
in New Hampshire, but by the time he had 
reached his nineteenth year his thoughts had 
taken a commercial turn and we find him learn- 
ing the moulder's trade in his father's foundry. 
The interest in the mines of California was still 
attracting thousands of ambitious young men to 
this state, and among those who came hither by 
the Panama route in the spring of 1855 was Will- 
iam Amis. In the fall of tlie same vear he 
became interested in the mines of Wolf creek, in 
Nevada county, where he prospected and mined 
with varying degrees of success for several 
years. Believing that he saw an opportunity to 
secure a more dependable income than his min- 
ing eflforts were producing, in 1858 he estab- 
lished a newspaper route, which consisted of de- 
hvering newspapers and letters at the mining 
camps and towns along the north Yuba river and 
tributary forks. During the year that he fol- 
lowed this business he made considerable money ; 
this with the proceeds of the sale of his route 
enabled him to purchase a third interest in the 
clothing store of George Stacey at Downieville. 
Subsequent!)- a branch store was established at 
Sierraville, whither Mr. Arms finally removed 
having disposed of his interest in Downieville! 
At first the town was a mere trading post, but 
when it became worthy of a name it was suo-. 
gested that Armsville would be a proper name 
for the town and a compliment to its foremost 
business man. Mr. Arms' modesty, however 
forbade this publicity, but instead he su<r<.ested" 
the, name Sierraville as fitting and appropriate 
hence its present name. His faith in the future 
of the town was demonstrated hx tlie purchase 



374: 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



of large tracts of land, among which was a 
squatter's right to tlie land on which the town 
now stands. This was afterward surveyed and 
laid out for the town site. It was about this 
time that he took Joseph Enscoe in as partner 
in the business, theirs being the only store of any 
kind in the Sierra valley. As the growth of the 
town warranted, Mr. Arms established a hotel, 
blacksmith shop, public hall, etc., all of which in- 
novations were the first to appear in the valley, 
and he himself was the first postmaster and ex- 
press agent in the valley. He also owned several 
ranches, from which he shipped hay and lum- 
ber to the Nevada boom towns, and here also he 
raised the first grain in the Sierra valley, thresh- 
ing it in the first machine for the purpose which 
had ever been seen in this part of the country, 
and selling the commodity in \'irginia Git)-. 
The threshing machine just referred to was 
brought into the valley by Mr. Amis and his 
partner. As may be judged from the foregoing 
his trade was extensive throughout the sur- 
rounding country and mountain regions, which 
was a fitting recompense for his unceasing ef- 
forts in behalf of the locality. It was in 1867 
that he took up his present ranch not far from 
Beckwith, for about seven years dividing his 
time between the two places, but in 1874 he set- 
tled permanently on his present ranch. Sunny 
Farm, for such is the name by which his ranch 
is known, contains nine hundred and twenty 
acres, besides which he owns considerable out- 
side range. 

On the 28th of May, 1874, Mr. Arms married 
Miss Mary P. Street, a native of Indiana and 
a daughter of Isaac Street, a man of fine mental 
endowments and a prominent anti-slavery agita- 
tor. Her paternal grandfather, Aaron Street, 
of Salem, N. J., was the founder of the towns of 
Salem, Ohio, Salem, Ind., and Salem, Iowa. 
The Street family is of old Quaker descent and 
members of it have distinguished themselves in 
literary lines. Mrs. Arms is a woman with many 
accomplishments and possesses literary talent of 
a high order. She has contributed many maga- 
zine and newspaper articles along agricultural 
lines, but her principal interests are centered in 
assisting in the management of the home ranch. 



She has also written some poetry of worth. 
Thtcc cliildren blessed the marriage of Mr. and 
Mrs. Arms, two daughters and a son. The eld- 
er daughter, Miranda Ray, is a graduate of the 
University of Nevada, and at present is eixgaged 
in teaching ; Mary Emeline is also a graduate of 
tlie University of Nevada ; and the son, William, 
is a freshman in the same school, in the mechan- 
ical engineering department. 

Politically Mr. Arms is a Republican, but has 
never accepted office of any kind. When the 
Grange was in a flourishing condition he was 
one of its most prominent members. During his 
residence in Downieville he joined the Masonic 
order, and is now a member of Hope Lodge No. 
234, F. & A. M., at Beckwith. In his religious 
affiliations he is identified with the Congrega- 
tional Church at Beckwith, in which he is serv- 
ing as deacon. No resident of the Sierra valley 
has been more deeply interested in its welfare 
than Mr. Arms, who has here experienced re- 
verses that would have discouraged one with 
less courage and determination. Now in the 
evening of life he can look back upon the course 
which he has followed with no regrets, and all 
that he has accumulated has been the result of 
honest endeavor, and not at the expense of his 
fellow-men. 



JOHN THOMAS BARRY. As a successful 
agriculturist and stockman, John Thomas Barry 
is located in the vicinity of Standish, Lassen 
county, and is carrying on an enterprise impor- 
tant in the development of the resources of this 
section. Mr. Barry is the son of an old pioneer, 
John X. Barry, who but recently has passed 
from the active life of Lassen county. He was 
the representative of an old southern family, his 
grandfather. John K. Barry, a native of North 
Carolina, following agricultural pursuits in the 
locality chosen as a home by the immigrating 
ancestor durmg the colonial period of our his- 
tory. Upon the close of the Revolutionary war, 
in which he participated, he again engaged in 
farming in his native state, where he spent the 
remainder of his life. His son, John K. Barry. 
Tr., became a pioneer of Missouri, where he fol- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



375 



lowed the occupation of farmer and wlieelwrif^ht. 
John X. ljarr\- inherited the courage as well as 
the pioneer spirit of his ancestors, and after at- 
taining manhood in his native locality. St. 
Charles county. Mo., he enlisted for service in 
the Mexican war. He was never called into 
action, however, as the war ended shortly after- 
ward. Attracted to California by the glowing 
reports of 1849, he crossed the plains in that 
year and followed the life of a miner for a time. 
Drifting back to his old home at a little later 
period, he there married Mary V. Garrett and 
established a home in Missouri, where he en- 
gaged in farming for several years. Deciding 
to locate permanently in California he once more 
crossed the plains, bringing with him his wife 
and four children, and settling on a wild tract 
of land in Honey Lake valley. Later he was in 
Shasta county for a time, and upon his return 
to Lassen county, in the vicinity of Janesville 
purchased a ranch which is still known as the 
old Barry homestead. Here the remainder of 
his life was spent, his death occurring in 1904, 
at the age of eighty-two years, his wife having 
passed away the previous year, aged seventy- 
five years. They were the parents of the fol- 
lowing children : Eliza, wife of E. E. Rinehart, 
of Oakland ; Nancy B., wife of William Bailey ; 
Lucy C, wife of Frank Kingsbury ; Norman 
Jackson, an attorney-at-law of Susanville ; and 
John Thomas, of this review. 

The youngest in the family of his parents. 
John Thomas Barry was born in the vicinity of 
Millville. Shasta county, Cal., February 3. 1864. 
The first eight years of his life were passed in 
his native locality, after which he accompanied 
his parents to Lake county. Ore., and in 1874 
came to Lassen county, which has ever since re- 
mained the place of his residence. He grew to 
young manhood on the paternal farm, receiving 
a ]5reliminary education in the public schools. 
Trained to the practical duties of a farmer's son 
he followed this pursuit with his father niuil 
1901, in which year the latter retired from act- 
ive life. Since that time he has engaged alone 
in stock-raising, purchasing in 1903 the Morton 
ranch, located one mile east of Standish. where 
he is now located. He gives his time exclusively 



to high grade stock, raising fine roadsters and 
thoroughbred cattle, the brand for the former a 
capital B, and for the latter the number 60. He 
has been very successful in his work since en- 
gaging independently and is accounted one of 
the rising stockmen of this section. 

Personally Mr. Barry is held in high esteem 
lor the qualities of his manhood, both in private 
life and his citizenship. In politics a Democrat, 
he seeks to advance the principles he endorses 
and is active in the councils of his party, having 
served as a member of the County Democratic 
Central Committee. 



RICHARD BIDDLE CLARK. Engaged in 
the prosecution of a calling upon wdiich the 
wealth and prosperity of our nation is largely 
dependent, Richard Biddle Clark is numbered 
among the leading citizens of Adin. As an agri- 
culturist he has met with success, his ranch be- 
ing one of the best in line of appointments of 
any in the neighborhood. His residence, which 
he remodeled, is commodious, his barns are sub- 
stantial, and all the other improvements give 
visible evidence of the thrift and energy of an 
energetic and progressive owner. A native of 
Indiana, he was born, October 7. 1854, in De- 
catur county, but was brought up and educated 
in the subscription schools of Knox county. Mo., 
his parents removing to Missouri when he was 
less than two years old. 

Beginning life for himself when about twenty 
years of age. Air. Clark worked as a wage- 
earner in Reno, Nev., for awhile. Ambitious to 
broaden his scope of action, he made up his 
mind to locate in California, and on May 10, 
1878, became a resident of Adin, and has never 
since for a moment regretted his choice of a 
permanent location. After working a few sea- 
sons for wages in this vicinity, he engaged in 
general farming and stock-raising, in his under- 
takings being very fortunate. In 1901 he in- 
vested his money in land, buying the C. J. Mc- 
Coy ranch, on which he has since lived and pros- 
pered. Having made many repairs and im- 
provements on the estate, he is now extensively 



376 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



engaged in general farming, raising grain, hay 
and some alfalfa, also conducts a dairy. He was 
formerly a stockholder in the Adin Creamery, 
which he leased and managed for two years, and 
is now one of the stockholders of the Big Val- 
ley Co-operative Association of Adin. 

In 1885, in Adin, Mr. Clark married Wilhel- 
mina Blaske, a native of California, and they 
have two children, William Earl and James 
Albert. Mrs. Clark is a most estimable woman, 
and a consistent member of the Congregational 
Church. Although not active in politics, Mr. 
Clark is a thorough believer in the principles of 
the Republican party, which he invariably sup- 
ports by voice and vote. He is very active in 
the Masonic fraternity, being a member of 
Adin Lodge No. 250, F. & A. M. ; of Adin 
Chapter No. 64, R. A. M., of which he is past 
high priest; of Lassen Commandery No. 13, 
K. T., of Susanville ; a charter member and past 
chief ranger of Court Adin No. 8531, A. O. F., 
and also a charter member of the Adin Fire Com- 
pany No. I. Both Mr. and Mrs. Clark belong 
to Adin Oiapter, O. E. S., of which Mrs. Clark 
is past worthy matron. In all matters that 
have for their object the upbuilding of the coun- 
try Mr. Clark may always be found ready to 
give his support. He has a genial, hospitable 
nature, and both himself and wife are surround- 
ed by many friends and well-wishers. 



ROBERT JOHNSTON. Although a number 
of vears have passed since the death of Robert 
Johnston, familiarly known to the countryside as 
" Uncle Bob," he still holds a place in the 
memory of those whose lives were parallel to his 
— the old pioneers of a century gone. He was a 
native of England, born February 23, 1827, his 
parents (extended mention of whom is made in 
the sketch of David Johnston in another part of 
this volume) removing to America when he was 
but three years of age. In Columbia county, 
N. Y., his home remained for fourteen years, 
when he accompanied his parents to Michigan. 
In 185 1 he decided to follow the westward 
trend of emigration and accordingly became a 



member of a party of nine who brought the first 
band of sheep across the plains ; their journey 
was necessarily fraught with danger and hard- 
ship and required constant care and watchfulness 
to guard against surprises from the Indians. In 
September of the same year, however, they ar- 
rived in Sacramento without serious loss. 

Mr. Johnston remained in California until 1852, 
when he returned to Michigan and made that 
state his home for the ensuing seven years, in 
the meantime marrying Miss Nancy Bangham 
in that state. Once more deciding to locate in 
California he again crossed the plains in 1859, 
bringing his wife with him, her half-brother, 
Eber G. Bangham (mentioned elsewhere in this 
volume), of Calhoun county, Mich., also being 
a member of the party. In July, 1859, they ar- 
rived in safety at Honey lake, Lassen county, 
and shortly afterward in the vicinity of Janes- 
ville, Mr. Johnston began the improvement of 
a farm. He also teamed for a time into Nevada, 
and on one of these trips was attacked by the 
Indians, his oxen being killed and he himself 
being left for dead. He recovered, however, and 
reached his home in safety. This was but one of 
many narrow escapes which were his as a 
pioneer in a new country. In Susanville he built 
the original Johnston house, which was twice 
burned and twice rebuilt ; he was known through- 
out this section as a genial host, popular among 
all classes for his kindly nature, his broad hos- 
pitality, and the sterling qualities of his char- 
acter. Fraternally he was a Mason of Knight 
Templar degree, and a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. Politically he 
was a stanch adherent of the principles advocated 
in the platform of the Republican party. His 
death, which occurred March 25, 1898, removed 
from the community a citizen of worth and es- 
teem, whose position of high respect had been 
won by the display of the best attributes of man- 
hood. 

Mr. Johnston's first wife died in Susanville, 
leaving a family of three children : Eva, wife 
of A. L. Tunison, of Buena Park, Orange county, 
Cal. ; Isabelle, wife of Dennis Wood, of Susan- 
ville ; and Frank, of Standish. His second union 
occurred March 16, 1883, in Marseilles, 111., Mrs. 




5^ 



OS 



HISTORICAL y\ND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



379 



Marian (Kimball) Ciodartl becoming his wife. 
She is a native of Newburyport, Mass., and a 
daughter of John Kimball, a captain on the high 
seas, and the descendant of Mayflower ancestr\-. 
He moved to Marseilles, 111., where his death 
eventually occurred. His wife, formerly Miss 
Mary Coffee, a native of Massachusetts, died in 
her twenty-fourth year. Their daughter Marian, 
was reared in the home of W. H. Pelts, a 
manufacturer of corn shellers and threshers in 
Marseilles ; in young womanhood she married 
Alonzo Ira Godard. whase death occurred in 
Illinois. She became the mother of two children 
by this marriage : Phillip, who died in Califor- 
nia ; and Kittie, wife of Thomas Long, proprietor 
of the Johnston house, and a son of T. N. Long, 
one of the early settlers of Honey Lake valley. 



JOHN R. DUNN, one of the prominent and 
successful ranchers of Lassen county, Cal, is a 
pioneer of the early days of the state, following 
the westward trend of civilization as his father 
did before him. He was born in Calloway 
county, Ky., February 23, 1835, a son of James 
Dunn, whose father, John, brought his family 
to the Blue Grass state from the familiar scenes 
of youth and young manhood in North Carolina. 
He engaged in farming throughout his entire 
life and brought his sons up to follow this voca- 
tion. James Dunn remained a resident of Ken- 
tuck}- until 1839, when he located in Greene 
county. Mo., and there took up land and engaged 
in general farming and stock-raising for many 
years. The very gateway through which the 
middle west poured her emigrants for the Mecca 
of the Pacific coast, Missouri's residents early 
felt the call which induced theni to give up home 
and friends and betake themselves upon their 
perilous journey across the plains, and Mr. 
Dunn was no exception. With his son, John R. 
Dunn, who had grown to young manhood in 
Missouri, there engaged in farming and in 1854 
married and settled upon a farm, he joined 
forces, and with their ox-teams spliced together, 
with families and all worldly possessions, they 
left the Missouri river May 15. They made the 



journey via l""ort Laramie, and although it was 
(luring iiie troublous times of the Indian raids 
they were mercifully spared any serious attack, 
ill the Sacramento valley, where they arrived 
during the middle of September of the same year, 
the elder Mr. Dunn engaged in farming in the 
vicinity of Oroville and Chico, Butte county ; in 
1864 he removed to Honey Lake valley and 
locating five miles south of Janesville, engaged 
in a like occupation until his retirement from 
the active cares of life, when he made his home 
with his son until his death. His wife, formerly 
Harriett Robins, was born in Tennessee and died 
in California, leaving a family of two sons, only 
one of whom, however, is now living. 

John R. Dtmn located in the Sacramento val- 
ley near Oroville, where he purchased land and 
entered upon a farming enterprise. In 1864 he 
sold out this property and came at once to Lassen 
County, in Honey Lake valley jnirchasing one 
hundred and sixty acres of land, where he en- 
gaged in general farming for eight years : dis- 
posing of this in 1872 he purchased his present 
pro])ert\-, consisting originally of one hundred 
and sixty acres located a mile and a quarter 
south of Spoonville. He has since added to his 
property, and has continued to devote his time 
and attention to its cidtivation and improvement, 
raising hay and grain principally, while he also 
has a dairy of fifteen to twenty cows. He also 
owns a ranch of one hundred and fifty-six acres 
near the home place and three hundred and 
twenty acres in Last Chance valley, Plumas 
county. He has made a success of his farming 
enterprise, and has accumulated considerable 
property, while at the same time he has won the 
esteem and confidence of those a1x)ut him be- 
cause of the splendid qualities of his manhood, 
demonstrated in whatever location he has been. 

In Henry county, Tenn., in 1854, Mr. Dunn 
was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Eliza- 
beth Smith, a native of that location, where she 
was lx)rn October 12, 1835. Her father. James 
\\'. Smith, a native of East Tennessee, moved 
from that state to Greene county. Mo., where he 
engaged as a carpenter and farmer until his 
death. His wife, formerly Esther Gold, was 
born in Tennessee and died in Calloway county. 



380 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Ky. Mr. and Mrs. Dunn became the parents of 
the following children: Elizabeth Jane, de- 
ceased ; Thursa Elizabeth, wife of J. J. Johnson, 
a farmer of this vicinity; Araminta, wife of J. 
E. Jellison, of Bunting^alle, Gal. ; Mary Lee, wife 
of S. L. Frazier, of Pacific Grove, Cal. ; Robert 
L, of Spoonville; and Hettie Eleanor, wife of 
J. W. Bond, also in this vicinity. Fraternally 
Mr. Dunn is associated with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, being a member of Janes- 
ville Lodge No. 223, and politically adheres to 
the principles advocated in the platform of the 
Democratic party. He supports the Baptist 
church and its charities. He is a liberal and pub- 
lic-spirited citizen and as such merits the high 
regard in which he is held. 



FRANK HENRY BANGHAM. Occupy- 
ing a position of prominence among the pub- 
lic-spirited and popular citizens of Susanville 
is Frank Henry Bangham, who is now serving 
as postmaster of the city. He is a man of 
extreme earnestness of purpose, greatly inter- 
ested in public affairs, and by his integrity 
and uprightness of character has gained for 
himself the reputation of one who deserves 
the confidence and trust of his fellow-men. 
A native of Lassen county, he was born July 
21, 1867, near Susanville, a son of Eber G. 
Bangham, a sketch of whose life may be found 
on another page of this work. 

Having acquired a substantial education in 
the public schools, Frank Henry Bangham 
started in business for himself in 1892, buying 
out the business of Stewart Lomax and con- 
tinuing it up to the present time. The same 
year he was made deputy postmaster under 
N. S. McKinsey, and afterwards held the same 
office under D. C. Hyer. March 2, 1901, he 
was appointed postmaster by President Mc- 
Kinley, and on March i, 1905, was re- 
appointed by Theodore Roosevelt. A man of 
good business ability and judgment, he has 
accumulated considerable property, and is the 
owner of a fine farm lying near Standis'.i. It 
contains eighty acres, and is irrigated by water 



from the Lake Leavitt ditch. He superin- 
tends the work of the farm himself, devoting 
it to the raising of alfalfa, and has harvested 
some very large crops, the yield in one sea- 
son having been as high as twenty-seven thou- 
sand pounds from sixty acres of the land. He 
also owns an interest in an alfalfa huller for 
threshing the grain. 

In San Francisco, Cal., December 17, 1893, 
Mr. Bangham married E. Lillian True, who 
was born in Long Valley, Lassen county, a 
daughter of Thaxter True, a California pioneer. 
A native of Maine. Thaxter True was born 
and reared in Cumberland county. In 1849 
he came via Cape Horn to San Francisco, hop- 
ing in the California mining regions to find 
gold. He subsequently spent seven years in 
Sacramento, being employed in mercantile 
pursuits. Removing to Virginia City in 1863, 
he opened a blacksmith and carriage shop, 
and for seven years followed the trade which 
he had learned in his New England home. 
In 1870 he located in Milford, Lassen county, 
where he carried on blacksmithing for many 
years. From there he moved to Cedarville, 
Modoc county, v>?here he was engaged in farm- 
ing until 1903. Retiring then from active pur- 
suits, he resided in Susanville until his death, 
June 6, 1904, at the advanced age of eighty 
years. April 8, 1857, in Sacramento, Cal., Mr. 
True married Matilda Ann Thompson, who 
was born in Buffalo, N. Y., a daughter of 
Artemus Thompson, the latter a native of Bos- 
ton, Mass., and an attorney by profession. 
He went south, invested money in a line of 
steamers, and was there engaged in transport- 
ing cotton down the Tombigbee river from 
Mobile, Ala., until his death, at a very early 
age. His widow, whose maiden name was 
Josephine Elsie McDonald, was born in the 
Island of Guernsey. After the death of her 
husband she came with her daughter Matilda 
Ann to California, in 1855, sailing on the 
George Lane to Aspinwall, and from Panama 
coming on the steamer Golden Gate to San 
Francisco. She died in Reno, Nev., in 1871, 
and her only child, Mrs. True, is now living 
in Hall's Addition to Susanville. Of the union 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



381 



of Mr. and Mrs. True five children were I:)orn, 
namely: Frank W., of Idaho; Mrs. Marion 
Edwards, of Susanville ; Mrs. Genevieve Hap- 
pood, of Likely, Cal. ; E. Lillian, now Mrs. 
Bangham ; and Josephine E., wife of Fred- 
erick Bangham, living near Susanville. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bangham have one child, Ca- 
milla Josephine Bangham. Mrs. B&ngham, 
who was graduated from Heald's Business 
College, is a most pleasant, accomplished 
woman, and as deputy postmaster assists her 
husband in the post ofifice. Politically Mr. 
Bangham is a stanch Republican, and fra- 
ternally he is a member of Lassen Lodge No. 
149, F. & A. M. ; of Lassen Chapter No. 47, 
R. A. M. ; of Lassen Commandery No. 13, 
K. T. ; and of Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., 
of San Francisco. 



WILLIAM DOW. Very early in the coloni- 
zation of America the Dow family came from 
Holland and established the name in New Jer- 
sey, where John Dow, Sr., was born and where 
he passed his active life in following the weav- 
er's trade. Among his children was a son and 
namesake, who was born at Somerville, Somerset 
county, that state, and at an early age served an 
apprenticeship to the shoemaker's trade. Re- 
moving to Seneca county, N. Y., in 1832, he 
spent a few years in that region, but during 1837 
became one of the earliest settlers of Eaton 
county, Mich., where he entered land fifteen miles 
northwest of Charlotte. During the existence 
of the Whig party he advocated its principles and 
later became a stanch Republican. Prominent in 
local affairs, he served for forty-three years as 
a member of the board of supervisors and no 
measure was projected for the benefit of the 
county that failed of his fostering support. His 
marriage united him with Rachel Beekman, who 
was Ixjrn in New Jersey and died in Michigan. 
The family of which she was a member traced 
its lineage to Holland, whence three brothers 
came to America, one settling in New York 
City, another in Dutchess county, N. Y., while 



the third went to sea and all knowledge of his 
fate was lost to his kindred. Belonging to the 
same family were the men after whom was named 
Beekman street in New York City. The father 
of Mrs. Rachel Dow was Henry Beekman, who 
was born in New Jersey and served in the war 
of the Revolution, after which he followed the 
weaver's trade and the occupation of fanning. 
Late in life he went to Michigan and identified 
himself with the pioneer tillers of the soil in that 
state. 

There were six children in the family of John 
Dow, Jr., namely : William, whose name intro- 
duces this article and whose home long has been 
in California; Mrs. Katie Spaulding. of Eagle 
Lake, this state; Henry, who died while serving 
in the Sixth Michigan Infantry ; John, who was 
a pioneer of 1858 in California, but returned to 
Michigan and there died ; ^Nlrs. Susan Loomis, of 
Michigan ; and Peter, who served in the Second 
Michigan Cavalry until his death at Corinth. 
The eldest of the family, William, was born at 
Somerville, N. J., May 26, 1827, and was a child 
of five years when the family removed to Seneca 
county, N. Y. In the country schools of that re- 
gion he gained his fundamental knowledge of 
the three R's. One of the most vivid recollec- 
tions of his childhood is connected with the re- 
moval to Michigan, which occurred when he was 
ten years of age. The family traveled with 
wagon and oxen to Buffalo, where they took 
passage on a boat and after debarking at Detroit 
pursued their way with teams across country to 
Eaton county. In the midst of a dense grove of 
beech and maple they built a log cabin and cut a 
road ten miles into the woods, where the boy was 
of considerable help in clearing the land and pre- 
paring it for cultivation. His earlv vears were 
filled with privation and toil, but he was not 
deprived of advantages, for he had the privilege 
of attending the Vermontville Academy during 
several terms. 

Starting out for himself at twenty-one vears 
of age, William Dow took u]) land near his 
father's homestead and began the arduous task 
of clearing the tract preparatory to cultivation. 
In 1852 he disposed of his interests tliere and 






382 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



with nineteen others started for CaHfornia on 
the 6th of April, making the trip with six wagons 
drawn by two and four-horse teams. Passing 
through Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, they crossed 
the Missouri river at the old Mormon winter 
quarters, and on the 15th of ^lay took up the 
difficult journey across the plains, traveling via 
Salt Lake, the Humboldt and Truckee rivers, 
across the head of Long valley and over the 
Sierras to the mines, where they arrived on the 
gth of August after a journey covering four 
months and three days. 

After the outfit Jiad been sold at Whiskey Dig- 
gings, Mr. Dow began prospecting and mining 
on Feather river. Nelson creek, and at St. Louis 
and LaPorte, but in 1857 he abandoned that 
work and took up new land in the Hone}' Lake 
valley. His first location seven miles below Su- 
sanville did not prove to his liking and he traded 
the claim for a cow and calf, after which he 
selected a new location near the Mound on the 
Susan river, four miles below Susanville, and 
there began to raise grain and stock. Selling 
out the next year, he bought six hundred and 
forty acres near Honey Lake, but sold that prop- 
erty in two years and established a stock ranch 
near Eagle Lake, making this his home for fif- 
teen years. During the fall of 1887 he came to 
Susanville and bought the residence which he 
still owns and occupies. As early as 1858 he 
returned to his old home via Panama, and in the 
spring of 1859 again left Michigan for Califor- 
nia by way of the plains, traveling with horse- 
teams to Honey Lake. On both occasions that 
he crossed the plains he was at Echo Canon on 
the 4th of July and while there in 1859 he killed 
the largest mountain sheep the party had ever 
seen, at three hundred yards on the run. Hunt- 
ing has always possessed a fascination for him 
and many fine specimens of western game have 
fallen beneath his unerring aim, while in fishing 
also he has gained a reputation for skill and suc- 
cess. Not a little of his success as a hunter has 
been due to his expertness in mountain climbing 
and his ability to endure long tramps in search 
of game. To this day few can surpass him in 
walking, and without apparent fatigue he keeps 



up the rapid and steady pace of his younger 
vears. Many times he has had narrow escapes 
and more than once he has been severely injured 
by horses, but each time his wonderful constitu- 
tion has enabled him to recover. To an unusual 
degree he has retained his faculties, and even 
now, at his advanced age, it is not necessary for 
him to use glasses in reading by day. 

Returning to Eaton county, Mich., Mr. Dow 
there married, July 14. 1887, Mrs. Juliet 
( Sprague) Dunton, a native of Calhoun county, 
that state, and the fifth in a family of five girls 
and four bovs, of whom three girls and one boy 
survive. One of her brothers, Levi Carr 
Sprague, was killed during the Civil war while 
serving in the .Sixth Michigan Infantry. Her 
father, Carr Sprague, removed from his native 
New York to L.eroy, Calhoun county, Mich., and 
later went to \'ermontville, Eaton county, where 
he improved a farm and died at eighty-four 
years. Her mother, who bore the maiden name 
of Cornelia Cole, was born in New York, a 
daughter of Aaron Cole, born on Long Island ; at 
an advanced age she died on the Michigan 
homestead. Mrs. Dow received her education 
in the \'ermontville .\cademy and shortly after 
leaving school she became the wife of Oscar 
Dunton. a native of Franklin county Vt., and a 
farmer of .Michigan from youth until his death. 
Four daughters were born of their union, name- 
ly : ;\Irs. Ida Lake, of Barry county, Mich.; 
Mrs. Lura Mitchell, who died in Eaton county, 
that state ; M^rtie, who died at the age of nine- 
teen years ; and Mrs. Etta Nathan, of Susan- 
ville. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dow are faithful 
members of the Susanville Methodist Episcopal 
church, in which he officiates as steward and 
trustee. Politically he has voted the Republican 
ticket ever since the organization of the party. 
During the existence of the Union League of 
this county he was one of its leading members. 
In the early days he did much to aid in ridding 
this region of desperadoes and attracting to its 
opportunities a desirable class of settlers. Few, 
indeed, have been more intimately associated 
with its development than he, and in the list of 
honored pioneers his name occupies an honored 
position. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



383 



EZEKIEL THOMAS THATCHER. Note- 
worthy among the respected pioneers of Shasta 
county is Ezekiel Thomas Thatcher, a man of abil- 
ity, sound judgment and upright moral principles. 
He is the son of Alark and Hannah T. (Thomas) 
Thatcher, both natives of Mrginia, where the 
former engaged in agricultural pursuits. During 
a visit to California in 1873, the death of Mrs. 
Thatcher occurred, at the age of seventy-two 
years. Her husband thereafter returned to Iowa, 
where he continued to make his home until his 
death. During the residence of the Thatcher 
family in Virginia the birth of Ezekiel Thomas 
Thatcher occurred, October 6, 1825. When he 
was two years and seven months old his parents 
removed to Ohio and in the spring of 1839 to 
Iowa, where he received his education and was 
reared to useful manhood. In 1850 he left the 
home farm and determined to try his fortunes in 
the remote west, starting across the plains with 
ox-teams to California. His first location upon 
his arrival in this state was at Hangtown, now 
Placerville, where he remained for a short time. 
During the summer of 185 1 he went to the Sal- 
mon river, but after engaging in mining there 
for a time removed to Shasta county and engaged 
in the coal and wood business, also hewed out the 
lumber that was used in building the town of 
Shasta. February i, 1853, '^^ took up land on 
Bear creek, Shasta county, and carried on gen- 
eral farming until April, 1879, when he purchased 
his present property, which he devotes to the 
raising of stock. 

The marriage of JNIr. Thatcher, in February, 

1858, united him with Catherine Harrington, of 

Ohio, and of their union eleven children were 

born, namely : George, residing in Shasta county ; 

Alexander, in the sawmill business ; William H. 

H., who died at the age of thirty-two, leaving 

a wife and four children ; Mark C, who resides 

near his father, engaged in the manufacture of 

lumber with his brother; Samantha, who became 

the wife of John Hamilton, and died at the age 

of twenty-eight years ; Rebecca, the wife of H. 

W. Knapp, living with her father, and the mother 

of one child : Thomas, who died at the age of 

four years ; Ella May, the wife of W. Flowers, 

of this county ; Leonora, who died at the age of 
6 



tivo years; Arthur, who with his one child re- 
sides on the home farm; and John W., also at 
home. Mr. Thatcher has resided on his farm 
for many years and has been a witness of the 
growth and development of his community. He 
hauled the first load of lumber that was carried 
from Shingletown to the Doc Baker place on 
Bear creek, and since that time has been inter- 
ested in the lumber business of this district, al- 
though he does not manufacture it. During his 
early days in this vicinity he took an active part 
in subduing the Indians, who menaced the lives 
of the pioneer settlers; During these encounters 
he had many close calls, but he never killed or 
shot at an Indian, alwa\s being able to arbitrate 
with them. It is worthy of note that the old 
Thatcher homestead in Virginia was purchased 
from Lord Fairfax before the Revolutionary 
war, and is now owned by a cousin of our sub- 
ject. In 1903, seventy-four years and seven 
months after he had left the old homestead, Mr. 
Thatcher returned on a visit to his old home, and 
was in the room in which his birth occurred. 
Fraternally Mr. Thatcher is a Mason, and was 
the first man initiated into that organization in 
Millville, becoming identified with the lodge in 
1868. Politically he is a stanch Democrat and 
has served as school trustee of his district. 



D. Z. HAWKINS. As manager of the Aloha 
Fruit Company at Anderson Mr. Hawkins is sus- 
taining the reputation for business ability and 
judgment, energ}- and unusual talent won bv him 
in the earlier part of his career in Shasta countv. 
Since his identification with the company, its busi- 
ness and reputation have expanded many fold, 
their brand of fruit being well known throughout 
the eastern states as well as in French and German 
markets. The plant is one of the largest of the 
kind in this section of the state, the packing house 
covering space 44x120 feet, and being equipped 
with all the necessary appliances for the rapid 
and at the same time careful handling of the large 
amount of produce which is here prepared for 
the market. 

From the time Mr. Hawkins was twenty-eight 



384 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



years of age he lias made his home in the Golden 
state, although his birtli, boyhood and early man- 
hood are associated with the south. Born in 
Tennessee, July 4. 1844, he is a son of Joshua 
and Jane (Redding) Hawkins, the parents both 
natives of North Carolina, although their later 
years were spent in Tennessee. Under the care- 
ful training of his parents D. Z. Hawkins re- 
ceived a good education during boyhood and 
when the time came for him to provide for his 
own support he naturally took up the calling 
which his father had followed before him. By 
1872 he had become thoroughly acquainted with 
the southern method of farming, but was not 
satisfied to remain permanently in the south, 
where his chances for advancement seemed lim- 
ited as compared with the opportunities which 
the west offered. Leaving family and friends, 
in 1872 he set out with California as his destina- 
tion, and upon reaching the state first located in 
Santa Clara county. With a desire to see more 
of the country before settling down permanently 
he next went to Sonoma county, later to Napa 
county, but finally returned to Santa Rosa, So- 
noma county. It was not until 1891, however, 
that he became a resident of Shasta county. Dur- 
ing that year he purchased an interest in five 
hundred and twenty-five acres of land, and as 
manager of the company he planted that year one 
hundred acres of the orchard which he now 
owns. It comprises two hundred and twenty 
acres, devoted exclusively to the raising of 
prunes, pears, peaches and almonds, all of which 
he has planted himself. 

The marriage ceremony which united the des- 
tinies of D. Z. Hawkins and Julia Anderson 
was celebrated December 23, 1864, Mrs. Hawk- 
ins also being a native of Tennessee. Of the 
five children who blessed their union we men- 
tion the following: Nellie E., the eldest, be- 
came the wife of W. D. Voorhies ; John T. is a 
resident of San Francisco, while George E. lives 
in Santa Cruz county; Iva is the wife of G. E. 
Edwards, a druggist in Anderson ; and Pearl E. 
is at home with her parents. Fraternally Mr. 
Hawkins is a Mason, holding membership in 
Mount Shasta Lodge No. 281, of Anderson; 
Redding Chapter No. 9 ; Red Bluff Commandery 



No. 17, the Shrine of San Francisco, and with 
his wife is a member of the Eastern Star chap- 
ter, of which Mrs. Hawkins is a past matron. 
Mr. Hawkins is a consistent member of the 
Baptist church, and as one of the trustees of the 
organization has rendered thoughtful and effi- 
cient service for many years. 



J. D. SWEENEY. Having the sagacity to 
plan, the wisdom to organize, and the requisite 
energy and zeal to carry forward the work in 
which he is engaged, J. D. Sweeney is meeting 
with well-merited success as supervising prin- 
cipal of the Red Bluff city schools. A man of 
scholarly attainments, he has made a special 
study of history, and is considered an authority 
on all questions connected with that branch of 
learning. A son of Patrick Sweeney, he was 
born May 21, 1868, in Swedesboro, Gloucester 
county, N. J. 

A native of County Mayo, Ireland, Mr. Swee- 
ney, Sr., immigrated to the United States, set- 
tling in New Jersey. Crossing the isthmus in 
1869, he located first in San Joaquin county, near 
Linden, but some years later removed with his 
family to Solano county, buying land near Vaca- 
ville, where he has since been prosperously en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits. He was married 
after coming to America, his wife also being a 
native of County Mayo, Ireland. She died in 
Solano county, Cal. in 1887. Six children were 
born of their union, namely: J. D., the subject 
of this .review; Frank T., principal of the schools 
of Redding. Cal. : James D., living on the home 
ranch ; George E., an accountant in San Fran- 
cisco; and Mary and Nora, at home. 

Only one year old wlien he came with his par- 
ents to California, J. D. Sweeney received his 
rudimentan,' education in the district schools of 
San Joaquin and Solano counties, after which 
he entered upon the full course of study in the 
California Normal College at Vacaville, complet- 
ing the work in 1887. Later he took special 
work in the University of California, further pre- 
paring himself for a professional career, and in 
1888 taught history in the Red Bluff Academ)'. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



385 



Accepting- the principalsliip of the Tehama pub- 
lic schcwls in 1889, he lield the position for thir- 
teen consecutive years, serving with great ef- 
ficiency and acceptance to all concerned. Re- 
signing in 1902, he assumed charge of the Red 
Bluff city schools. In these schools, which oc- 
cupy two large buildings, there are five hundred 
and fifty pupils and twelve teachers, the enroll- 
ment increasing each year, and the standard of 
each grade being raised. 

In Red Bluff Mr. Sweeney married Hattie 
Carlson, who was born in Sweden, and reared 
and educated in this city. They have a very 
pleasant and attractive home on Lincoln street. 
Occupying a place of prominence in educational 
and literan' circles, Mr. Sweeney belongs to the 
Schoolmasters' Club of California; to the State 
Teachers' Association ; to the Northern Califor- 
nia Teachers' Association, of which he is retiring 
president (1905), and of which he has been treas- 
urer for the past five years ; and to the American 
Historical Association, of Washington, D. C. 
Fraternally he is a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, which he joined in Red 
Bluff. He is an active member of the First Pres- 
byterian Church, in which he is an elder, and has 
also been the superintendent of the Sunday 
school. 



JAMES ANDERSON McKEE, M. D. Since 
1899 James Anderson McKee has been a resident 
of Sacramento, where he has built up an exten- 
sive practice in his profession of medicine and 
surgery. He is a native of Pennsylvania, born 
June 6, 1854, a son of Robert and Susan (Rob- 
erts) McKee, his parents having located on a 
farm near Meadville, Crawford county. His 
boyhood years were passed in this section, re- 
ceiving practical training along agricultural lines, 
while at the same time he attended the district 
school in pursuit of an education. In 1875 he 
came to California and began reading medicine 
with Dr. C. S. Bradford, of Elk Grove, with 
whom he remained about three years. He took 
a course of lectures in the California Medical 
College, from which institution he was graduated 
in 1880, and shortly afterward located in San 



Francisco, where he began the practice of his 
profession ; a year later he removed to Colusa 
county, where he built up a lucrative practice 
during the three years of his residence there. 
He then located in Elk Grove where he remained 
fifteen years. In the meantime, in 1886, he grad- 
uated from Rush Medical College, of Chicago, 
and in 1897 spent .some months in Philadelphia 
and New York City engaged in hospital work. 
He came to Sacramento in 1899 and has con- 
tinued in the practice of his profession, his of- 
fice, consisting of reception room and private 
office, modem in all appointments, being located 
in the Elks Building on J street. He has won 
recognition in his work as physician and surgeon 
and holds a high place among the professional 
men of the city, being a recognized authority in 
the Sacramento Medical Society, of which he is 
a member, also belonging to the State Medical 
Society and American Medical Association. In 
political lines Dr. McKee has also acquired prom- 
inence, and as a candidate on the Republican 
ticket has been elected to various offices. In 
T904 he was nominated by this party as candidate 
for state senate and was elected from the Seventh 
senatorial district by a majority of twenty-six 
himdred votes. While in the senate he intro- 
duced thirty-three bills of his own, many of 
which became laws. During this time he also 
served on several important committees, among 
them the committee on public buildings and 
grounds, of which body he was chairman ; agri- 
cultural and dairy committee ; reclamation of 
drainage, swamp and overflow lands ; education ; 
hospitals and asylums ; library ; prison and re- 
formatory, and public health and quarantine. 

Through his efforts to re-establish the new 
State Fair he secured the appropriation for that 
purpose and an appropriation of $352,000 for re- 
modeling and improving the state capitol building 
He has secured the greatest amount of appro- 
priations for Sacramento county ever known in 
the history of the state and in witness thereof 
the board of trustees of Sacramento City passed 
resolutions expressing their appreciation of the 
senator. 

January 3, 1884, Dr. McKee was united in 
marriage with Barbara Nau, a native of Iowa, 



386 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and they are now the parents of three children : 
Charles B., a medical student; John R., in the 
high school ; and James Elmer, at home. In 
fraternal relations Dr. McKee is a Mason, being 
a member of Elk Grove Lodge, F. & A. M. ; 
Sacramento Chapter, No. 3, R. A. M. ; Sacra- 
mento Commandery, No. 2, K. T. ; and Islam 
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco. 
He is also identified with tlie Benevolent Pro- 
tective Order of Elks and the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, being a member of the Encamp- 
ment of the latter. He is active in medical 
circles and is past president of the Sacramento 
Society for Medical Improvement, and is identi- 
fied as a member with state, county and national 
associations. 



HON. J. H. McKUNE. Remembered as one 
of the oldest and most eminent members of the 
bar of Sacramento county, Hon. J. H. McKune, 
who died March 23, 1905, is named among the 
representative citizens of this section of the state 
of California. He was a native of New York 
state, his birth having occurred in Sullivan county 
March 23, 18 19. Becoming a resident of Penn- 
sylvania, he read law in the office of Bently & 
Richards at Montrose, Susquehanna county, from 
1839 to 1844, at the close of that period being 
admitted to the bar at that place. He remained 
a citizen of Montrose for the ensuing four years, 
engaged in the practice of his profession, when 
he removed to Illinois and resumed practice in 
Lee Center, Lee county. 

The following year he came overland to Cali- 
fornia, on the 7th of May leaving Independence, 
Mo., and on the ist of September crossing the 
.Sierra Nevada mountains at a point near where 
the present railroad crosses. Like the great ma- 
jority of those who sought the state at that time, 
his first employment was in gold mining at Ne- 
vada City, in which occupation he remained for 
a short time. He hunted deer in the fall of 
1849, ^"d in January of the following year came 
to Sacramento, where he resided until his death, 
with the exception of two years spent in San 
Francisco. At the election April 5, 1850, he was 
chosen county attorney and held the office for 



two years. Following this he was appointed law 
agent for the United States land commission, 
which office he held for a like period, being the 
only agent appointed in California. At the gen- 
eral election of 1856 he was elected on the Demo- 
cratic ticket to the legislature, and during the 
session of 1857 he took a prominent part, acting 
as chairman of the committee appointed to con- 
duct the impeachment of State Treasurer Bates. 
At the regular election of 1858 he was elected 
district judge of the sixth judicial district, a can- 
didate of the Douglas Democrats, and five years 
later was elected to the same office on the Re- 
publican ticket. He held the office until the 31st 
of December. 1869. In company with John C. 
Burch and Creed Haymond, he was appointed 
by Governor Booth as code commissioner to com- 
pile the statutes that were ratified by the legis- 
lature in 1871-72. It is said that Judge McKune 
was connected with more celebrated law suits 
than any other attorney in Sacramento county ; 
while he also compiled all of the ordinances 
of the city of Sacramento (except a few touch- 
ing franchises) into one ordinance numbered 17, 
and that number is still preserved among the or- 
dinances of the city. 

February 26, 1855, Judge McKune was united 
in marriage with Mary G. Bennett, of San Fran- 
cisco, and they became the parents of two chil- 
dren : Florence A. and Charles Ralph, the latter 
of whom died in June, 1889, at the age of thirty- 
one years. Fraternally he was a Mason and an 
Odd Fellow, and took a great interest in the 
Grange from its organization. He was always 
an indefatigable worker, and only retired from 
practice two years prior to his death. He was 
a member of the Society of California Pioneers 
and of the Sacramento Society. 



WILLIAM MACLEOD MACKAY. In 
William Macleod Mackay Chico has an educa- 
tor of many years' experience and high profes- 
sional ideals. Coming here in 1902 to found 
the present high school upon the recommendation 
of President Wheeler of the University of Cali- 
fornia, his efforts have met with a high degree 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



387 



of appreciation on the part of tlie citizens of the 
town, and have resulted in the voting of bonds 
to the amount of $35,000 for the erection of a 
high school building of modern construction, 
which was completed in 1905 and is recognized 
as one of the most handsome and best equipped 
in the state. It is the intention of Mr. Mackay 
to maintain the same standard of excellence 
which has characterized his work elsewhere in 
the west, and to place the school system of Chico 
upon a par with that of the old and educationally 
prominent communities in the east, and although 
this school is but three years old it has been 
recognized and placed on the accredited list by 
the University of California. 

The records of the Mackays are traced back 
over five hundred years, the name flourishing in 
Sutherlandshire, where the clan was very large 
and influential. A member of the same served 
as a general in the army of William, Prince of 
Orange. The first American representative of 
this family was Mr. Mackay 's father, John Mac- 
kay, who, with his wife, formerly Minnie Mac- 
leod, also of an old and distinguished family of 
Sutherlandshire, Scotland, settled on Prince Ed- 
ward Island in 1840. They were the parents of 
six sons and six daughters, of whom William 
Macleod, the third child, was born at New Lon- 
don, Prince Edward Island, December 14, 1863. 
The oldest son, Alexander, is engaged in the 
boot and shoe business at Hollister, Cal. ; George 
is a rancher in Whitman county, Wash. ; Jack is 
the partner of his brother in Hollister; and Jar- 
vis is a bookkeeper for a grain firm in Colfax, 
Wash. John Mackay farmed his entire active 
life, and died at an advanced age, being survived 
by his wife, who lives with her son in Chico, and 
is seventy years of age. 

Professor Mackay was educated primarily in 
the public schools of Prince Edward Island, and 
in 1884 graduated from the Prince of Wales 
College with the degree of A. B., and since com- 
ing to California has taken advanced work at 
the University of California and one year's work 
at Hastings Law School. Following his gradua- 
tion from the Prince of Wales College for three 
years he was principal of the high school of New 
London, on the Island, and in 1887 he spent a 



year of leisure in Hollister, Cal. Two years later 
he became associated with F. O. Mower in the 
management of a private school at Oak Mound, 
Napa county, and in 1895 established the high 
school at Eureka, where he became its principal 
and continued in the position for two years. 
Failing health compelling a change, he removed 
to Auburn and organized the high school of that 
town, serving as its principal for the ensuing 
five years. Three years after its organization it 
was placed upon the accredited list by the Uni- 
versity of California. Resigning from his work 
in Auburn he came to Qiico and has since made 
this city his home, giving his best efforts toward 
the advancement of educational interests as well 
as proving himself a factor in the development 
of public affairs. 

In Fresno Mr. Mackay married Daisy P. 
Eaton, who was born in Concord, N. H., and 
they are now the parents of three children : 
Eaton, Dorothy and Priscilla. Mr. Mackay is a 
Republican in politics. He is a member of the 
State Teachers' Association ; member and vice- 
president of the High School Teachers' Associa- 
tion ; and member of the School Masters' Club, 
of San Francisco. He is one of the best known 
and most successful educators of this section of 
the state, and is personally popular with both 
pupils and trustees. 



SAMUEL GRAY, a successful rancher of 
Butte county, may justly be proud of his an- 
cestry, descending from a family that has been 
prominent in the communities in which the name 
has flourished since the days of the Revolution- 
ary war, his grandfather, William Gray, who 
was a native of Virginia, having been an officer 
in that historic struggle. This ancestor was also 
a successful farmer in his native state, where he 
died. Mr. Gray's father, William Gray, was also 
a native of Virginia, having been born in Rock- 
bridge county. In early manhood he left his 
native state, going to Ohio, thence removing to 
Indiana and still later settling in Coles county, 
111. In each of these states he was a successful 
farmer. In 1872 he came to California and spent 



388 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the remaining years of his life with his son, in 
whose home his death occurred at the advanced 
age of eighty-two years. His wife, formerly 
Marguerite Coon, a native of Virginia, died in 
Coles county, leaving a family of four children, 
three sons and one daughter, of whom Samuel 
Gray was the second in order of birth. 

Born in Ross county, Ohio, August 3, 1836, 
Samuel Gray received a limited education in the 
common schools of Illinois and engaged in farm- 
ing in that state until 1864. In that year he 
crossed the plains to California, taking up one 
hundred and sixty acres of land near Chico, 
where he made his home for nine years. He 
then purchased his present place of two hundred 
and thirtv-six acres, two miles west of Dayton, 
where he has been very successful in the raising 
of wheat and barley. 

Mr. Gray has been twice married, his first wife 
being Marguerite McMorris, a native of Illinois, 
who died after their removal to California. Of 
this union three children were born, namely : 
John W., of Dayton : Ella, the wife of Emuel 
DeBock ; and Franklin, who is deceased. In 
1901 Mr. Gray married Mrs. S. E. Soper, a na- 
tive of Indiana ; she is a member of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Gray is a member 
of the Christian Church. Politically he is a Re- 
publican, having cast his first vote for Abraham 
Lincoln, with whom he was well acquainted. 
Mr. Gray's boyhood was spent within three 
miles of Lincoln's mill, and as a boy he often 
played at Lincoln's house. 



VINCENZO GIANELLA. The Gianella 
family was established in California by the father 
of the present generation, Lorenzo Gianella, who 
was a native of Switzerland. He was a glazier 
by trade and followed that employment in his 
native country until 1855, when he decided to 
immigrate to America, and accordingly located 
in Pennsylvania for a time. A few months 
later he came to California and for a short time 
worked in the mines at Georgetown, Amador 
county. He then came to Yuba county and in 
the vicinitv of Marvsville followed farming: and 



dairying for several years. He was very for- 
tunate in his ventures, and when, in 1871, he 
removed to Sonoma county he was comfortably 
provided for. He engaged in farming and 
stock-raising in that location for several years, 
when he retired from active life, making his home 
in Santa Rosa, where his death occurred at the 
age of sixty-eight years. His success was the 
result of his own unaided effort, his only capital 
being a persevering energy and industry, accom- 
panied by an ability which placed him among 
the foremost men of his section of the valley. 
His wife, formerly Giocanda Galippi, was also a 
native of Switzerland. She came to California 
in 1858 with her family, passing the twilight of 
her life in Santa Rosa and living to the age of 
seventy-two years. Both herself and husband 
were members of the Roman Catholic Church. 
They were the parents of four children, namely : 
Vincenzo, of this review ; Augustino, in partner- 
ship with his brother ; Rosine, the wife of Pascal 
Tremblay, of Sonoma county; and Teresa, now 
the wife of Pascal Bisordi, also of Sonoma 
county. 

Born in Switzerland July 14, 1850, Vincenzo 
Gianella was eight years of age when he accom- 
panied his mother to California. He remained 
at home until 1871, in which year he and his 
brother rented the home place, the family re- 
moving to Sonoma county, and together the two 
engaged in farming. In 1878 they purchased the 
\\'alker ranch of ten hundred and fifty acres on 
the Honcut creek, where had been located a stage 
station in an early day. In addition to this 
property they also rented land and engaged ex- 
tensively in the raising of stock. In 1902 they 
purchased about four thousand acres of land 
lying along the Sacramento river near Nord post- 
office, Butte county, which they have since oper- 
ated in their work of general farming and stock- 
raising. They have been very successful in their 
undertakings and are classed among the repre- 
sentative ranchers of this section. 

February 4, 1873, Mr, Gianella was united in 
marriage with Mary Hagan, a native of So- 
noma county, Cal,, born June 11, 1858. Her 
father, Henry Hagan, was a native of Ireland, 
from which country he immigrated to Montreal, 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



389 



Catiada, wlien a young man of nineteen years. 
Subsequently he went to St. Louis, Mo., and 
wliile following his trade of carpenter and 
builder there heard much of the advantages held 
out for young men in the west. Coming by way 
of Panama, he reached San Francisco in 1853 
and at once found work at the carpenter's trade. 
Later he bought a ranch near Santa Rosa, So- 
noma county, where he followed farming until a 
few years previous to his death, when he retired 
and made his home in the city of Santa Rosa. 
He attained the age of eighty-seven years, while 
liis wife (formerly Mary Burgess, a native of 
St. Louis, Mo., and who accompanied him to 
California in 1853) died in Sonoma county at 
the age of seventy-three years. They were mem- 
bers of the Roman Catholic Church. One of 
eight children, their daughter Mary was reared 
in Sonoma county, where she made her home 
until after her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Gia- 
nella are the parents of the following children : 
Thomas Anthonv, who rents and manages the 
home place ; Mary Frances, a sister in Notre 
Dame Convent, San Jose ; Joseph Lorenzo, who 
conducts the ranch at Nord ; Monica Louise, who 
is training to be a nurse in the Sisters' hos- 
pital in Sacramento ; Katherine Rose, at home ; 
Vincent Paul, also on the ranch at Nord ; Leo 
James and Henry, students in St. Mary's College, 
Oakland, Cal. ; and William August, at home. 
Mr. Gianella is a Democrat politically as far as 
national issues are concerned, but locally he is 
liberal. 



THOMAS ENGLISH BOUCHER. Con- 
spicuous among the early pioneer residents of 
Butte county is Thomas English Boucher, of 
Chico, a veteran agriculturist, who by his en- 
ergy, keen foresight and wise management has 
accumulated a competency, and is now living 
retired from active pursuits. A son of Elisha 
Boucher, he was born in Campbell county, Tenn., 
October 15, 1826. 

Born and brought up in Virginia, Elisha 
Boucher migrated from his native state to Ten- 
nessee when young, and was there for a number 
of years employed as a farmer and cattle driver. 



In 1827 he again started westward, following the 
march of emigration to Missouri. Settling in 
Ray county, he took up land, and was there en- 
gaged in tilling the soil for about ten years ; he 
then removed to Grand River, Livingston county, 
and cleared a farm from the timber, making his 
home there until his death. His wife, whose 
maiden name was Sarah English, was born in 
\'irgniia, and died in Missouri. She bore him 
fourteen children, six sons and eight daughters, 
Thomas English being the ninth child in order 
of birth. 

Reared on the parental homestead in Missouri, 
Thomas E. Boucher received a limited educa- 
tion in the subscription schools and under his 
father's instructions early became familiar with 
the various branches of agriculture as carried 
on in those days. Joining a party of nine gold 
seekers in 1849, he came with an ox-team train 
across the plains to California, and for three 
or more years spent his time in searching for the 
precious metal, being first located in the Morris 
Ravine, on Feather river. Sickness was com- 
mon in the new country, and he had a severe at- 
tack of smallpox in the meantime. Coming to 
the present site of Chico in 1853, '""^ worked as 
a laborer for some time, then purchased a squat- 
ter's right, thinking that tilling the soil might 
prove more profitable than digging with pick and 
shovel. He subsequently bought land from the 
Hensley grant, but not getting a clear title had 
to re-purchase the tract from the government. 
Tliis two hundred acres, lying on Butte creek, 
he sold in 1858, and with the money received 
bought his present property, adjoining Chico 
on the east. He at once began the improvement 
of the one hundred and sixty acres it contained, 
and for thiity years was successfully engaged 
in general ranching, making a specialty of raising 
hogs. The land being most advantageously lo- 
cated, he began selling it off for town lots in 
1890, laying out Boucher's second addition to 
Chico, and has thus disposed of all but thirty 
acres, receiving excellent prices for his estate. 
In 1886 he bought a large ranch at Fall River, 
Shasta county, and for a fex/ years carried on an 
extensive business as a cattle raiser and dealer. 



390 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



but this property he disposed of in 1898. In 
1899 he returned to Chico, where he has since 
lived retired from active business cares. Dur- 
ing his early California life Mr. Boucher had 
varied experiences, and although many of them 
were rough and hard, he enjoyed the excitement 
and freedom, liking the open air, the mining, 
and nature's wilds. Nothing daunted him, not 
even the mountains, which he walked over, 
sleeping out of doors at night, and wading or 
swimming the streams. 

September 25, 1856, in Colusa county, Mr. 
Boucher married Mandana Partin, who was born 
in Schuyler county. Mo., a daughter of Thomas 
Partin. Mr. Partin was born in Virginia, re- 
moved to a farm in Schuyler county, Mo., when 
a young man, living there until 1852. In that 
year he came with ox-teams to California, ar- 
riving in Sacramento on October 8. Going 
thence to Colusa, Mr. Partin bought land near 
by, and engaged in general ranching. Selling 
out, he removed to Mendocino county in i857' 
settling in Ukiah, where he ran a hotel until his 
death, in 1873. His wife, whose maiden name 
was Matilda Hargis, was born in Virginia, and 
died in Missouri. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. 
Boucher five children were born, namely : Frank 
J., of Chico; Mrs. Cora Shannon, of Glenn 
county; Mrs. Kate Jenken, of Qiico; Joseph, of 
Chico, and Warren, deceased. Politically Mr. 
Boucher was formerly identified with the Demo- 
cratic party, but he is now independent, voting 
with the courage of his convictions. 



• LEO LEWIS McCOY, A. B. In the old 
homestead built by his grandfather in Qark 
county, Mo., Leo Lewis McCoy was born Au- 
gust I, 1850, and the earliest recollections of 
his busy life cluster around that well-remem- 
bered spot. Being the son of a man who had a 
profound faith in the advantages of an educa- 
tion, he was given every opportunity for the ac- 
quisition of knowledge and during the Civil war, 
when schools were abandoned, a private tutor 
was employed for the McCoy children. Later 
he was a pupil in Pleasant Hill Academy, 



founded by h's father and George K. Biggs, 
and still later he took the classical course in 
LaGrange College, from which he was gradu- 
ated in 1872 with the degree of A. B. Imme- 
diately afterward he was induced by his father 
to seek a location in the west and with his 
brother, Galen C, came to California, where he 
traveled for five months in search of a desired 
location. By the time he had selected a loca- 
tion at Red Bluff his funds had become de- 
pleted to $135, but he had an abundance of 
energy, hope and courage, and was willing to 
accept the burden of debt in getting a start. 
From T. N. Plowell he bought a half-interest in 
a band of sheep, which then sold at a high fig- 
ure. In September, 1873, h^ established his 
present ranch m Tehama county by buying out 
a squatter for $600. Later he bought sixteen 
thousand acres of railroad land and fifteen hun- 
dred acres of state land, in addition to enter- 
ing government land and buying out various set- 
tlers, so that he now owns about twenty-five 
thousand acres in one ranch. The land, which 
is used for a winter range, is well watered by 
mountain streams, Antelope creek on the south 
and Paine's creek on the north. During the 
summer months the sheep are kept in Lassen 
count}', where he has extensive holdings with 
fine water privileges. 

Men who are thoroughly posted concerning 
the sheep industry claim that Mr. McCoy has 
no superior in the entire state, both as to 
knowledge of the business and as to perfection 
in plans of conducting the same. With an aver- 
age of from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand 
head of sheep and from four thousand to five 
thousand lambs per year, the industry neces- 
sarily is conducted upon an extensive scale. 
About fifty to sixty thousand pounds of wool are 
secured in the semi-annual shearings, his sales 
of wool and also of sheep being as large as those 
of any sheepman in the whole state. In the 
building of suitable quarters for the flocks he 
was a pioneer. His sheep-shearing sheds con- 
tain twenty-five thousand feet of lumber, togeth- 
er with a large amount of galvanized iron. The 
springs on the ranch have been dug out and 
cemented with proper outlets, and the dipping 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



391 



vat and drainingf floors are also constructed of 
cement. In 1904 lie installed a steam-heating 
plant for dipping sheep. Indeed, the entire equip- 
ment is modern and first-class, tmsurpassed by 
any sheep camp in the world. .As might be e.x- 
])ccted of one who is an authority on sheep, he 
has taken a prominent part in securing needed 
legislation to protect the interests of the sheep- 
men in California and has spent many months 
in Sacramento in order to gain some recogni- 
tion for the sheep-raisers from the legislators. 
With him the business has been made a science, 
and he has studied it as closely as he studied 
his classics during his collegiate years, the re- 
sult being that he has won financial success and 
the highest standing as an authority in the in- 
dustry. 

Notwithstanding the demands which his large 
interests make upon his time and thought, Mr. 
McCoy has never been negligent of his duties 
as a citizen, but has been liberal, public-spirited 
and progressive, a leader in all forward move- 
ments for the benefit of Red Bluff and northern 
California. Not a church in his home city has 
been without his financial assistance at some 
time of need and he has been especially gener- 
ous toward the Presbyterian Church, of which 
his wife is a member and among whose trustees 
he has served long and well. A number of boys 
and girls have been aided by him in gaining an 
education and are indebted to him for securing 
a start in the world. All enterprises of un- 
doubted merit have received his stanch support 
and aid, but particularly such as tend toward 
the permanent development and progress of his 
adopted country. In political views he has ad- 
vocated Democratic principles since attaining his 
majority and has supported the same with his 
ballot, yet has never displayed a radical spirit in 
partisan affairs. Fraternally a Mason, he has 
membership in Vesper Lodge No. 84, F. & A. 
M., Red Bluff Chapter No. 40, R. A. M., Red 
Bluff Commandery No. 17, K. T., and Shasta 
Council No. 6, R. & S. M., also Islam Temple, 
A. A. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco. He served 
as captain aid de camp on General Montgomery's 
staff. Fifth Brigade, National Guard of Califor- 
nia. 



The family of Mr. McCoy consists of his wife 
and two children, Leo A., who is now about 
twenty years of age, and is taking a great inter- 
est in the sheep business of his father, and Alice. 
Mrs. McCoy was Miss Emma Bofinger, a native 
of Red Bluff and a daughter of the prominent 
pioneer, W. F. Bofinger. The McCoy resi- 
dence, erected in 1902, is one of the most beau- 
tiful and substantial in northern California, dis- 
playing the finest workmanship and the most 
modern equipment, with hardwood floors, art 
glass windows, and plumbing and heating ap- 
paratu.= of the best grades, the total cost of the 
house being $12,000 or more. Over this home, 
which reflects her artistic ta.stcs and culture, Mrs. 
McCoy presides with a quiet dignity and hospi- 
tality that adds to her prestige as a leader of 
society. Those who are privileged to be enter- 
tained here remember it as a high honor, for 
the cordial welcome of the hostess is supple- 
mented by the courteous friendliness of the host, 
whose wide knowledge, classical learning and 
genial manner combine to make his companion- 
ship a pleasure never to be forgotten. 



ALEXANDER McKEAN AIcCOY. The 
climatic and professional considerations which 
were important factors in inducing Mr. McCoy 
to remove from Missouri to California have been 
equally potent in making him an enthusiastic 
supporter of the possibilities of this state. On 
coming west he resigned a college position of 
growing importance in order to identify himself 
with educational interests in the northern part 
of California, but subscc|uently he became a prac- 
titioner at the bar and now ranks among the 
most resourceful and capable professional men 
in his district, having during the period of his 
law practice in Red Bluft' been identified with 
nearly all of the important cases tried in the 
county. To mention his name among the broad- 
minded and well-informed professional men of 
the district is to call forth generous tributes con- 
cerning his character, wide knowledge and at- 
tainments. 



392 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



A descendant of sturdy Scotch antecedents, A. 
M. McCoy is a son of Joseph McCoy, formerly 
a resident of Red Bluff. The father was born in 
St. Louis, Mo., March 24, 1823, his busy and use- 
ful life closing at Red Bluff, January i, 1900. 
The third among seven children comprising the 
parental family, Alexander McKean McCoy was 
born on a farm near Waterloo, then the county 
seat of Clark county, Mo., June 9, 1852, and un- 
der the careful training of his parents, Joseph and 
Jane (McKean) McCoy, was prepared for the 
responsibilities of life. After having prepared 
for college in Pleasant Hill Academy, in 1869 
he became a student in LaGrange College, where 
he practically completed the entire course during 
the following three years. In 1874 he was grad- 
uated from Christian University of Canton, Mo.. 
one of the pioneer educational institutions 
founded by the Christian Church in the Missis- 
sippi vallley. The degree of A. B. was conferred 
upon him at graduation and later his alma mater 
also bestowed upon him the Master's degree. 
The year after receiving his diploma he engaged 
in post-graduate work at the university, where 
at the same time he taught some of the English 
classes. In 1875 ''"^ ^^'^^ elected professor of 
English literature and history in the university 
and held the chair one year, when he resigned 
in order to remove to the west. 

Very shortly after his arrival in Red Bluff in 
August, 1876, Mr. ]\IcCoy entered upon the 
principalship of the public schools of the city 
and remained in that position until 1878, when 
on account of his health he resigned to seek out- 
door life. For some years thereafter he spent 
his winters on a sheep ranch eight miles west 
of Red Bluft' and during the summers ranged his 
flocks in the Sierras. In the spring of 1885 he 
sold his stock interests to a brother, Galen C. 
McCoy, and returned to Red Bluff, where the 
following year he entered upon the practice of 
law. In 1884 he had taken up law studies under 
Jackson Hatch, now of San Jose, and since then 
he has acquired a profound and broad knowl- 
edge of the law which places him among the 
foremost men of the profession in the state. 
Through careful selection he has become the 
possessor of a fine law library, containing the 



works of the leading authorities of the past and 
present. In the fall of 1886, shortly after his 
admission to the bar, he was elected district at- 
torney on the Democratic ticket, and in 1888 and 
1890 was re-elected by increased majorities, 
serving from January, 1887, to January, 1893, 
and retiring from the office with an enviable rec- 
ord for efficiency *k1 thorough work. Since his 
retirement from official duties he has established 
a large civil practice in Tehama and Shasta 
counties, and in addition, is a member of the 
law firm of McCoy & Gans, citv attorneys of 
Red Bluff. 

After coming to the west ]\!lr. McCoy met 
Miss Hattie Muth, who became his wife in Red 
Bluff in 1884. The comfortable home which 
they have established is brightened by the pres- 
ence of their three children : Ida May, attend- 
ing the State University, now in her second year ; 
Joseph Muth, in the graduating class of 1906, 
in the Red Bluff high school ; and Florence Rose, 
a first-year student in the high school. Mrs. 
McCoy is a native of Detroit, INIich., and a grad- 
uate of the San Francisco high school. She also 
attended the California State Normal at San 
Jose, and for ten years prior to her marriage 
was engaged in educational work. Fraternally 
Mr. McCoy was made a Mason in Vesper Lodge 
No. 84, F. & A. M., of Red Bluff, and is further 
identified with Red Bluff Lodge No. 76, I. O. 
O. F., in which he is a past grand. Through 
his connection with the Board of Trade of Red 
Bluff he has been a contributor to the commer- 
cial development of the city and his name is in- 
separably associated with various projects for 
the growth of the place. Upon the organization 
of the first county board of education, estab- 
lished under the constitution of 1879, he was 
chosen a member of the body, where he remained 
for several years and contributed most helpfully 
to the interests of the schools. Educational mat- 
ters are of no less interest to him now than 
when he engaged actively in teaching. There 
are few more stanch than he in allegiance to 
schools. Realizing that the future of our com- 
monwealth and the prosperity of our nation de- 
pend upon an educated citizenship, he has given 
freely of his influence and time to promote the 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



3W.3 



educational institutions within the circle of his 
activities. For several years he acted as a mem- 
ber of the board of trustees of Pierce Christian 
College at College City. 

At an early period in his life Mr. McCoy be- 
came identified with the Christian Church and 
his warm devotion to its welfare remains un- 
abated. Though it was not his privilege to take 
a theological course in college and Destiny 
seemed to call him to tlie bar rather than the 
pulpit, yet his thorough knowledge of the Scrip- 
tures, fine command of language and ability as 
a speaker have brought his services into fre- 
quent request as a preacher, and such requests 
are never refused if circumstances permit of 
their acceptance. To the members of the Chris- 
tian Church throughout the state, and especially 
to those who are prominent in the work, his 
name is a household word, his position as chair- 
man of the state convention for about ten years 
having made him a leader among the adherents 
of this faith. With few exceptions he has made 
annual visits to Santa Cruz during the sessions 
of the state convention of the church, and there 
he has aided in shaping the policy adopted by the 
members to promote home and foreign mission- 
ary work. On the organization of the Berkeley 
Bible Seminary he became one of its incorpo- 
rators and officiated for a number of years in the 
capacity of trustee. As previously intimated, he 
is connected with the Democratic party. Since 
1884 he has been one of the most prominent men 
of his county in the affairs of that party, serving 
for some years as chairman of its county central 
committee and during its campaigns tendering 
his services as a speaker in the interests of its 
candidates and principles. 



JOSEPH HENRY GLIDE. The career of 
Joseph Henry Glide, one of the most prominent 
of the early pioneers, is an example of the worth 
of energy, pluck and perseverance as indispens- 
able accessories to native talent, for without these 
attributes he could never have succeeded in 
building up for himself the financial success 
which is now his. For iiearh- half a centurv he 



has been known in the Sacramento valley, where 
he has cstabli.<licd an extensive stock business, 
buying and selling sheep and cattle and carry- 
ing on a lucrative custom throughout the entire 
state as well as in other sections of the United 
States. Since 1871 Mr. Glide has been a resi- 
dent of Sacramento, where he is known as a citi- 
zen of worth and ability and one who can al- 
ways be counted upon to further any movement 
for the advancement of the city's best interests. 

Born in 1835, Mr. Glide is a native of Somer- 
setshire, England, where he spent his boyhood 
on the paternal farm and received his education 
in a private school. Upon the death of his 
father, which occurred while he was still a lad 
in years, he bought stock for his brothers, 
Charles and John. His youthful experience in 
this work laid the foundation for the knowledge 
which afterward brought such lucrative returns 
to him as a resident of the Sacramento valley. 
In young manhood Mr. Glide decided to emi- 
grate to America and accordingly took passage 
on the Manchester, from which vessel he landed 
in Philadelphia, Pa. From there he went to 
Qiicago, where he became acquainted with par- 
ties who were preparing to come to California. 
The company consisted of forty-two families 
and made the trip across the plains in six 
months. Arriving in California Mr. Glide 
found employment buying stock for John 
Davis, of Grass Valley, a farmer and butcher, 
who was handling sheep, hogs and cattle in his 
business. For one year Mr. Glide remained in 
that association, and the following year, having 
accumulated some means, he began business for 
himself along the same lines. He was very 
successful and gradually drifted from this work 
into that of stock-raising, buying up cattle, pas- 
turing and butchering them, and supplying many 
mining districts with meat. As the demand for 
his business increased he enlarged his capacity, 
purchasing land by the section and devoting it to 
grain and pasture. At the same time he in- 
creased his cattle range, bringing into the coun- 
try thoroughbred Short Horns (the sires being 
imported from England), a part of which he 
disposed of to neighboring stockmen for breed- 
ing jjurposes. He also began the breeding of 



394 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



sheep, the native being fovnid to be of a very in- 
ferior quahty. He therefore prepared for a bet- 
ter business in this hne by tlie importation of the 
noted French Merino, for which he paid $300 per 
head. This is a large sheep, furnishing good 
mutton and a considerable yield of wool, which 
is well adapted for use in American fabrics, the 
animal being first introduced into America by 
John D. Patterson, of New York, about forty- 
four years ago, and proving in its transportation 
to California soil a hardy animal and good 
erazer. There is a demand for these Ram- 

o 

bouillet sheep, as the>- are considered the finest 
of their kind in the world, and Mr. Glide has 
sold them to parties all over the United States, 
South America, Africa and Australia. He has 
also a large number of Short Horn cattle. His 
cattle ranches now number twenty thousand 
acres of land, the greater part of which is in 
Yolo county, and all under the management of 
his two sons, Henry and Thornton Glide. In 
1871 Mr. Glide located in the city of Sacra- 
mento, where he now owns a beautiful residence, 
which is justly classed among the finest in this 
section. He has taken a keen and practical in- 
terest in the development and upbuilding of the 
city. 

In 1 87 1 Mr. Glide was united in marriage with 
Lizzie Snider, a native of Louisiana, and a 
daughter of Dr. T, A. Snider, who came to 
Sacramento in 1868 and was for many years one 
of the leading physicians in that place. Mr. 
and Mrs. Glide became the parents of the fol- 
lowing children: Henry, Lizzie, Mary (Mrs. 
Qiarles Goethe), Thornton and Eula. Mr. 
Glide is entitled to the position which he holds 
among the citizens of Sacramento, being held 
in the highest esteem by a large circle of friends 
and acquaintances for the sterling qualities which 
have enabled him to make his success in life. 



JUDGE JOHN CARLETON GRAY. Among 
the professional men of Butte county who have 
attained distinction beyond the borders of their 
home locality is Judge John Carleton Gray, 
known alike in the legal fraternity and the leg- 



islative assembly of the state. Born in Dresden, 
Lincoln county. Me., February 2, 1837, he is the 
descendant of an old New England family, both 
paternal and maternal ancestors having emigrated 
from England to America prior to the Revolu- 
tionary war, in which historic struggle both fam- 
ilies were represented. Both father and mother, 
the Hon. John L. and Lydia (Carleton) Gray, 
were natives of Maine, as were also the parents 
of each. The mother died in 1874, when sixty- 
seven years old, the father surviving until 1897, 
dying then at the age of ninety years. They were 
the parents of nine children, of whom the judge 
is the only remaining son, two dying young and 
the third at forty-two, after a sea-faring life of 
twenty-five years, having become master of a 
ship when onl}- twenty years old. This son, in 
1877. as Captain Gray, was presented with a sil- 
ver service by the citizens of Honolulu for carry- 
ing to them the official notice of the adoption of 
the reciprocity treaty between the United States 
and Sandwich Islands. 

When only three years of age John C. Gray 
was taken by his parents to Qiina, Me., where 
he was reared to young manhood on the paternal 
farm, attending the common schools during the 
winter months, and assisting through the sum- 
mer in the home duties. He remained at home 
until he was eighteen years old : purchasing then 
the remainder of his minority he became a teach- 
er in the schools of the state, in this manner earn- 
ing money to enable him to complete his educa- 
tion. In 1859 he entered Colby University (then 
known as Waterville) , where he remained two 
years, after which he received instruction in the 
law ofifice of Hon. A. Libbey, of Augusta, Ale., 
until he was admitted to practice in the highest 
court of the state, June 16, 1863. The day fol- 
lowing he started for California, upon his arrival 
in the state securing employment as night clerk 
in the What Cheer Hotel of Sacramento, where 
he remained for a year and a half. Coming to 
Butte county Januarv i, 1865, he has since been 
actively identified with its best interests, and to 
its general upbuilding and material advancement 
he has given the strength of an earnest and force- 
ful manhood. He began his career here as a 
teacher in the public schools, for five of the seven 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



395 



years so occupied being principal of the Oroville 
grammar schools. He was eminently successful 
in the work and only put it aside to take up 
that for which he had equipped himself in his 
eastern home, in June, 1872, opening an office in 
Oro^'ille for the practice of his profession. A 
vear's practice served to demonstrate his ability 
and to bring him prominently before the public. 
He was then (in 1873) elected on the Republican 
ticket to the state assembly, serving one term, 
during which time he was chairman of the com- 
mittee on public lands, and a member of the ju- 
diciary, election and apportionment committees, 
the judiciary committee being presided over by 
Judge Williams of Eldorado county, and num- 
bering among its members many men of note. 
Through the meeting of the code commission a 
splendid legal training was given to the lawyers 
of the assembly, the practical benefits visible in 
the later results. Upon returning to Oroville the 
judge resumed his law practice, and at the same 
time became editor and part owner of the Oro- 
ville Mercury, his management of the latter 
bringing it to rank with the first papers of the 
county. In 1878 his constantly increasing prac- 
tice demanded his entire attention and he was 
therefore compelled to dispose of his interest in 
the paper. In the past years he has been largely 
engaged in procuring government titles to agri- 
cultural and mineral lands, many of the argu- 
ments used by him before the commissioner of 
the general land office, and also before the Sec- 
retary of the Interior, being among the best re- 
ceived by those officers, and have been used by 
others in later considered cases. 

.Always a prominent and popular man in pub- 
lic affairs he was the Republican nominee in 
1885 for district attorney, and after a warm con- 
test was elected for a term of two years. He 
was re-elected and served a second term, but re- 
fused a third. During his term of office a band 
of seven noted criminals was broken up, all of 
whom were convicted and sentenced to terms of 
imprisonment from one to sixty years. In 1890 
he received the nomination for superior judge, a 
position held then by Judge P. O. Hundley, and 
was elected against a very popular man by a large 



majority. He was re-elected in 1896 by the larg- 
est majority ever given to a candidate in Butte 
county and was again re-elected in 1902. His 
entire rule on the bench has been dominated by 
a fairness and honesty of purpose which have won 
for him the esteem and respect of all who have 
come to know him, officially or otherwise. Sus- 
taining a deep interest in the schools of the county 
he has held the position of deputy superintend- 
ent for a period of six years, and has been a 
member of the board of examiners for seven 
years, besides which he has been connected sev- 
eral years with the board of trustees. 

In fraternal orders Judge Gray has also taken 
an active interest ever since his college days, 
liaving been a member during that time of the 
Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He is a Mason 
of the Knights Templar degree, having been a 
])residing officer in each of the several divisions, 
and is also a member of the Odd Fellows and 
Encampment. Socially he is a member of the 
Union League Club of San Francisco. 

Not the least among the interests of Judge 
Grai have been those of an agricultural nature. 
In r886 he turned his attention to fruit-raising, 
beiiin; the first one to make that venture in olives 
and ''igs in Butte county, in fact in northern Cali- 
fornia, and during the past twenty years has de- 
veloi'ed a magnificent ranch now known as the 
Mount Ida Olive Grove. This ranch is located 
in r'utte county, six miles east of Oroville, and 
contains five hundred and twenty acres of fine 
land, all in one body. Of this land one hundred 
and eighty acres are devoted to the cultivation 
of Iruit, a peach orchard of three thousand 
trees, fifty acres of White Adriatic figs, and an 
olive grove containing one hundred acres. This 
last-named crop is sent from the ranch in the 
form of pickled fruit and olive oil, as the place 
is equipped with an olive-oil mill, the best in Cali- 
fornia, and all machinery necessary for the manu- 
facture of the oil. Adjoining the mill building is 
the pickling works for making olive pickles, con- 
sisting of ninety feet of building and a full set 
of troughs, boiler and everything necessary in 
the business. The ranch is also noted for the 
mineral springs, the waters of which have been 
so highly apjireciated by many prominent citi- 



396 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



zens of Oroville, where they have been sold since 
1890. 

On the 6th of October, 1869, Judge Gray was 
united in marriage with Miss Belle R. Clark, 
who had been one of his pupils and for a time a 
teacher in the school where he was principal. 
They became the parents of three children, name- 
ly: Helen, who died in infancy; Carleton. a 
lawyer who lives in Oroville; and Ida B., who 
became the wife of Dr. J. W. Wilson of Oro- 
ville. Mrs. Gray died November 14, 1897, in 
San Francisco, where she had gone to attend 
the wedding of her son. The lady who became 
the second wife of Judge Gray on July 3, 1902, 
was formerly Katherine (Jacoby) Hecker, w.idow 
of Fred Hecker. a prosperous merchant of Oro- 
ville. They had two children born to them. 
Fred W. attending Santa Clara College, and 
Alice, attending the Sacred Heart Convent at 
Oakland. For nine years after the death of her 
hu.sband Mrs. Hecker successfully carried on the 
boot and shoe business that Mr. Hecker had 
established and built up. She is acknowledged as 
a woman of unusual business ability, having 
maintained her home, and carried on a business 
that required almost her entire attention. 



CHARLES EDWARD PORTER. A pros- 
perous and enterprising land owner and specu- 
lator is Charles Edward Porter, whose farm is 
situated ten miles south of Oroville, near Central 
House, and consists of two hundred and fifty 
acres of rich land devoted to stock and the rais- 
ing of grain. ISIr. Porter makes a specialty of 
raising draft horses, although he also raises some 
mules and speculates in stock, grain and hay ; 
also in lumber, shakes and posts. He is a natu- 
ral born trader and takes as much delight in it 
as did David Harum. Of English ancestry, and 
the fourth in a family of four sons and one 
daughter, Charles E. Porter was born in Trem- 
pealeau county. Wis., May 21, 1851. His father 
left England for America in 1840, first locating 
in Ohio, and later, in 1848, removing to Trem- 
pealeau county. Wis., where he engaged in farm- 
ing until his death, which occurred in 1855. His 



mother, formerly Ann Ford, was also a native of 
England and she, too, died in Wisconsin. 
Charles E. Porter received his early education in 
the common schools of Wisconsin and upon the 
attainment of his majority removed to Madison 
City, Iowa, where he followed agricultural pur- 
suits. Later he located in Michigan and worked 
in the sawmills until 1876, when he came to Cali- 
fornia, and at Truckee, Nevada county, engaged 
in logging contracting for two years. Following 
this, in 1878, he engaged in the stock and grain 
business in Placer county until the spring of 
1880, when he leased land in Butte county and 
pastured about a hundred head of cattle. Eight 
vears later he purchased his present home, which 
is a source of prosperity to its owner. 

Mr. Porter takes a great interest in the affair^ 
of his comnnmity and is very active in all mat- 
ters pertaining to its advancement. In 1904 he 
was elected supervisor of the first district for a 
term of four years, for the last twelve years has 
been school director, and has also officiated as 
clerk of the board of trustees. Politically he is 
an active Republican and during campaigns al- 
ways serves on various committees. Fraternally 
he is a member of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and of the Knights of Pythias of 
Oroville. 

During his young manhood Mr. Porter mar- 
ried Mamie Buckley, who was born in Butte 
county, Cal. Her father, George Buckley, was 
a native of Maine, but located in Butte county 
at an early day and followed farming here until 
his death. Mr. and Mrs. Porter are the parents 
of three children : Lillie, Charles Edward, Jr., 
and Whitney Ford. 



JUDGE CHARLES FAYETTE LOTT. As 
a representative of the men whose lives have 
become a part in the foundation of the western 
statehood. Judge Charles Faj'ette Lott occupies 
an honored position. A resident of Oroville, 
Butte county, he has long been connected with 
public afTairs in this vicinity and from the 
strength of an earnest and forceful manhood has 
given liberally to the material upbuilding of the 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



397 



count r_\-. tliroiij^li tlic pioneer days proving his 
abilit}- in the efTort and loyalty to the cause 
which induced him to cast in his lot with the 
pioneer element. Born July i, 1824, a native 
of Pemberton, N. J., he comes of English ances- 
try, his grandfather, Peter Lott. having emi- 
grated from England to America before the 
Revolution, and settling on the New Jersey 
shore, near New York, at what is now the town 
of Cranbury, then called Maidenhead. A loyal 
patriot in the cause' of his adopted country, he 
served as captain of a regiment of light horse 
cavalry during the Revolutionary war. His son, 
Giarlcs F. Lott, the father of the judge, was 
then only a child but he remembered the battle 
of Princeton as well as that of Trenton. In 
manhood this son became a prominent physician 
and was medical director and assistant adjutant 
general in the war of 181 2. Through his un- 
ion with Edith N. Lamb, a native of New Jersey, 
he had eight children, only one of whom sur- 
vives. 

When only five years old Qiarles F. Lott was 
left motherless, at which time his father re- 
moved to Quincy, 111., there remaining until the 
spring of 1836, when he located in St. Louis, 
Mo. The son received instruction from Elihu H. 
Shepherd in the latter city, attending for a time 
St. Charles College, in St. Charles county, 
whither his father later removed, and eventually 
completing his education at the St. Louis Uni- 
versity, from which institution he was graduated 
in 1846. Returning to Quincy, he studied law 
in the office of Williams & Johnson, and was ad- 
mitted to practice in the supreme court of the 
state June 5, 1848. About this time his brother, 
Peter Lott, also a lawyer, went to the Mexican 
war as captain, and Qiarles F. had charge of his 
business during his absence. This brother suc- 
ceeded Stephen A. Douglas on the judicial bench 
in that district. Becoming interested in the op- 
portunities presented by the opening up of the 
west through the discovery of gold. Mr. Lott 
crossed the plains in 1849, leaving in March and 
arriving in the Sacramento valley six months 
later. Like the great majority of those who 
sought the west at that time he engaged in min- 
ing for a time, eyery effort being put forth to 



attain success. He also early assumed an im- 
portant position in public affairs, as soon as the 
state began to take steps for organization being 
consulted and largely depended upon to select 
the first officers. .'\t various times he served as 
district attorncv, clerk of the court, etc., in the 
absence of the regular officials, at the same 
time establishing himself in a legal practice. In 
183 1 ho was elected to the state senate, but de- 
clined a rc-nomination, having served efficiently 
in the third and fourth sessions of the legisla- 
ture, being nominated by the first Democratic 
convention held in Butte county. On returning 
to a practice of his profession he became asso- 
ciated with Judge Warren T. Sexton, being lo- 
cated first at Hamilton, then at Bidwell's Bar, 
and later at Oroville, following the county seat. 
During his association with Judge Sexton they 
erected the first fire-proof office in the town. 
Always occupying a prominent position in politi- 
cal affairs in his section of the state. Judge Lott 
was elected chairman of the Democratic countv 
central committee, a position maintained with 
great credit to himself throughout the Civil war. 
for he was a stanch supporter of the Union. 
In 1869 he was elected judge of the second ju- 
dicial district, composed of the counties of Butte, 
Tehama. Plumas and Lassen, and served with 
distinction for six years. Since that period he 
has given his time and attention to his constantly 
increasing practice, as well as being interested 
in mining lands in Butte and Plumas counties. 

In 1856 Judge Lott was united in marriage 
with .Susan F. Hyer, a daughter of Alexander 
Hyer, a wholesale glassware and china mer- 
chant, and a grand-daughter of Col. William 
Hyer. a Revolutionary patriot. To the judge 
and his wife were born three children, two of 
whom, Charles F. and Cornelia, survive. Mrs. 
Lott passed away in September, 1902. In addi- 
tion to his legal duties the judge owns a large 
ranch of several thousand acres, located on Butte 
creek, given over to the cultivation of grains. 
He has also been much interested in the horti- 
culturaj development of this section, being one 
of the organizers and the first president of the 
Oroville Citrus Association, which planted the 
first orange grove in this portion of the state. 



398 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Fraternally lie is associated with the Masonic 
order, belonging to the Blue Lodge, Oiapter 
and Conimandery, in each of which he has filled 
the highest position, once having been Grand 
Commander of the state, by virtue of which he 
holds membership in the Grand Encampment of 
Knights Templar of the United States. He is 
Past Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter 
of jMasons of California. An admirer of the 
character and the principles advocated by Doug- 
las the judge has been a Democrat all his life, 
and though active for the advancement of his 
party's best interests he has never allowed poli- 
tics to interfere with his best endeavors for the 
general welfare of the community. No man 
has been more unselfishly devoted in his .efforts 
to promote all movements calculated to advance 
the general welfare; no man stands higher in 
the esteem and respect of his fellow townsmen, 
nor more justly merits the position accorded 
him. As one of the last of the men whose 
names are written high in the annals of (!■ 
state he stands as a link between the days of 
hardship, privation and trial, and the present 
prosperity, his life a part of the past which made 
to-day's greatness. He is a life member of the 
Society of California Pioneers. 



ARTHUR SWEETSER. Prominent among 
the successful native sons of California and act- 
ively identified with the agricultural interests 
of Butte county, is Arthur Sweetser, whose up- 
right character and stern integrity have won 
for him the highest esteem and good fellowship 
of all his friends and acquaintances. He was 
born at Oregon House, Cal, September 13, 1859, 
a son of Joseph and Adelia (Coombs) Sweetser, 
natives of Maine, who came to California in 
1852 by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Upon 
his arrival in this state Mr. Sweetser located 
at Oregon House and erected the Enterprise 
mills, one of the first mills in Yuba county. 
There he sold lumber for $80 per thousand feet 
and enjoyed a large amount of patronage. La- 
ter he built the Monitor mill on the La Porte 
road, conducting both until 1863, when he sold 
his interests and purchased a squatter's claim to 



the present ranch, known as the Sweetser ranch. 
-VIr. .Sweetser also superintended the hauling of 
supplies into the mines. He was of a practical 
and commercial temperament and found his 
greatest pleasure in promoting the successes of 
industries in which he was engaged. His politi- 
cal views brouglit him into affiliation with the 
Republican party and he supported its men and 
measures by his ballot. His death occurred on 
the home farm in 1873, Mrs. Sweetser surviv- 
ing her husband until 1902. 'Two children were 
born to them : Louisa, wife of W. A. Coats of 
Butte county ; and Arthur, of this review. 

The youngest child and only son, Arthur 
.Sweetser received his preliminary education in 
the common schools of Butte county, later tak- 
ing a year's course at McClure's Military Acad- 
emy of Oakland. At the completion of his stud- 
ies he engaged in the newspaper business for 
eighteen months, taking entire charge of six 
routes. He then decided to follow agricultural 
pursuits, and accordingly returned home and as- 
sumed the management of his father's farm. 
At the present time he owns six hundred acres 
of splendid land, on which he raises wheat, bar- 
ley and oats. His crops are heavy and of fine 
quality. For over twenty years he operated a 
threshing machine between Marysville and Pence 
ranch, Butte county. Interspersed with his farm 
duties Mr. Sweetser finds time to officiate as 
road overseer, discharging his duties with fidel- 
ity. 

During young manhood Mr. Sweetser married 
Lydia Wisner. who w^as born at Bangor, Cal., 
and one son. Albert, was born to them ; he died 
at the age of seventeen years. Mrs. Lydia 
Sweetser died in 1885, and several years later 
Mr. Sweetser married Ella E. Bevens, a native 
of Illinois, but who has made California her 
home for a number of years. Politically Mr. 
Sweetser adheres to the principles advocated 
in the platform of the Republican party and 
takes an active interest in all measures proposed 
for the advancement of its cause. He is a mem- 
ber of the countv central committee, and has of- 
ficiated as a delegate to state and county con- 
ventions. Fraternally he is a member of the 
Kni"hts of Pvthias of Oroville. 





^' ^^^/2J^:.a^ £.^^^^9^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



401 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN CHANDLER. 
Conspicuous among the energetic and prosperous 
agriculturists of Plumas county is Benjamin F. 
Chandler, who has a thorough knowledge of the 
vocation which he follows, and is carrying on 
general ranching, dairying and stock-raising with 
both profit and pleasure. His home farm is ad- 
vantageously located in the American valley. 
about four miles from Ouincy, and is one of the 
finest in its appointments and improvements of 
anv in the vicinity. He was born in Wyoming 
countv, N. v., June i8. 1840, of New England 
ancestry. His father, Nathan Chandler, who was 
born and reared in Maine, settled in New York 
state when \oung, and was a resident of Wyo- 
ming county until his death, at the age of fift}- 
five vears. He was a man of prominence, serv- 
ing one term as sheriff of the county, and being 
influential in political affairs, belonging to the 
Whig party until the formation of the Republican 
party, with which he was subsequently identified. 

At the age of ten years, Benjamin F. Chandler, 
familiarly known as "Frank" Chandler, began 
life on his own account, and the honorable posi- 
tion that he now maintains in industrial and finan- 
cial circles is a speaking testimony of the suc- 
cess with which he has met in his active career. 
On first leaving home he went to Burlington, 
Iowa, where he lived for two years with an uncle, 
whom he assisted in farming. Going from there 
to Monroe, Green county, Wis., he worked with 
another uncle at the trade of wagon and car- 
riage maker for four years. He subsequently 
rented a farm for a time, and then turned his at- 
tention to an entirely new occupation, buying a 
stage route, and himself running a stage from 
Madison to Monroe, a distance of forty-six miles, 
his stage being the only means of transportation 
across a section of country now netted with rail- 
ways. For a year after giving up the stage busi- 
ness Mr. Chandler conducted a saloon in Madi- 
son. Wis., and then went north into the pineries, 
where he engaged in logging and lumbering, 
rafting the timber down the Mississippi river to 
Cairo, 111., receiving good wages for his work. 

After being thus engaged for one season, in 
1859 he returned to Burlington, Iowa, where for 
six years he had the management of his uncle's 
7 



farm, and was successfully engaged in raising 
stock thereon. Marrying then, Mr. Chandler 
rented a farm near Creston, Iowa, where he con- 
tinued his operations successfully for about eight 
years. 

Disposing of his land in that locality in 1873, 
Mr. Chandler came with his family to Plumas 
county. Cal.. and here Ixiught what is now known 
as his home ranch. It lies in the American val- 
ley, four miles from Ouincy. and contains four 
hundred and thirty-one acres of choice land, on 
which he has made substantial improvements, 
having erected a good brick house, large barns, 
etc. In addition to general farming and stock- 
raising, he carries on dairying to some extent, 
and in the various branches of his industry has 
been exceedingly prosperous. In 1901 he pur- 
chased three hundred and sixty-five acres of land 
in the valley adjoining Quincy, and has here im- 
proved a valuable hay and grain ranch. He has 
also other property interests, among which is the 
fine residence which he erected in Quincv and 
which he now occupies. 

April 8, 1865, in Burlington. Iowa. Mr. Chan- 
dler married Mary Sprague, who was born in 
Iowa, and died on the home farm near Quincy, 
•Cal., December 31, 1882. Of the union of Mr. 
and Mrs. Chandler three children were born, 
namely: George, who died in 1881, aged sixteen 
years and six months: Kate, wife of George Sti- 
vers, a well-known farmer of Plumas county ; 
and Nellie, living at home. In politics he is a 
Democrat, and an active party worker. He has 
been an advocate of good schools and served as 
director for some time. He was a director of the 
Eleventh District Agricultural Association. 



ALONZO KELLY PHILBROOK. The ear- 
liest recollections of this progressive business 
man of Susanvillc are associated with California, 
where in early childhood he became associated 
with the frontier environment of Butte countv 
and later grew to manhood in the then small 
town of San Jose, then took ii]) the task of earn- 
ing a livelihood at the saddler's trade in .San 
Francisco and eventuallv, bv reason of failinc 



402 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



health, in igoo removed to Lassen county, his 
present headquarters and home. During the 
early period of the settlement of this state his 
father, Charles R. Kelly, a native of New York 
state, caine west with the hope of finding a for- 
tune in the gold mines, hut ere yet prosperity 
had rewarded his efforts he was killed in the 
mines. .A. few years later his widow, who bore 
the maiden name of Maggie West and was born 
in Boston, Mass., became the wife of George 
Greeno, now of Long valley. The only child of 
her first marriage was adopted in infancy by 
Alonzo King Philbrook, the proprietor of the 
Inskip hotel in Butte county, and he has always 
been known by the name of his foster parents. 
When the boy was si.x years of age Mr. Phil- 
brook removed from Butte county to the city of 
San lose, where he purchased stock and engaged 
in the cattle industr\-. 

After having completed his education in the 
public schools of San Jose Alonzo K. Philbrook, 
at the age of twenty years, began an apprentice- 
ship to the saddler's trade in San Jose and later 
went to San Francisco, where he completed his 
trade with Main & Winchester. During the en- 
suing twenty-two vears he followed his trade in 
San Francisco, where, although he did not accu- 
n-iulate wealth, he acquired an enviable reputa- 
tion for skilled workmanship and laid by a neat 
sum for future investment. The failure of his 
health forced him to seek another climate and 
occupation, and in 1900 he came to Susanville, 
where he built the residence he now occupies. 
As a member of the firm of Oakes & Philbrook 
he started in the furniture and undertaking busi- 
ness : in .A.ugust of igoi he purchased his part- 
ner's interest, after which he conducted the busi- 
ness alone imtil disposing of it to George L. 
Tomb, November, 1905. 

Mr. Philbrook acts as deputy county coroner 
of Lassen county under E. V. Perry, of Standish. 
Politically he has always been a stanch believer 
in Republican principles. While living in San 
Francisco he inarried, in 1891. Miss Susan Mar- 
tin, a native of Santa Cruz, this state, and a 
daughter of Julius Martin, who was a pioneer 
of 184.'? in California and died at Gilroy. In 
fraternal relations Mr. Philbrook still holds mem- 



bership with Golden Gate Lodge No. 204, I. O. 
O. F., in San Francisco, of which he is past 
grand, and with his wife he has also been identi- 
fied with the Order of Rebekahs. After coming 
to Susanville he was made a Mason in Lassen 
Lodge No. 149. F. &. A. M., in the work of 
which he maintains a warm interest. Another 
organization to v.'hich he gives allegiance is the 
Native Sons of the Golden West, his membership 
being in the Lassen Parlor. In April, 1906, he 
was elected as trustee of the city for a term of 
two vears. 



THOIMAS LEMUEL BARHAINI. Among 
the more successful farmers and stock-raisers of 
Lassen county Thomas Lemuel Barham, of John- 
stonville, holds an assured position. An upright, 
honest man. he is recognized as a citizen of 
worth, and is held in high esteem throughout 
the comnumity. A native of Missouri; he was 
born December 28, 1856, in Greenfield, Dade 
county, a son of Charles and Martha (Courtney) 
Barham, in \\hose sketch, which may be found 
on another page of this volume, further ancestral 
and parental history is given. 

The oldest of a family of ten children, eight of 
whom are living, Thomas Lemuel Barham was 
very young when he came with his parents to 
California. Brought up on the home rancli, he 
acquired his early education in the district 
schools. At the age of twenty-one years he 
began the battle of life for himself, first follow- 
ing farming and teaming, and then for three 
years being employed as a clerk in Greenville, 
Plumas county. By steady application to work 
and the good habit he had of saving his earn- 
ings, he accumtilated some money in the time, 
and this he judiciously invested in land, buving 
two thousand acres in Plats vallev. On this 
ranch, which was largely meadow land, he raised 
excellent crops of hay, and was extensivelv en- 
gaged in raising cattle and horses, his brand 
being a quarter circle J. Selling that farm in 
1897, he came to Johnstonville and bought his 
present large farm of three hundred and seventy- 
five acres, it being the old Winchester estate, 
King five miles east of Susanville. Here he is 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



403 



actively employed in general farming and stock- 
raising, his ranch being well watered by the Bug- 
gytown irrigating ditch. He also carries on a 
small dairy, and in the various branches of agri- 
culture is meeting with well-merited success, the 
greater part of his land being under cultivation, 
and the improvements on his jjlacc being of a 
good and substantial character. 

In Reno, Xev., February 19, 1901, Mr. Bar- 
ham married Mrs. Frances (McMurphy) Hem- 
ler, who was born in Iowa, a daughter of H. 
Harper and Dolly (Bailey) McMurphy, of whom 
a brief sketch is given elsewhere in this work. 
Mrs. Barham has four children, namely: Cherry 
Clinton, engaged in farming in this valley ; 
Laura .May, Charles Harper and Dolly Ruth. 
Though not an aspirant for office, Mr. Barham 
takes an intelligent interest in political matters, 
and is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party. 
He is now serving as school trustee of the John- 
stonville district, and is a member and a director 
of the Colonial Irrigation Company, which con- 
trols the main water system of the .Susan river. 
Fraternally he belongs to Lassen Lodge No. 149, 
I'. & .\. M. : to Plumas Chapter No. 58, R. A. 
M.; and to Janesville Lodge, I. O. O. F., while 
Mrs. Barham is a member of Janesville Chapter, 
O. E. S. 



E. C. BROWN. The son of a southern 
planter, and of Scotch-Irish descent, E. C. Brown 
was born near Bayou Sara, in Louisiana, and his 
father, Asa C. Brown, was also a native of that 
state, having been born near Baton Rouge, and 
spent the greater portion of his life in his native 
state. He was a soldier of the Civil war, and 
while fighting at the head of his regiment, of 
which he was captain, he was killed at the battle 
of Shiloh. His mother, formerly Ann Shouler, 
was a native of Baton Rouge, born of German 
parentage, and died when her son, E. C, was 
only two years old. His paternal grandfather 
was an extensive sugar planter in Louisiana. 

E. C. Brown is the youngest and only one liv- 
ing of a family of ten children, and was born on 
May 15, 1833. Being left an orphan at an earl\' 
age, he had to make his own way in the world. 



He was only eight years of age when his father 
was killed, and the war rendering property in the 
southern states of little value, he was thrown 
upon his own resources for a livelihood and edu- 
cation. In 1874 he went to Baker county, Ore., 
where he remained one year working on a ranch, 
during this time saviiig sufficient money to en- 
able him to attend a private school at Salem, 
Ore., for a year. His brother, R. H. Brown, an 
attorney-at-law, had come to California in 1861. 
After prospecting in mines quite extensively, the 
latter located in San Mateo county, where he 
operated the White House ranch, formerly the 
Willow Side ranch, for a time, and later died at 
Pescadero. 

Becoming interested in the west through his 
brother, in 1876 E. C. Brown also came to this 
state. In San Francisco he entered the Pacific 
Business College, from which he graduated, then 
went to Nevada, where he engaged in mining, 
which he followed eight years, afterwards going 
to Tuscarora, Nev., where he followed his trade 
for a few years. Leaving Nevada, he traveled 
to Old Mexico, remaining there but a short time, 
when he went to Tombstone, Ariz., where he 
lived about eight months. Going from there to 
Birmingham, Ala., he later went to Butte City, 
Mont., and finally returned to California and 
located on a farm of peat land covered with 
tules in Honey Lake valley, Lassen county. This 
farm he transformed by ditching and general im- 
provements into a fine meadow farm, upon which 
he raises excellent hay. He owns some twenty- 
three hundred acres of land, about sixteen or 
seventeen hundred being devoted to hay, and in 
connection with the operation of his land, he at 
one time raised standard bred horses and cattle, 
his Almont Patchen coach horse and other stock 
taking the premium at the state fair. His brand 
for cows was the number 16, and that for liorses 
the inverted figure 2. He formerly ran a dairy 
in which he had from forty to fifty cows, but 
sold it in 1905, and purchased the store in Spoon- 
ville. of which he is now the proprietor. Here he 
conducts a general merchandise lousiness, in con- 
nection with which he deals in agricultural im- 
plements. In addition to this enterprise he runs 
a flourishing creamery, during 1905 making fif- 



404 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



teen thousand pounds of butter per month. His 
business interests are not confined to Spoonville, 
for he conducts a branch house in Johnsville, 
Pkmias county. 

In Honey Lake valley Mr. Brown was mar- 
ried to Miss Lettie Theodore, a sister of John T. 
Theodore, a full account of whose career will be 
found elsewhere in this volume. Seven children 
have been born of this union, whose names are 
as follows: Asa, Albert, Annie, Ella, Alfred, 
Theodore and Rensselaer, all of whom are at 
home with their parents. Mr. Brown is an ex- 
member of the county central committee, and is 
a stanch supporter of the Democratic platform. 
He is a self-made and self-educated man, and 
has worked his way from a small child with no 
means, to financial affluence, and an influential 
position in his county. He is liberal minded and 
enterprising, taking an active interest in any 
movement pertaining to the welfare of his com- 
numitv. He owns a handsome residence at Reno, 
Nev., where his family are now staying, but Mr. 
Brown spends the greater portion of his time 
looking: after his interests in California. 



EMANUEL LAUER. Not only may the 
distinction of having established the first store in 
.A.lturas be conferred upon Mr. Lauer, but it 
may also be said of him that he has built up a 
mercantile business surpassed by none through- 
out ]\Iodoc county and this section of California. 
The firm o-f E. Lauer & Sons, of which he is 
president, and which has a capitalization of 
$200,000, owns a brick building 40x160 feet in 
dimensions, stocked with a varied assortment of 
merchandise. In the rear of the store is the 
banking apartment, equipped with substantial 
fixtures and provided with all the facilities for 
the management of a general banking business. 
A private telephone system connects the store 
with the residences of the members of the finn, 
also with their ranch of about twelve hundred 
acres situated three miles from the village. Not 
onlv have the partners been successful in their 
store and bank, but also in their ranching inter- 
ests, and they now conduct one of the most valu- 



able ranches in the county, the tract being under 
irrigation by means of a system costing $10,000. 
The excellent water facilities render possible the 
raising of alfalfa, to which four hundred acres 
are devoted, and the owners alsO' engage ex- 
tensively in raising grain and cattle. 

The province of Bavaria, Germanv, is the 
native place of Emanuel Lauer, and May 24, 
1 83 1, the date of his birth, .\fter having com- 
pleted his studies in the German schools he be- 
gan to earn his own livelihood. In 1848 he 
crossed the ocean and after an uneventful voy- 
age of thirty days landed in New York on the 
4th of July. For some years he remained in the 
east, working by the day or month. In 1854 
he came to California via the Isthnnis of Pan- 
ama, and after spending six weeks in San Fran- 
cisco he proceeded tO' Siskiyou county, where he 
engaged in mining a short time. Next he bought 
a small stock of goods and began merchandis- 
ing, his principal trade being in miners" supplies. 
In 1872 he sold out in Siskiyou count v and 
came to Alturas, Modoc county, which then con- 
tained but one house and that a mere shanty. 
Here he started a store in a rude and hastily- 
erected shanty. Soon he erected a large two^ 
story stone structure and from there, in 1903, 
he moved to his new building on the opposite 
corner. In 1879 he erected a large flouring mill 
of the burr process, but later a modern roller 
equipment was introduced, and since 1890 the 
father and sons have been partners in the man- 
agement of the store and mill, while in addition 
since 1904 they have conducted a private bank 
for the accommodation of their customers. Keen, 
capable and resourceful, they easily occupy a 
position among the most enterprising men of 
Modoc county, where their success has brought 
them merited prominence and recognition. The 
five sons, Benjamin, Isaac, Max, Arthur and 
Julius, have inherited a large share of their 
father's business ability and exceptional energy, 
and by working unitedly for their mutual wel- 
fare they have achieved a striking success. 

In i860 Emanuel Lauer married Miss Fannie 
Kuhn, a native of Germany. In addition to their 
five sons they have two daughters. Sarah is 
the wife of J. T. Laird and lives in Alturas, 




f3 -^ iy- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



407 



while Rose M., Mrs. Max Cohn, makes her home 
in San Francisco. The father and sons are 
stanch Repubhcans in their political views and 
aim to keep intelligently posted concerning move- 
ments for the political and general good of their 
town and comity. For some years Mr. Lauer 
officiated as president of the town board and is 
still a member of the same, besides which he 
served as a member of the county board of su- 
pervisors for a number of years. On the organi- 
zation of the lodge of Odd Fellows at Alturas 
he became one of its charter members and ever 
since he has filled the office of treasurer. No 
resident of Alturas has been more devoted to 
its progress than he, and his aid has been de- 
pended upon in every instance where measures 
were instituted for the local welfare. A num- 
ber of the mo.st substantial residences in Alturas 
owe their presence in the town to his ambitious 
energy; many local measures owe their existence 
to his resourcefulness and mental acumen, and 
indeed, when mention is made of the progressive 
men of Alturas, the mind instantly reverts to the 
name of Emanuel Lauer. 



BENJAMIN L. JONES. Born in Schuylkill 
county, Pa., May 22. 1854, B. L. Jones, who re- 
sides at Ouincy, Plinnas county, is a well known 
property owner and mining man of this count)', 
and is the son of Noah and Ann (Thomas) 
Jones, who came from Pennsylvania to Califor- 
nia in 1854. Noah Jones came to the United 
States when a young man and settled for a 
time in Pennsylvania, where he engaged in 
working in the coal mines for six years, then 
brought his family via Cape Horn to Califor- 
nia and located on Sutter creek, Sutter county. 
Here he followed gold mining for two years 
with fair success, then went to Sierra county 
and spent a year prospecting and working in 
mines at and near Monte Christo, afterward re- 
moving to Eureka, where his death occurred two 
years later, at the age of thirty-two years. In 
politics he was a Republican. His widow, who 
came to this countrv with him from Wales. 



makes her home in Utah with a married daugh- 
ter. She is now sixty-nine years of age. 

Of the six children born to his parents, Ben- 
jamin L. Jones is the eldest. His mother be- 
ing left widowed with a family of small chil- 
dren and limited means, Mr. Jones, who was 
only nine years of age when his father died, had 
to work to assist in the support of the fam- 
ily. He remained with his mother performing 
this filial duty until 1882. In the meantime, in 
1 87 1 he purchased a ranch in Sierra valley, 
Plumas county, near Beckwith, and followed 
farming for six years. DisiKising of this farm 
he engaged in mining at Johnsville, where he 
discovered and operated the Sunnyside mine for 
nine years. This mine proved very profitable 
and when it closed down, Mr. Jones opened up 
other prospects in that district with greater or 
less success. In October, 1904, he came to 
Quincy and purchased his present property, con- 
sisting of three acres adjoining the town. When 
he purchased it there was but one house upon 
it, but he has since erected two more comfort- 
able residences upon the property and rents two 
of them, the location making them very desir- 
able homes, lying as they do at the foot of the 
mountain overlooking the American valley. 

January i, 1889, Mr. Jones was married to 
Miss Anna Hunt, who is a native of Iowa, where 
she was reared and educated, but came to Cali- 
fornia in 1887. For four years Mr. Jones was 
])ostmaster at Johnsville, and was also employed 
!)>• Wells, Fargo & Co. as their agent. He is 
a practical and successful mining man, having 
won success by his individual efforts, persever- 
ance and energy. In his political views he is a 
stanch Republican. Enterprising and progres- 
sive, he takes an active interest in all that per- 
tains to the welfare of his vicinitv. 



MRS. MARY E. HURLEY. During the 
years in which she has engaged in educational 
work Mrs. Hurley has esta1)lished an enviable 
reputation for thoroughness of discipline and 
skill in imparting knowledge to those under her 
charge. Primary work has been her specialty, 



•iOS 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and for years the little ones in Susanville have 
gained their first ideas of school under her 
beneficent rule and sheltered by her protecting 
love. Those who were her first pupils are now 
out in the active world of society, business and 
manifold responsibilities, but they have not 
ceased to remember with pleasure her kindly over- 
sight during their initiation into the work of the 
schoolroom. Indeed, her association with the 
schools of Susanville has been of the highest 
value to the educational progress of the city. 

Mrs. Hurlev is of eastern birth and ancestry 
and was born in Worcester county, Mass., be- 
ing a daughter of David A. and Fannie (Stick- 
ney) Edwards, natives respectively of Massa- 
chusetts and Vermont. The maternal grand- 
father. Martin Stickney, was a native of Ver- 
mont and a farmer by occupation. Very early 
in the colonization of America three brothers 
bearing the name of Edwards crossed the ocean 
from England. One of these, a bachelor, bought 
from the Indians almost all of Manhattan Island 
and there made his home for some time, but 
eventually he leased the property for one hun- 
dred years. Later generations of the family 
were unable to regain the property at the ex- 
piration of the lease. For a considerable period 
David A. Edwards engaged in the manufacture 
of scythe snaths at Athens, Windham county, 
Vt., and later engaged in farming in New Jer- 
sey, where his wife died at forty-six years of 
age. Thus left with three younger children, he 
joined his two children in California and died 
at .Susanville when almost eighty-four years of 
age. Both he and his wife were faithful mem- 
bers of the Baptist Church. 

In the Edwards family there were four daugh- 
ters and three sons, and of these the following 
survive : Mrs. Cetara C. Leavitt, living near 
Susanville; Mrs. Mary E. Hurley; Mrs. Etta 
Ward, of Oakland ; Herbert, of Susanville ; and 
Mrs. Florence DeForest, whose home is near 
this city. Primarily educated in the public 
schools of Vermont, Miss Mary E. Edwards 
later attended school No. i6 in Brooklyn and 
then prepared for teaching in the Brooklyn 
Normal School. In 1864 she took passage on 
the Costa Rica to the Isthmus of Panama and 



from there sailed up the Pacific on the Golden 
Age to San Francisco. After landing she at 
once proceeded to Nevada and joined a sister, 
Mrs. Leavitt, near Verdi. There she was mar- 
ried, March 6, 1865, to George N. Bennett, who 
was born in Maine, came west in an early day 
and for years was a partner of Mr. Leavitt. In 
the fall of 1866 Mr. and Mrs. Bennett moved to 
Honey Lake valley and bought land seven miles 
below Susanville, where they built a house and 
made various improvements. In 1875, hoping a 
change of climate would benefit ]\Ir. Bennett, 
they removed to San Francisco, but he was not 
helped by removal from the mountains and died 
in 1876. Shortly afterward his widow returned 
to Susanville, where March 16, 1880, she be- 
came the wife of Dr. George Hurley, who was 
born in Ohio, was graduated from the Keokuk 
Medical College at Keokuk, Iowa, with the de- 
gree of M. D., and came to California in 1876, 
following professional work at Elmira and Vaca- 
ville. From the latter town in 1877 he came to 
Susanville, where he engaged in practice until 
his death, August 6, 1880. Thus bereaved and 
widowed, Mrs. Hurley found a field of activity 
in educational work, and during the fall of 1880 
became connected with the Susanville schools as 
an assistant in the grammar department and a 
substitute teacher. The following term she was 
chosen to teach the primary department, where 
she remained three years. 

An important and remunerative position with 
the schools of Junction City, Kans., was offered 
Mrs. Hurley and promptly accepted, but after 
she had spent ten days in that place she found it 
would be necessary for her to return to the west 
on account of her son's health, and she there- 
fore resigned. After a year as teacher in Reno, 
Nev., she spent a year in Los Angeles, and then 
carried on a millinery store at Susanville for a 
year. In 1887 she resumed her connection with 
the Susanville schools, where she has since been 
in charge of the primary department. When at 
leisure from school duties, she enjoys the com- 
fort of her neat home on Roop and Cottage 
streets and also mingles in the social and religious 
life of the community. Her children now are in 
other parts, the son, Herbert W. Bennett, being 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



409 



in Sacramento, while the daughter, fomicrl}- 
Matie A. liennett, is the wife of A. L. Smith 
and resides in Carson City, Nev. However, her 
life is not a lonely existence, for she has the 
affection of the pupils under her supervision, the 
companionship of relatives living in this locality, 
and the interests of the Order of the Eastern 
Star, with which she has heen associated for 
years, as well as her work in the Susanville 
Methodist Episcopal Church, where she has of- 
ficiated with intelligence and success as president 
of the Ladies' Foreign Missionary Society and 
the Ladies Aid SGcict\-. 



LUTHER WELLINGTON BUNNELL. It 
has been the privilege of Mr. Bunnell to witness 
the development of the west during the more 
than one-half century of his identification with 
its history. When he was a young man, with no 
other capital save energy, a robust constitution 
and willing hands, he came, in April, 1852, from 
his eastern home to seek a livelihood amid the 
newer possibilities of the trans-Rocky regions, 
and five years after his arrival in the state he 
settled upon the tract of land in Butte valley. 
Ever since 1869, the year of his location at this 
place, he has engaged in general farm ])ursuits 
on the ranch, which lies on the north fork of 
Feather river, one mile east from Prattville, Plu- 
mas county. During this long period he has 
experienced misfortunes and enjoyed successes, 
but the one has not dismayed him nor the other 
unduly elated his spirit. Perhaps his heaviest 
misfortune was that which befell him June 10, 
1899, when his house and barns were burned to 
the ground, together with all his household ef- 
fects. Shortly afterward he erected a large 
■ hotel. The Bunnell, where now he entertains 
travelers whom business matters or .social ameni- 
ties bring to this section of the state. An attack 
of rheumatism in the summer of 1904 injured 
his health to such an extent that since then his 
wife has managed the hotel, attended to the needs 
of passing travelers and superintended the land, 
all of which work she discharges with prudence, 
assisted bv her daughter. 



The Bunnell family was early established in 
New England, but history does not give the ex- 
act date of their arrival in America nor the exact 
place of their first settlement. Caleb Bunnell, 
father of Luther W., was a native of New Eng- 
land, and there married Clarissa Dodge, who was 
born and reared in Vermont. Some time after 
their marriage they established a home in the 
then frontier regions of New York, settling first 
on a farm in Oneida county, but later removing 
to Otsego county, where his death occurred at 
Richfield Springs. His wife also remained in 
that state until her death. Among their children 
was Luther W., who was born in New Hamp- 
shire September 21, 1830, and grew to manhood 
on a New York farm, having but meager educa- 
tional advantages. When he became twenty-one 
years of age he left the old home and started out 
in the world to seek a livelihood. Being at- 
tracted to the west by reason of the discovery of 
gold in California, he turned his steps toward 
the Pacific coast and in 1852 gained his first ex- 
perience of mining, an occupation in which he 
met with moderate success. Subsequently he 
came to Butte valley, Plumas county, and bought 
a ranch, where he embarked in the raising of 
stock. From there, in 1869, he removed to the 
unimproved tract of land which he has since con- 
verted into the well known "Bunnell" summer 
resort. Its fine location and splendid comforts 
attract many people each year. 

On establishing domestic ties Mr. Bunnell 
chose for a life companion Mrs. Julia (Hess) 
Lee. a native of Herkimer county, N. Y., born 
.■\pril 25, 1839. After having received a fair 
education in Herkimer county schools Miss Hess 
became the wife of James Lee, a native of Oneida 
county, N. Y.. and two children came to bless 
their union. The son, Charles Lee, is engaged in 
ranching in Shasta county, this state, and the 
daughter, Aliss Alattie. resides with her mother. 
In the spring of 1852, Mr. Lee came to Califor- 
nia via the Panama route and undertook the work 
of mining in the Butte valley, where in 1854 he 
was joined by Mrs. Lee. For a short time Mr. 
Lee was in partnership with Mr. Bunnell, but in 
1861 he removed to the Big Meadows near Pratt- 
ville. where he remained until death. Later his 



ilO 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



widow was united in marriage with Mr. Bunnell. 
In addition to the two children of her first mar- 
riage she has reared two other children, five and 
four years respectively, giving them a mother's 
afifectionate oversight and kindly care. Among 
the people of this locality where she has lived for 
so many years she has warm friends, who admire 
her sterling and kindly traits as wife, mother and 
neighbor. In this friendly feeling Mr. Bunnell 
also shares, having won the confidence and re- 
gard of the people among whom he has spent 
such a large part of his life, and who honored 
him by electing him to the ofifice of member of 
the county board of supervisors, a position that 
he held for four years and filled with character- 
istic public spirit and business acumen. 



ORSON BIGELOW. Conspicuous among 
the men who were largely instrumental in de- 
veloping the rich mineral resources of northern 
California was the late Orson Bigelow, of Sierra 
Citv, who came here as soon as the stories relat- 
ing to the wonderful golden treasures buried in 
its soil were well confirmed, and here spent his 
remaining vears. With the other pioneer emi- 
grants, he labored with pick and shovel, and 
whenever a day's labor was rewarded with a sat- 
isfactory amount of the shining particles the 
search was more eagerly pursued. As he accu- 
mulated monev he invested it wisely, becoming 
a part owner of the Bigelow mine, which yielded 
him a comfortable income each year. A native 
of New York, he was born November 19. 1816. 
at Crown Point, Essex county, and was there 
brought up on a farm, and educated in the dis- 
trict school. 

Becoming familiar with agricultural pursuits 
while living beneath the parental roof-tree, Orson 
Bigelow engaged in farming for himself soon 
after his marriage, locating in his native town. 
In April, 1851, his enthusiastic ardor being 
awakened by the startling stories told of the 
discovery of gold on the Pacific coast, he fol- 
lowed the vast stream of emigration surging 
westward, and located first in Yuba county, at 
French Coral, Ore House District. Beginning 



his mining operations in that vicinity he was 
quite successful, and remained there and in 
Monte Christo until about 1858, in the mean- 
time obtaining title to a paying claim. Subse- 
quently taking up his residence in Sierra City 
he resided here untd his death, being actively in- 
terested in the Bigelow mine, which was rich 
with golden ore. This mine he operated until 
1902, when he leased it, and from that time until 
his death, which occurred July 4, 1894, he lived 
retired from active business, passing his closing 
years in peace and plenty. 

October 19, 1848, Mr. Bigelow married Ar- 
menia C. Webster, who was born January 24, 
1826, in Hinesburg, \'t., and at the age of fifteen 
years moved with her parents to Crown Point, 
N. Y., where she was subsequently married. 
Coming bv way of the Isthmus of Panama to 
California in 1856, she joined her husband, who 
was living on his claim, and according to the 
custom of that time was given a pan of dirt from 
his mine, and had the good fortune to take from 
it $38.50. In 1858 the family removed to Sierra 
Citv, and here established a home. Since the 
death of her husband Mrs. Bigelow has sold 
her interest in the Bigelow mine for the snug 
sum of $10,000. She is a woman of culture and 
refinement, giving evidence in her speech and 
manner of her excellent New England training, 
and, although never very robust, bears easily 
her burden of four score years, retaining her 
phvsical and mental faculties to a marked de- 
gree. The onl_\- child born of the union of Mr. 
and Mrs. Bigelow was a son, John Alton, who 
died at the early age of fifteen years and twenty- 
nine days. Politically Mr. Bigelow was a Demo- 
crat, and for many years was a member of the 
.Sierra City school board. Fraternally he joined 
the Odd Fellows when voung. 



J.\MES J. MILLAR. The commercial and 
financial interests of the Sierra valley have a 
resourceful representative in James J. Millar, 
whose name is indissolubly associated with the 
growth and prosperity of Loyalton, Sierra 
countv. antl whose interests are as varied as his 







a 




ii 




J 




HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



413 



abilities. Upon coming to hi.s present home 
town in 1900 he entered on the duties of agent 
for the Wells-Fargo Express Company and man- 
ager of the Sierra \'alley Telegrapli Company, 
which positions he fills at the present time. In 
addition he organized and now acts as manager 
of the Overland Meat Company, whose substan- 
tial building he erected in partnership with II. 
G. and J. L. Humphrey, the other stockholders 
in the company. Besides his other interests he 
has been cashier and manager of the Sierra \'al- 
ley Bank of Loyalton ever since November i, 
1904, the date of the establishment of that ])opu- 
lar institution. 

Although the earliest recollections of Mr. Mil- 
lar are connected with the valley where he now 
lives, his native place is far removed from the 
scenes now familiar to .him. for Australia is his 
birthplace. The family traces its 'lineage to 
Scotland, and his father was a native of Canada, 
but in early nianbod removed to Australia and 
embarked in the lumber business. There he met 
and married Agnes Harvey, who was born in 
England and went to Australia in girlhood. In 
1869 James and Agnes Millar came to California 
from Australia and settled in Sierra countv, 
buying a ranch four miles from Sierraville, 
where he became a very extensive stock-raiser 
and made considerable money furnishing beef 
for mining camps. In 1903 he retired from ag- 
ricultural pursuits and removed to Reno, Nev., 
where, at the age of seventy-one, be is now liv- 
ing, in the enjoyment of a competency accumu- 
lated by years of arduous labor. His wife, who 
is now sixty-eight, survives to share the com- 
forts accumulated by. their united efforts. 

.A^t the time of coming to California James J. 
Millar, who was bom May 8, 1866, had but 
reached his third year, hence he may be termed 
a Californian in all but birth. His education 
was secured in the public schools of the Sierra 
valley and his agricultural training was received 
on the home ranch. However, his tastes did 
not lie in the direction of agriculture, and at the 
age of twenty-four years he entered upon a busi- 
ness career, becoming identified with the mer- 
cantile interests in Sierraville, where he remained 
until the date of his removal to Loyalton. In 



political views he supports the Democratic partv 
and takes a warm interest in its activities. 
Elected to represent his township in the countv 
board of supervisors, he served with efiiciency 
from 1898 until 1902, and in other positions of 
trust he has proved himself capable of advancing 
the best interests of the people. Upon the or- 
ganization of Loyalton Lodge No. 359. F. & 
A. M., be became one of its charter members 
and has since been interested in the philan- 
thropies of the order. By his marriage to Miss 
Lillie Olsen, a native of Sierra county, he has 
two sons, Niles O., and Norman E. No citizen 
of Loyalton is more deeply interested in its wel- 
fare than Mr. .Millar, and none has contributed 
more generously of time and means to move- 
ments for the promotion of its commercial, finan- 
cial, educational and philanthropic affairs. 



JOSEPH G. CONKLIN. Prominent among 
the progressive and successful agriculturists of 
Modoc county is Joseph G. Conklin, who owns 
and occupies one of the best improved and most 
valuable farming estates to be found in Round 
Valley. He has been an interested witness of 
the many changes that have taken place in this 
vicinity during the past twenty years, and has 
contributed his full share toward the building up 
of the section of the state which he determined 
to make his permanent home. A son of Gamaliel 
and Elizabeth (Ellsworth) Conklin, he was born 
November 10, 1835, in Yates county, N. Y., 
about five miles from Dundee. 

Learning the trade of a carpenter in his native 
state, Mr. Conklin migrated to Indiana in 1852, 
locating as a carpenter at South Bend, where he 
worked for a time on the court house then in 
process of erection, subsequently being em- 
ployed in the Studebaker Carriage Manufactory. 
Going to Missouri in 1857, he followed his trade 
in Bates county for four years, and from 1861 
until 1862 was similarly employed in Iowa. 
Crossing the plains in the latter year, he located 
in Grand Ronde Valley, Ore., where he worked 
as a carpenter, ranchman and teamster for four 
years, after which he worked at his trade in two 



414 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



of the leading cities of Oregon — Salem and Al- 
bany. His health failing, he came to the Sac- 
ramento valley, Gal., in 1870, locating near Wil- 
lows, where he was engaged in carpentering for 
five years. Going then to Tehama county, he 
took up a tract of land lying about ten miles 
west of Corning, and for ten years was em- 
ployed in tilling the soil. Disposing of that 
property he settled at Round Valley, Modoc 
county, where he has since been extensively and 
profitably employed in agricultural pursuits. 
Purchasing five hundred acres of land that was 
practically in its original condition, he has added 
many and varied improvements, and as a raiser 
of hay, grain and stock has acquired wealth and 
distinction, his success as a general farmer being 
recognized throughout this part of the country. 
He also raises fruit of different kinds, including 
apples, peaches, plums, pears and cherries, hav- 
ing set out his large orchard himself. For 
thirty years he also ran a threshing machine, 
and after coming to Modoc county purchased 
a sawmill, which he operated for a time, and then 
gave to two of his sons. 

In 1859, in Missouri, 'Sir. ConkUn married 
Mary Jane Wells, a native of Iowa, and of their 
union nine children have been born. G. D. is 
living at home ; Charles \V., residing in Men- 
docino county, married I^ura Hill, by whom he 
has four children, Carrie, Xellie, Emma and 
May ; E. E., renting a part of his father's ranch, 
married Eliza Griffith, and they have three chil- 
dren, John, Bessie and .Albert : William E., run- 
ning a sawmill in Modoc county, married Lucin- 
da Harris, by whom he has two children, Zora 
and Rowena ; Emma, wife of William Rachford, 
of Alturas, has two children, Arphabus and Dur- 
rell; Minnie, wife of Samuel Griffith, residing 
near Adin, has two children, Virgil and Qarence 
Roy; Mittie, a twin sister of Minnie, lives at 
Fallriver M'Ms, Gal., the wife of Harry Frasier ; 
Ella, wife of Charles Ramsay, of Lassen county, 
has two children, Fannie and Arthur; and 
Robert, owning the sawmill in Modoc county in 
partnership with his brother William, married 
Rowena Harris. In his political affiliations Mr. 
Conklin is a stanch Democrat. Fraternally he 
is a member of Jefferson Lodge, F. & A. M., of 



Jefiferson City, Ore., and of Red Bluff Chapter, 
R. A. M. He fs a charter member of the Co- 
operative Association of Big Valley. 



ABRAHAM DILLON HOLMES. Dis- 
tinguished not only as a representative of one of 
the honored pioneer families of northern Cali- 
fornia, but as a man of sterling integrity and 
worth, the late Abraham Dillon Holmes is espe- 
cially deserving of mention in a volume of 
this character. Succeeding to the occupation of 
his ancestors for several generations, he was 
prosperously employed in agricultural pursuits 
during his active career, becoming one of the 
leading ranchers of Big Meadows. A son of 
Isaac Holmes, he was born October 24, 1850, 
in Indiana, and died December 8, 1901, on the 
home farm at Big Meadows, Plumas county. 
Isaac Holmes, with his wife, Elizabeth, came 
across the plains with their family in 1858, lo- 
cating first in Indian valley, and subsequently, 
after trying different places, made a per;nanent 
settlement at Big Meadows, where they spent 
their remaining years on the ranch which they 
had improved from its original wildness. 

One of a family of eleven children, of whom 
two sons and two daughters are still living, 
Abraham Dillon Holmes came to California 
when a lad of eight years, and in his early life 
endured all the hardships and privations inci- 
dental to pioneering. After the family settled 
at Big Meadows, Plumas county, he did his full 
share toward reclaiming a farm from the virgin 
soil, and after his marriage took charge of the 
home ranch of three hundred and twenty acres. 
Skillful, energetic and progressive in his meth- 
ods, he met with signal success as a general 
farmer and stock raiser, and resided there until 
his death. He brought a large proportion of 
the land to a high state of cultivation, and as 
time passed and his means justified, added other 
improvements of value. In his political views 
Mr. Holmes was a loyal Republican, and fra- 
ternally he was a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. Classed by his fellow- 
citizens as one of the public-spirited and enter- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



415 



prising men of the township, he merited and re- 
ceived the confidence and esteem of the com- 
munity, and liis death was a cause of deep re- 
gret. 

October 13, 1871, near Oiester, Big Meadows, 
Mr. Hohnes married M. Birdie Noble, who was 
born in Kenosha, Wi.s., a daughter of Aaron 
Noble. Jr., and granddaughter of Aaron Noble, 
.Sr., a pioneer settler of \Visconsin. When a 
small boy Aaron Noble, Jr., was stolen bv the 
Indians, who kept him eight years, after which 
he was rescued. Choosing farming for an oc- 
cupation, he followed it in early life and later 
engaged in mercantile pursuits in Kenosha, Wis. 
Following the trail of the gold seekers, he came 
across the plains in 1840, bringing with him his 
oldest son. Reman Noble, who afterwards, as 
captain of a company, served in the Indian wars 
on both the Pacific coast and in Arizona. Re- 
turning to Wisconsin after mining for several 
months, he discovered the pass in the Rocky 
mountains which in his honor was named Noble's 
Pass. In 1852 he again crossed the plains, this 
time bringing others of his children, who settled 
in Yreka, he being captain of the train. Going 
back to Wisconsin he married again, and after a 
few years went to Missouri from, there with his 
family. He made a third trip across the plains to 
the Pacific coast in 1859, this time also as cap- 
tain, and on his arrival settled with his wife and 
children near Magalia. Butte county, where he 
owned and operated a sawmill until his death, 
in 1864. 

Mr. Noble married Sarah Wookey, who was 
born in Somersetshire, England, which was also 
the birthplace of her father, George Wookey. 
Immigrating with his family to the United States 
in 1850, he settled on land near Kenosha, Wis., 
nnd was there employed as a tiller of the soil 
during the remainder of his life. His wife, 
whose maiden name was ISIaria Bryant, was born 
in England, and died, aged eighty-five years, in 
Wisconsin. She belonged to a family noted for 
their longevity, her father, James Culliford 
Bryant, having lived to the remarkable age of 
one hundred and nine years, while his wife, 
Maria, died at the age of eighty-six years. Of 
the union of George and Maria (Bryant) 



\\'ookey. ten children were born, six sons and 
four daughters, Mrs. Noble being the only resi- 
dent of the Pacific coast. She was born January 
24, 1 82 1, and now makes her home with her chil- 
dren. 

She is a strong Episcopalian in her religious 
belief, and though upwards of eighty-five vears 
of age is bright and active, her mental faculties 
being seemingly unimpaired. She bore her hus- 
ban<l four children, namely: Elizabeth, wife of 
Burwell Johnson, of I'.ig :\Ieadows; M. Birdie, 
widow of .Abraham D. Holmes, the subject of 
this review; Mrs. Adella Burgess, of Shasta 
county; and William George, who died at Red 
Blufif, Gal., aged seventeen years. 

Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Holmes six 
children were born, namely: Leon, of Susan- 
ville: Mary Edith, who died in infancy; Will- 
iam, an electrician in Shasta county: Burwell, of 
Susanville, Cal. ; Percy, attending the Susanville 
high school ; and Lute. Soon after the death of 
her husband Mrs. Holmes disposed of the farm 
on which she had spent her married life, and also 
the Blunt ranch, which she owned, and has since 
resided in Susanville. She has invested a part 
of her money in local property, having purchased 
a livery stable in this city. She is a member of 
the Qiristiaji church, and belongs to the Susan- 
ville Lodge of the Daughters of Rebekah. 



WlLLl.VM HENRY HALL. The active and 
enterprising business men of Lassen county have 
no more worthy representative than William H. 
Hall, of Johnstonville. A successful miller, 
farmer and stockman, he is prominently identi- 
fied with the manufacturing, agricultural and 
industrial interests of the community in which 
he resides, and as one of the promoters and a 
director of the California and Oregon Telegraph 
Company has been an important factor in ad- 
vancing the welfare of this section of the state. 
A native of New England, he was born April 
29. 1843, in Peru, Oxford county. Me., a son 
of Davis Hall, and a brother of W. P. Hall, of 
Susanville. in whose sketch, which appears else- 
where in this work, a more extended account of 
his i)arents and ancestors may be found. 



416 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



When a babe of six months WiUiam Henry 
Hall was taken by his parents to Massachusetts, 
and in the town of Waltham he was reared and 
educated. After leaving school he learned the 
plumber's trade, which he followed for eighteen 
months. Desirous then of trying his luck in a 
newer country, he started for the Pacific coast 
by way of the Isthmus, sailing on the vessel 
Northern Light to Aspinwall, and on the old 
California from Panama to San Francisco, ar- 
riving there March 12, 1861. He helped build 
the first ditch in Johnstonville. afterwards mined 
for a short time in Sierra county, and on re- 
turning to lohnstouville embarked in the butcher 
business. In 1864 he went to Humboldt City, 
and for a year was engaged in mining and pros- 
pecting in the Humboldt Canon. Returning 
again to Johnstonville, he ran a fruit wagon over 
the mountains from Chico to Honey lake, work- 
ing up a profitable business. During the Wliite 
j^ine excitement of 1869. with characteristic en- 
terprise, he took a load of barley there, using 
seven yoke of oxen in transporting it. and re- 
mained there until the fall of that year. In 1872 
he began working as a miller for his brother, 
S. R. Hall, with whom, the same year, he pur- 
chased the Lassen Flouring Mills at Johnston- 
ville, which he assisted in running. In 1875 his 
brother sold his interest in the plant to Mr. 
Snyder, and Mr. Hall became senior member of 
the milling firm of Hall & Snyder. This mill, 
which was a burr mill, was the second mill built 
in the vallev. and is the oldest now in this lo- 
cality. It has been remodeled at different times, 
and is now equipped with a full roller process 
and produces a first grade patent flour. The 
mill has ample water power and a capacity of 
fift\- [barrels daily. 

Mr. Hall also owns a farm of seven hundred 
and twenty acres at the foot of Diamond moun- 
tain, and raises hay. grain and stock, making a 
specialty of breeding and raising French Per- 
cheron horses. He is the president and a director 
of the California and Oregon Telegraph Com- 
pany, which he assisted in organizing, and is tele- 
graph operator at the station in his residence. 
This line passes through Plumas, Lassen and 
Modoc counties, Cal., Washoe county, Nev., and 



Lake county. Ore., and is of inestimable value to 
the residents of this part of the Union. 

At Johnstonville, Mr. Hall married Mary J. 
Sififord, who was born in Stoddard county. Mo. 
Her father, Henry Sififord, a native of Missouri, 
crossed the plains with ox-teams in 1859, locat- 
ing first in Nevada county, but coming in i8fi8 
to Johnstonville, where he was engaged in farm- 
ing until his death. His wife, whose maiden 
name was Martha Black, was born in Kentucky, 
and now resides in Susanville. She bore him 
eight children, five sons and three daughters, 
Mrs. Hall being the fourth child in order of 
birth. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have two children : 
Jesse A., running the ranch ; and William H., 
Jr., attending the high school. Politically Mr. 
Hall is a true blue Republican, and for several 
years was one of the school trustees, serving at 
the time the new schoolhouse at Johnstonville 
was erected. Mrs. Hall is a most estimable 
woman, highly respected by all, and is a consist- 
ent niemlier of the Baptist church. 



ALFRED HENRY TAYLOR. The position 
of receiver of the United States land office of 
the Susanville district, first conferred upon Mr. 
Taylor under the administration of President 
McKinley, is still held by him under reappoint- 
ment by President Roosevelt. Appointed the 
first time in July of 1897, he removed immedi- 
ately to Susanville, and in September began the 
duties of the office, which he still discharges, 
under a second appointment bearing date of 
.April, 1902. The district consists of Modoc, 
Lassen, parts of Plumas and Sierra, and a small 
portion of Shasta and Tehama counties, the 
whole comprising a large section of the north- 
eastern part of California. 

The family represented by Mr. Taylor is of 
English origin. His father, Henry, was a native 
of Norwich, England, and by trade a locksmith 
and bellhanger. Just before the beginning of the 
Civil war he removed his family from New York 
City to Nyack, N. Y., where they remained dur- 
ing the period of his service in the engineering 
department of the navy. After a year of service 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



419 



he was disabled to such an extent that he was 
confined to his bed in the hospital for nine 
months, and then was sent home a wreck of his 
former self. Nor did he ever afterward rc<;ain 
his health. In 1871 he removed to Kansas and 
settled in Phillips county, where in 1877 he died 
after years of suffering- from the effects of iiis 
service during the war. 

When a young man Henr_\' Taylor married 
Mary Ann Jones, a native of London, England. 
The family is of Welsh extraction and her 
father, John Jones, was born in Wales. From 
there he went to London, where he followed the 
locksmith's trade. Eventually he crossed the 
ocean to New York, and there remained until 
his death. Some years after the death of Henry 
Ta}lor his widow came to California, and her 
death occurred in Modoc county when she was 
sixty-four _\ears of age. In her family there are 
six sons and daughters now living, namely : 
Theodore, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal 
denomination, now pastor of the church at New 
Almaden, Cal. ; Alfred Henry, of Susanville ; 
Mrs. Mary Holton, of Surprise valley ; John, a 
rancher whose headquarters are at Eagleville, 
Surprise valley; Mrs. Alice Perkins, of Wads- 
worth, Nev. : and Mrs. Irene Poole, also of Ne- 
vada. The members of the family are earnest 
Oiristian workers and faithful members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. Their activitv in 
church v.'ork is suggested by the fact that, at one 
time, in addition to the ministerial services of 
the eldest son, the other two sons and one daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Holton, were engaged in capable serv- 
ice as Sunday-school superintendents. 

During the residence of the family in New 
York City .'\lfred Henry Taylor was born Sep- 
tember 29, 1854. During boyhood he was a pupil 
in the grammar school of Nyack. At the age of 
sixteen years he went to Iowa and from there a 
year later went to Phillips county, Kans., settling- 
on land taken up by his father. In 1876 he came 
still further west and settled in California, where 
since he has made his home. .At first he engaged 
in the dairy business in the Surprise valley, 
Modoc county, but later he turned his attention 
to the manufacture of butter kegs, meat tanks, 
butter boxes, etc., in which he used staves braced 



by galvanized iron hoops. When he received 
the appointment as receiver of the I'nited States 
land office he gave up the manufacturing busi- 
ness and removed to Lassen county, where he 
purchased one hundred and seventy acres in the 
suburbs of Susanville. On this property he has 
built a residence, planted a family orchard, placed 
a considerable acreage under alfalfa and made 
other improvements of exceptional value. 

\Miile living in Modoc county Mr. Taylor mar- 
ried Miss Fannie H. Traver, a native of Ver- 
mont. Born of their union are three sons, Ralph, 
Fred and George, the two latter being twins. 
The family are identified with the Methodist 
Episcopal church, which Mr. Taylor joined in 
New York during boyhood and in which he has 
officiated as a local preacher since 1880. During 
the period of his residence in Surprise vallev he 
assisted in founding the church there, and for 
twenty-four years officiated as suix-rintendent of 
its Sunday-school. Since moving to Susanville 
he has filled the same office in this Sunday-school, 
besides holding- the position of church trustee. 
In politics he has been a stanch Republican ever 
since ca.sting his first ballot. 



LEWIS ALBERT MYERS. A successful 
and enterprising famier of Lassen county is 
Lewis A. Myers, who resides a quarter of a mile 
from Clinton. He is a son of Lewis and Mar- 
garet (Spangler) Myers, the former dying wdien 
his son was only one year old. and the mother 
two years later. The youngest of eight sons 
born to his parents, Lewis A. Myers is a native 
of Madi,son county, Iowa, bom October 30, i860. 
.\t an early age he began to work out on farms, 
and the only education that he received in the 
schoolroom was meager and unsatisfactory. .\t 
the age of seven years he was bound out to a 
farmer, with w^hom he remained seven years. In 
December, 1884, he came to California and lo- 
cated near Susanville, Lassen county, where he 
engaged in farming on one hundred and sixty 
acres of land. Tliis was wild, unimproved land, 
which he dispo.sed of one year afterward, and 
going to Amedee, there entered mercantile life. 



420 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Diiring his residence there he became postmaster 
of the village, but subsequently gave this up, and 
after selling his mercantile interests removed to 
Clinton in 1902. Renting the Lindberg ranch of 
one hundred and sixty acres he engaged in alf- 
alfa and stock raising. His brand for cattle is 
the double quarter circle bar. In addition to his 
farming interests he is engaged in the co-opera- 
tive real estate business, and is meeting with de- 
served success in his combined labors. 

In Susanville, October 2. 1888, Mr. Myers was 
united in marriage with Miss Evie Baldwin, who 
was born in Yolo county, the daughter of Jere- 
miah Baldwin, a native Kentuckian, who later 
settled in Missouri, and in 1863 crossed the 
plains by means of o.x-teams to the Sacramento 
vallev. There he ejigaged in agricultural pur- 
suits for a time, then went to Honey Lake valley 
and improved a farm near Johnstonville, where 
he died in 1889. His wife, formerly Verlinda 
Tnissell, a native of Missouri, survives him and 
resides with her children. Mr. and Mrs. Myers 
are the parents of four children: Charles Oran. 
Claude Albert, Fred William and Orville Henr\-. 
Mrs. Mvers is a member of the Baptist church. 
In politics Mr. Myers is a stanch Republican, 
and at one time served as clerk of the board of 
Riverside school district. Left an orphan at the 
tender age of three years, and thrown upon the 
world to make his own way, Mr. Myers became 
a self-made man in the truest acceptation of the 
term, having worked his way up, step by step, 
to his present standing in the state. 



JOHN SKEDGE BORRETTE. Industrious 
and thrifty, and a man of sound judginent and 
excellent business qualifications, John Skedge 
Borrette holds high rank among the successful 
agriculturists of Susanville and vicinity. He is 
public-spirited, taking great interest in local 
progress and improvements, and gives his hearty 
support to all enterprises calculated to benefit 
the public. A native of Baltimore, Md., he 
was born November 28, 1852, a son of Valentine 
John Borrette. His paternal grandfather, John 
Borrette, was born in Suffolk, England. In 



early manhood he emigrated to the United States, 
settling in Philadelphia, Pa., where he followed 
merchant tailoring until his death. He was a 
man of much religious fervor and a member of 
the Methodist church. He married Mary Skedge, 
who was born in England, of Welsh ancestry, 
and died in Philadelphia. Of their family of 
two sons and four daughters, two children sur- 
vive. 

Valentine John Borrette was born and reared 
in Philadelphia, his birth occurring in February, 
1824. .\fter learning the machinist's trade he 
went to Illinois, and for a short time was em- 
ployed in agricultural work at McLeansboro. 
Returning to Philadelphia, he embarked in the 
theatrical business with his brother-in-law, 
Jose])h C. Foster, for a time having charge of 
the Chestnut Street Theater. He was similarly 
employed afterwards in different cities, having 
management of the Pittsburg Theater, Pittsburg, 
Pa. ; of the Front Street Theater, Baltimore : of 
Foster's Theater, which he and his partner built 
in Cleveland, Ohio ; of the Academy of Music 
in that city ; and of a theater in Rochester, N. 
Y. From that city he went back to Pittsburg, 
and after a brief stay went to Keokuk, Iowa, as 
a theatrical manager, and from there to St. 
L.ouis, Mo., in the same capacity. Soon after- 
ward, in 1859, '1^ started with a stock company 
for California, arriving November 20 in Honey 
Lake valley, where the party was snowbound. 
They were offered a big engagement in San 
Francisco, but as their horses died they were 
compelled to spend the hard winter in the valley. 
Mr. Borrette turned his attention to lumbering 
and logging, and then to farming and mining. 
He spent twelve years in this manner, in the 
meantime striking some rich mines. For the 
benefit of his wife's health he then went to Pa- 
louse, Wa.sh., where he bought land, and for 
nineteen years was successfully engaged in 
stock-raising and dealing. In 1903 he returned 
to Honey Lake valley, and is now a resident of 
Susanville. He married Amelia Bridges, who 
was born in Brighton, England, and died in 
Washington. Of their union four children were 
born, namely : John Skedge, the subject of this 
sketch ; Harry R., of Napa, Cal., Melville, who 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



421 



(lied in Washington; and Amelia, wife of Davis 
Cheney, of Washinjjton. 

Cominij with his parents by ox-team train to 
California when but seven years old, John 
Skedge Borrette was brought up in Honey Lake 
vallev, where his parents decided to locate after 
being snowbound for the winter, and attended 
the Susanville schools. He assisted as soon as 
old enough in improving the ranch which his 
father purcliased, obtaining a good knowledge of 
the various branches of farming w'hen young, 
and also worked at the carpenter's trade. In 1870 
he went with his parents to Elko county, Nev., 
and there followed mining and prospecting for 
a time. At Pennsylvania Hill he discovered 
eighteen ledges rich in ore, hut had not sufificient 
monev to develop the mines, the ore having to 
be hauled to Reno, so he sold out his interest, 
having first, however, organized a company to 
put up a mill. Returning to Susanville, he spent 
two vears here, and in 1883 went to Whitman 
count\-. Wash., settling near Colfax, where he 
became owner of six hundred acres of land, and 
engaged in grain and stock raising. In 1903 he 
returned to Honey Lake valley, and here bought 
the old Fred Hines farm, lying three miles east 
of Susanville, and has since managed it with 
great success. It contains four hundred acres 
of land, over one-half of it being meadow, and 
well adapted for the raising of alfalfa and 
timothy. He also carries on a substantial busi- 
ness in feeding stock, and is interested in the 
Susanville creamery, of which he is one of the 
directors and the manager. 

WHnile in Washington Mr. Borrette organized 
the first Farmers' Telephone Company, put up 
the first pole line in that state for the use of 
farmers, and served as president and manager 
of the compan}' for ten years, making it a suc- 
cess, and greatly benefiting the agricultural com- 
munity. He al.so organized the Johnstonville 
Telephone Company, and was its first president, 
serving until his resignation. 

In Susanville, Cal., Mr. Borrette married Net- 
tie Bangbam, who was born in Honey Lake val- 
ley, a (laughter of Eber G. Bangham, of whom 
a sketch may be found on another page of this 
volume. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bor- 



rette has been blessed by the birth of three chil- 
dren, namely : Bessie, who died in Susanville, 
in 1903, at the age of sixteen years; Corinth, and 
Amelia A. Politically Mr. Borrette is actively 
identified with the Republican party. Frater- 
nally he belongs to Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & 
A. M., and Ixith he and Mrs. Borrette are mem- 
bers of the Order of the Eastern Star. 



GEORGE W. WRIGHT. Successfully en- 
gaged in the prosecution of the independent call- 
ing upon which our great nation so largely de- 
pends is George W. Wright, a capable and skill- 
ful agriculturist of Clinton, and a substantial and 
respected citizen. His ranch is advantageously 
located one-half mile south of the village, and 
is well appointed and well kept, everything alx)ut 
the premises indicating the thrift, industry and 
keen judgment of its owner. A son of the late 
David Wright, he was lx)rn December 29, 1843, 
in Willshire, \'an \\'ert county, Ohio. On the 
paternal side he is of Irish descent, and comes of 
patriotic stock, his grandfather, Cyrus Wright, 
having been born in Ireland, and after his emi- 
gration to the United States having served in the 
Revolutionary war, subsequently becoming a pio- 
neer settler of Ohio. 

Born in Ohio, David Wright was there brought 
up on a farm. In 1844, before Wisconsin was 
admitted to statehood, he moved to its first terri- 
torial capital, Belmont, Lafayette county, and 
was there engaged in the hotel business until 
burned out. Going then to Nebraska, he settled 
in Hamilton count}-, where he carried on general 
farming until his death. lie married Mary 
Purdy, who was born in ( )hio, of Scotch ances- 
tors, and died in Honey Lake valley, at the home 
of her son, George W. She bore her husband 
four children, two of whom grew to years of 
maturity, namely : George W., the subject of 
this sketch ; and Mrs. Catherine Hooks, of Jack- 
sonville, Ore. 

Less than a year old when his jiarents removed 
to Wisconsin, George W. Wright was brought 
up in Belmont, receiving limited educational ad- 
vantages. In the spring of 1858, at the age of 



422 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



fourteen vears, he began to make his own way 
in the world, until 1865 farming on rented land. 
During the Civil war he offered his services to 
liis country, enlisting in a Wisconsin regiment, 
but on account of a defect in his left eye he was 
not accepted. In 1865 he made a trip through 
the western states and territories, visiting Ne- 
braska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. Re- 
turning to Wisconsin, he remained there until 
1867, when he went to New York City to con- 
sult an oculist, who advised him to seek a warmer 
climate. Taking his advice, Mr. Wright came 
bv wav of the Isthmus to the Pacific coast, land- 
ing at San Francisco. Going thence to Dayton, 
Nev., he was for two years there employed in 
getting out wood for the quartz mills. Return- 
ing to this state in Februar\', 1869, he worked 
in the Sacramento brickyards until the following 
November, winen he went to Stokes canon, Mon- 
terey county, and spent the winter. 

Locating in what is now Glenn county in July, 
1870, Mr. Wright pre-empted one hundred and 
sixty acres of land near St. John and began the 
improvement of a ranch, which he has since 
owned, it being now rented. In 1883 he located 
in Tehama county, buying out a homestead claim 
and subsequently purchasing adjoining land, and 
on his fine ranch of four hundred acres resumed 
his agricultural operations. Disposing of his 
Tehama county property he moved to Honey 
Lake valley in 1888 and bought his present farm 
of six hundred acres, which has since been im- 
proved bv the erection of fences and comfortable 
and convenient farm buildings. Four hundred 
and sixty acres are under cultivation to hay and 
grain, and he makes a specialty of raising cattle 
and horses, his brand being W T, with which 
the cattle are branded on the right hip and the 
horses on the right shoulder. He also pays some 
attention to dairying, keeping forty or more head 
of a good grade of coavs. 

February 15, 1872, near St. John, Glenn 
county, Mr. Wright married Mrs. Frances 
(Springston) Senter, who was born in Lafay- 
ette county, Wis., a daughter of James Springs- 
ton. A native of Missouri, Mr. Springston 
moved from there to Wisconsin, later going to 
Montgomery county, Texas, where he worked 



as a blacksmith until his death. He married 
Elizabeth Goodrich, who was born in New York 
and died in Texas. The oldest of a family con- 
sisting of five girls, Frances Springston was 
brought up in Montgomery county, Texas, and 
there married for her first husband Giarles 
David Senter. He died there in the prime of 
manhood, leaving her with two children, namely : 
Giarles, a farmer living near Standish ; and 
James, who died on the home farm in September, 
1903. In 1869 Mrs. Senter came with her sons 
to Colusa county, to that part now included in 
Glenn county, and made her home with an aunt, 
Mrs. Martin Reager, until her marriage to Mr. 
Wright. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Wright 
five children have been born, namely : Mrs. Ollie 
E. Cooper, living near here ; Mrs. Ada L. Hart, 
of Susanville ; John H. ; Martin E. ; and Mary 
E. A man of intelligence and public spirit, Mr. 
Wright has evinced much interest in advancing 
the educational interests of the different places 
in which he has lived, and helped build the first 
schoolhouse in his district in Glenn county, serv- 
ing as school trustee while there, and subse- 
quently serving in the same capacity in both 
Tehama and Lassen counties. He is a Socialist 
in his political views, and both he and his wife 
are members of the Baptist church. 



WILLIAM A. S PERRY. Numbered among 
the well-known and respected citizens of Beck- 
with, Plumas county, is William A. Sperry, who 
as an industrious farmer and miner has acquired 
some wealth, and is now living retired from the 
active cares of business, although he is still iden- 
tified with the industrial activities of the place. 
A son of Abel Sperry, he was born September 
9, 1837, in New York state. 

A native of the Empire state, Abel Sperry 
spent his earlier life there, being engaged prin- 
cipally in tilling the soil. In 1840, hoping to 
better his financial condition, he removed with 
his family to Wisconsin, which was then a ter- 
ritory. Taking up government land, he cleared 
a farm from the wilderness, and there spent the 
remainder of his life, dying at the age of sixty- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



425 



five years. Politically he was a Whig in his 
younger days, hut after the formation of the 
Repuhlican party was one of its stanchest ad- 
herents. His wife, whose maiden name was 
Eliza Ueckwith, was horn in New York state, 
and died in 185Q in Wisconsin. 

But a small child when liis parents removed 
to Wisconsin, William A. Sperry was there 
reared, acquiring such education as was afforded 
h}- the pioneer subscription schools of that terri- 
tory. At the age of fourteen years, fired by a 
youthful ambition to conquer all obstacles, he 
bought his time, and began the battle of life on 
his own account. After working as a farm hand 
for a while he sought new fields of labor, and 
for a number of seasons spent his winters in the 
Wisconsin pineries, in the summer rafting lum- 
ber down the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers 
to St. Louis. Mo. In the spring of 1863, he 
came by way of Panama to California. Locating 
in Sierra county, he was engaged in mining and 
prospecting at Pine Grove and Howland Mat 
camps for about eight years, being fairly suc- 
cessful in these operations. In addition, he also 
furnished lumber for mines, but this undertaking 
proved unfortunate, the companies failing, and 
were unable to pav him for his timber. 

Disposing of his interests in that county in the 
fall of 1869, Mr. Sperry came to Plumas county, 
and here took up government land in the Sierra 
valley, about seven miles south of Beckwith. Im- 
proving the property, he engaged in ranching 
and stock-raising for many years, having a good 
farm of four hundred acres, from which he 
reaped a fair income. He was also identified 
with different mining companies, at one time 
owning fifteen Inmdred shares in the Franklin 
Consolidated mines of Plumas and Sierra coun- 
ties. In 1893 he rented his ranch and built a 
residence in Beckwith, where he has since lived. 
He has continued in business, however, for one 
year running the hotel, subsefjuently working at 
the car]ientcr's trade, then managing a small liv- 
ery stable, and for the past two years being en- 
gaged in the undertaking business. 

July 16, 1869, Mr. Sperry married .\nna Mc- 
Farland, who was born in Canada, and came to 
Califnrnia in 1867. Mr. and Mrs. Sperry arc 
8 



the parents of three children, namely : Nettie M., 
wife of S. B. Parish, of Beckwith; Nellie M., 
wife of George Gates, a farmer near Beckwith; 
and Lillie, wife of J. Duane, of Beckwith. Po- 
litically Mr. Sperry is a stanch Republican, and 
cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lin- 
coln, He takes great interest in local matters, 
and for a number of vears served as constable. 
Fraternally he belongs to the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows at Sierraville. 



JOHN R. MURRAY. The mercantile inter- 
ests of Greenville have a capable representative 
in Mr. Murray, who has been a resident of the 
place for more than a quarter of a century, and 
meanwhile has risen from a clerkship to the man- 
agement of a large and flourishing business of 
his own. To an unusual degree he possesses en- 
ergy and perseverance, and these qualities have 
enabUd him, although he arrived in the town 
with only $7.50, to attain independence and a 
position of influence among the moneyed men of 
Plumas county. In his store are to be found a 
general line of groceries, dru,gs, china, hardware, 
dry-goods, shoes and clothing, the whole form- 
ing a general store of recognized value as a trad- 
insi' place for everything needed in the home. 

Descended from paternal and maternal ances- 
tors who came from the highlands of Scotland, 
John R. Murray was born in Nova Scotia March 
4, 1 85 1, and as a boy alternated attendance at 
school with work on the home farm. The family 
were poor and the struggle to secure a livelihood 
was arduous, so that he was obliged to begin for 
himself when only fourteen years of age. Start- 
ing out as a clerk in a general store, he remained 
in the same place for ten years, and meanwhile 
acquired a thorough knowledge of everything 
pertaining to merchandising. At the age of 
twenty-four \ears he came from his native land 
to the more genial climate of California, and 
since has made his home in the west. .After hav- 
ing clerked in -San Francisco for two years, in 
1877 he came to Plumas county and secured a 
position as clerk in a general store at Greenville, 
where he remained for three vears. .At the ex- 



426 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



piratioii of that time he bought the soda water 
factory and operated the plant for a number of 
years, but in 1887 sold out and turned his atten- 
tion to mercantile pursuits. By the purchase of 
a bankrupt stock of goods at a low figure, he 
secured a start in business and since then has es- 
tablished an important trade among the people 
of his town and the surrounding country. Be- 
sides the ownership of the store he has mining 
interests and other investments of a somewhat 
local nature. 

The marriage of Mr. Murray was solemnized 
August 18, 1880, and united him with Miss Laura 
C. Blood, daughter of John N. Blood. Although 
born in Marysville, Mrs. Murray has spent prac- 
tically her entire life within the limits of Plumas 
county, of which her parents were influential pio- 
neers. The four children born of her marriage 
are Harold, Lucile. Kenneth and John R.. Jr.. 
all of whom remain at home and have been given 
excellent advantages in the local schools. The 
family are contributors to religious movements 
and take a warm interest in social affairs. Polit- 
ically Mr. Murray is an active Republican, and 
through recognition of his party work was chosen 
postmaster, an office which he has filled for fif- 
teen or more years. In fraternal relations he 
holds membership with Sincerity Lodge No. 132, 
F. & .\. M., at Greenville; also Lassen Qnapter 
Xo. 47, R. A. j\I., and Lassen Commandery No. 
13, K. T., both of Susanville ; further belongs to 
Islam Temple, N. M. S., of San Francisco, in 
which he holds a life membership, and with his 
wife maintains a warm interest in the work of 
the Eastern Star. 

On April 18, 1906, Mr. Murray experienced 
the earthquake in San Francisco, and upon his 
arrival home started the relief fund in Indian 
valley for the benefit of the sufferers, which was 
responded to by the people most generously. 



JOHN M. GORHAM. A man of enterprise 
and ability, John M. Gorham is actively identified 
with the business affairs of Sierra City, being 
proprietor of one of its leading undertaking 
establishments. A resident of the citv for more 



than thirty-five years, he has ever taken great 
interest in its industrial and financial growth, 
and has gladly aided all schemes for advancing 
its welfare. A son of George L. Gorhajn, he 
was born, October 27, 1835, in Indianapolis, 
Ind., of substantial Welsh stock, his paternal 
grandfather having been born in Wales. 

A native of Kentucky, George L. Gorham 
settled in Indianapolis, Ind., when a young man, 
and was thereafter a resident of that city, being 
actively employed as a brick mason until his 
death, at the age of sixty-three years. During 
the Civil war he served as a guard, rendering- 
good service to his countrymen. He married 
Nancy Todd, who spent her entire life iii Indiana, 
dying at the age of forty-three years, in 1849. 

Leaving school when fifteen years old, John 
]\I. Gorham served an apprenticeship of three 
years at the blacksmith's trade, at which he sub- 
sequently worked in his native city, first as a 
journe}-man, and then on his own account. Com- 
ing bv way of the Isthmus of Panama to Cali- 
fornia in i860, he located first at Grass Valley, 
where he followed mining and blacksmithing 
for nine years. Coming to Sierra City about 
1870, he worked at his trade for about a year 
and a half, when he opened a blacksmith's shop, 
operating this until 1903. when he turned it over 
to his adopted son, D. W. Derwater, and has 
since confined his attention entirely to undertak- 
ing, which he had previously started, and in 
which he is meeting with good success. Mr. 
Gorham has always been more or less interested 
in mining and prospecting since locating in Cali- 
fornia, but has been only moderately successful 
in his ventures. He has acquired considerable 
property, however, and is the owner of four 
residences in this city, three of which he rents. 
Although so long a resident of the Pacific coast 
he has always been mindful of his early home 
and friends, which he has visited on four different 
occasions. 

In Indianapolis, Ind., at the age of twenty-one 
\ears, Mr. Gorham married Amanda Tout, who 
was born in that city, and died in California in 
1878. He subsequently married for his second 
wife May Gorham, who was also a native of Indi- 
ana. She lived but a few years after their mar- 



fl 




r (JOwy^ivyt 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



427 



riage, dying- in December. 1888. I\Ir. and Airs. 
Gorham had no children of their own, but they 
adopted a .son, D. W. Derwater, who is now 
oijerating the blacksmith shop established by Mr. 
Gorham. Politically Mr. Gorham is an active 
and influential Republican, and has served three 
terms of four years each as sujjervisor, having 
first been appointed to fill a vacancy, after which 
he was elected to the position, at the end of that 
term being re-elected, and ser\'ing then from 
January, 1902, until January i, igo6. During 
four years of the twelve which he served he was 
chairman of the board. He takes great interest 
in educational matters, and for a number of 
years has been school trustee. Fraternally he 
is a member of Lodge No. 260, I. O. O. F., and 
of Lodge No. 25, A. O. U. W., both of Sierra 
City. 



JAMES W. DENTEN. Ranking high among 
the industrious and well-to-do agriculturists of 
the Mohawk valley is James W. Denten, whose 
fine ranch, lying about a mile from the village of 
Mohawk, compares favorably in its improvements 
and appointments with any in the locality. He is 
a general farmer, dairyman and stock-raiser, and 
also keeps a hotel, but has no bar in his house. A 
son of the late James C. Denten, he was born 
October 5, 183 1, in Fountain county, Ind., where 
he grew to man's estate. 

Born and brought up in Kenriicky, James C. 
Denten left his native state when a young man, 
going first to Ohio, where he later enlisted as a 
soldier in the war of 18 12, for his services there- 
in receiving a land warrant for one hundred and 
sixty acres of land. He subsequently settled in 
Indiana, where he became the owner of a latge 
tract of wild land, from which he cleared a good 
farm, which he managed successfully until his 
death, at the comparatively early age of fifty- 
four years. His wife, whose maiden name was 
Malinda Graham, was born in Ohio, and died, in 
1866, in Indiana, aged seventy years. 

Brought up on the home farm, James W. Den- 
ten obtained his early education in the pioneer 
schools of his dav. and under his father's instruc- 



tions became familiar with the various branches 
of agriculture. On coming of age he started for 
himself, going first to Irofjuois county, 111., 
where he worked as a farm hand, and became 
owner of some stock. Proceeding thence to Iowa, 
he took up land in Page county, and from it 
cleared and improved a farm, which he managed 
until 1862, when he rented it, and entered the 
service of his country. Enlisting August 23, 
1862. in Company F, Twenty-third Iowa Vol- 
unteer Infantry, he spent the first winter in the 
Ozark mountains, looking after Marmaduke and 
his followers. Going then to Yicksburg, he sub- 
sequently took an active part in engagements at 
Champion Hills and Black River Bridge, and at 
the siege of Vicksburg. He was afterwards lo- 
cated in Jackson, Miss., then in New Orleans, 
from there going to Texas, where he assisted in 
taking Fort Esperanza. In the spring of 1864 
his regiment was sent up the Red river with Cjcn- 
eral Banks, and thence down the Mississippi river 
to Mobile, Ala., where he was stationed until the 
close of the war. Being then ordered with his 
comrades to Texas, he was nnistered out of serv- 
ice at Harrisburg, that state, July 26, 1865, hav- 
ing served for three years, and although m sev- 
eral engagements escaping without injury. 

Returning then to Iowa, where he left his wife 
and two babies when he enlisted, Mr. Denten re- 
sided there a short time, and then moved to 
.Vtchison county. Mo., where he bought land, and 
was engaged in general farming' for a number of 
years. Selling out his possessions in the spring 
of 1876 he came to the Pacific coast, and after 
visiting Oregon and different places in California 
arrived in the Mohawk valley in October of that 
year. Pleased with the prospects, he rented land 
for a year, and then bought from the govern- 
ment a portion of the land now included in his 
home ranch, and has since resided here. In his 
farming operations he has been very successful, 
and from time to tiine has bought other land, 
having now five hundred and forty acres in his 
home ranch, two hundred acres being meadow 
and valley land, and the remainder timber land. 
He also owns and manages another ranch of one 
hundred and sixty acres of timber. He raises 
stock of a high grade, keeps an excellent dairy, 



428 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and as a general rancher is meeting- with fine re- 
sults. 

January 3. 1858, in Page county, Iowa, Mr. 
Denten married Mary J. Groves, who was born 
in Ohio, and died October 27, 1877, just after 
settling in Plumas county. Eight children, were 
born of their union, one of whom died in in- 
fancy, and seven are living, namely : William 
Jackson, of Boise City. Idaho, engaged in min- 
ing; John G., engaged in teaming at Mountain 
Home, Idaho : Joseph H., a miner and prospector, 
living in Baker City, Ore.; Willard F., of Wash- 
ington ; \'iola A., at home ; Cora E., wife of Will- 
iam Weseman, of Idaho ; and Lillian, wife of 
Edward Burk, a ranchman in the Mohawk val- 
ley. Politically Mr. Denten is a Republican, and 
for eight years served as supervisor. 



LOUIS THIBAULT. Distinguished not only 
for his honorable record in the Civil war, but 
as one of the leading agriculturists of Lassen 
county, and as a man of integrity and sound busi- 
ness principles, Louis Thibault, of Susanville, 
is especially worthy of representation in this 
volume. A son of the late Belloni Thibault, he 
was born in Quebec, Canada, June 6, 1847. His 
grandfather, Prosper Thibault, a life-long 
farmer in Quebec, came of French Huguenot 
stock. He became the immigrant ancestor of the 
Thibault family in America, like the Breton 
family, having been forced to leave France on 
account of political persecutions. A native of 
Quebec. Belloni Thibault followed the CK:cupa- 
tion to which he was reared, being engaged in till- 
ing the soil until his death, in July, igoi. He 
married Mary Jacques, who was born in Quebec, 
and died in her native city in 1899. Of the 
twelve children that blessed their union, all sur- 
vive, Louis being the first-born. 

Obtaining the rudiments of an education in 
the district school, Louis Thibault left home when 
eleven years old and from that time has been 
self-supporting. He started from Quebec on 
board the steamer Merritt, which was bound for 
Cuba with a load of horses and provisions. The 
steamer was wrecked off the coast of Nova 



Scotia and put into Halifax for repairs, and be- 
ing too badly damaged to proceed on the trip the 
crew was paid ofif. Young Louis Thibault 
walked from there to St. John, New Brunswick, 
from there going as a stowaway to Eastport, 
Me., and continuing westward to Portland, Me., 
where he worked as a farm hand for a time. 
Returning to Quebec, he stayed there a brief 
time, and then proceeded to Buffalo, N. Y., 
wdiere he served an apprenticeship at the ma- 
chinist's trade. In 1861 he went to East Trov, 
N. Y., and in the fall of diat year offered his 
services to his adopted country. Enlisting in 
Company D, Eleventh New York Regulars, Mr. 
Thibault was first located on Governor's Island, 
and subsequently, under General ]\IcClellan, took 
part in several important engagements, including 
the battle of Nashville, Tenn., Vicksburg, and 
Richmond, Va. At the latter city, his term of 
enlistment having expired, he veteraned, and 
campaigned through Virginia and North Caro- 
lina, serving until the close of the war, when he 
was honorably discharged. After a short visit 
at his Canadian home he returned to the United 
States, and at once enlisted in the Fourteenth 
New York Regiment, U. S. A., for service against 
the Indians, and came by way of Panama to 
California. On arriving in San Francisco the 
regiment was split up and Mr. Thibault was as- 
signed to Company A, Ninth United States In- 
fantry, and served under General Crook at Fort 
Bidwell, where he assisted in building the first 
camp. He took part in the Piute Indian war. 
and afterwards, in 1868, was mustered out of 
service at Fort Bidwell. 

Locating immediately in Horse Lake valley, 
Mr. Thibault purchased land, and for a number 
of years was engaged in general ranching and 
stock-raising. Disposing of that ranch in 1886, 
he moved to eastern Oregon, entered land in 
Grant county, on Silvies river, and improved a 
valuable ranch of six hundred and forty acres, 
wdiich he still owns. He labored with character- 
istic energy, erected a fine residence and good 
farm buildings, and engaged extensively in stock- 
raising and dairying, for which the farm was 
well adapted, having fine bottom lands for rais- 
ing hay, and being well watered by springs of 






'(2^^>^^^ 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



431 



clear, ice-cold water. Me kej)! a dairy of forty 
cows, making a specialty of manufacturing but- 
ter of a superior grade. Two years after the 
death of his father-in-law. Sampson Williams, 
in OctolK-r. 1901, Mr. Thihault came to Susan- 
ville and bought tlie Williams estate, which ad- 
joins the town on the west. Here he has two 
Innidred acres (if fertile land, irrigated by water 
from the Susan river, and is continuing his farm- 
ing operations with satisfactory results. 

Mr. Thihault has been twice married, first, in 
Susanville, to Etta Shumway, who was born in 
Minnesota, and died in Oakland, Cal., leaving 
one child, Winfield Scott ; for a second wife he 
married, in Susanville, Nellie Williams, who was 
horn in Mar.shall county, Iowa. Her father, the 
late Sampson Williains, was horn in Charles- 
ton, S. C, a son of Victor Levan Williams. He 
migrated westward when young, locating first in 
Indiana, then in Johnson county, Iowa, and later 
in Marshall county. In 1861 he came across the 
plains with his famil\' to Lassen county, and lo- 
cated near Susanville on the Williams ranch, 
which he bought in 1868, residing here until his 
death, in 1899, at the age of seventy-five years. 
His wife, whose maiden name was Malinda J. 
Wood, was born in Harding county, Ky., and 
now resides in Susanville. She has three chil- 
dren living, Mrs. Thihault being the second in 
order of birth. Mr. and Airs. Thibault have one 
child, Blanche, the wife of Bert Troxell, of 
.Susanville. Mr. and Mrs. Troxell have one son, 
Louis F. Politically Mr. Thibault is an uncom- 
promising Republican, and while living in ('.rant 
county, Ore., served as school trustee, and for 
awhile was postmaster at Madeline, Lassen coun- 
ty. .'\t the age of twent}'^four years he was 
made a Mason, and is now a member of Lassen 
Lodge No. 149, F. & .A^. M. ; and of Lassen 
Oiapter No. 47, R. A. M. Both he and his 
wife belong to Hesperian Lodge No. Ii2, O. F. 
S. ; and to Amaranth Lodge, Honey Lake Court 
No. I, of which Mrs. Thibault is treasurer. 



WILLIAM .MILTON CAIN. At an early 
period in the settlement of Ainerica the family 
represented b}' this pioneer of Lassen county he- 



came established in the colony of Virginia and 
later generations moved still further south. 
George C, son of Robert, was born and reared 
in South Carolina, but became an early settler 
of Missouri, where he improved a farm in Wash- 
ington county. During 1859, accompanied by his 
wife and children, he made the overland journey 
to California via the Humboldt river and Beck- 
with Pass. After a year in the Santa Gara val- 
ley he removed to San Joaquin county and took 
up farm pursuits, remaining there until his death 
in 1868, at fifty-five years of age. I '.e fore leav- 
ing Missouri he had nut and married Abigail 
Cole, who was born in Kentucky and at seven 
years of age accompanied her parents to Mis- 
souri, where her father, Aquilla Cole, became a 
pioneer farmer of Washington county. .After 
the death of her husband she continued to reside 
in California and now makes Pacific Grove her 
home, enjoying fair health for one of such great 
age (ninety-five years). Of her family of eleven 
children four are now living, William .Milton be- 
ing the eldest of the number. Horn on the 
homestead in Washington county. Mo.. Decem- 
ber 20. 1835, he early began to assist in the clear- 
ing of the land and when he could be spared from 
home he was allowed to attend a subscription 
school, conducted in a log building, equipped 
with slab benches and the other |)rimitive fur- 
niture of those days. 

The marriage of Mr. Cain was solemnized in 
.St. Francois county. Mo., January 3, 1858, and 
united him with Miss Margaret Mitchell, a na- 
tive of Wa.shington county, that state, and a 
daughter of Alfred and Iris (Pinson) Mitchell. 
Her father, who was a Kentuckian by birth, 
moved to Missouri during the early ])eriod of 
that state's settlement and remained a farmer 
there until his death. In that county he met 
and married a daughter of Aaron Pinson, a 
Kenttickian who ranked among the very earliest 
settlers of Washington county; Mrs. Iris Mit- 
chell was born and reared in that county and re- 
mained a resident of Missouri until death. Of 
her five children three survive. Mrs. Cain was 
fourth in order of birth and is the only one in 
California. Born of her marriage are seven 
children, namelv : George, who lives in Reno, 



432 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Nev., and owns a farm near Standish ; Frank, 
residing at Susanville ; Mrs. MoUie JNIeylert, of 
Susanville ; Charles, who conducts a meat busi- 
ness in Reno; Fred, a rancher by occupation and 
a resident of Susanville ; Lillian, who died at 
sixteen years; and William, who is engaged in 
farming in this valley. 

It was on the loth of May, 1859, when Mr. 
Cain started for California with wagons and 
oxen, bringing with him a herd of cattle, and 
traveling via .St. Joseph, up the Platte river, turn- 
ing off at Soda Springs, following the Humboldt 
route and on to Honey lake, where he arrived on 
the nth of October after a safe and uneventful 
trip. The winter that followed was the most 
severe he has ever seen in this region and many 
of his cattle were lost before spring reached the 
valley; During the summer he farmed land and 
in October took a bunch of stock to the Sac- 
ramento river in Tehama count}', but in the 
spring of 1861 returned to Susanville via the 
Hat creek route. Soon thereafter he rented a 
tract of land near Janesville, in the southern part 
of Lassen county, and there gave his attention 
to agricultural pursuits. During 1867 he pur- 
chased a farm of four hundred and twenty acres 
one and one-quarter miles north of Janesville, 
where he conducted a dairy of sixty cows and 
raised hay for feed. In those days the milk 
was put in pans and the cream skimmed by 
hand ; each day from fifty to sixty pounds of 
butter were churned, and the product was sold 
in A'irginia City at about fifty cents per pound. 
Durham cows were used exclusively, and it was 
said that he had the finest herd of dairy cattle in 
Lassen comity. After having conducted a profit- 
able industry for years he left the farm and in 
1 88 1 moved to Susanville, in order that his chil- 
dren might enjoy desired educational advantages. 
There he conducted a livery business for a year 
and then bought one hundred acres adjoining 
town on the south. Fifteen acres of the land 
were in an orchard, while the balance he cleared 
and devoted to the raising of grain and hay, his 
specialty being alfalfa. Eventually the property 
was sold to a son and he now lives retired from 
active cares, and, in the possession of a compe- 



tency sufficient for his needs, is passing the twi- 
light of his busy existence in Susanville. 



HENRY SNYDER. As one of the proprie- 
tors of the Lassen Flour Mills, being junior 
member of the firm of Hall & Snyder, Henry 
Snyder is carrying on a thriving manufacturing 
business, his plant being the oldest and best known 
of any in the county. He is a map of genuine 
worth, and during his long residence in John- 
stonville has won the confidence and esteem of 
his fellow-townsmen in a marked degree, and is 
eminently deserving of the high regard and es- 
teem in which he is held. A son of Jacob Snyder, 
lie was born June 20, 1834, in Wooster, Wayne 
county, Ohio. His grandfather, Nicholas 
Snyder, was born and reared in Pennsylvania. 

Bom in 1801, in Chambersburg, Pa., Jacob 
Snyder grew to manhood on his father's farm, 
there becoming familiar with agricultural pur- 
suits. He subsequently removed to Wooster, 
Ohio, where he followed shoemaking for a few 
years. Taking advantage of cheap lands far- 
ther west, he went to Indiana, settling in Elk- 
hart county, where he was employed in general 
farming until his death, at the age of fifty-three 
years. He married Fannie Layhman, who was 
born in Pennsylvania, and died, at the age of 
sixty-four years, in Indiana. Of the thirteen 
children born of their union, twelve grew to years 
of maturity, and five are living, Henry, the sub- 
ject of this sketch, being the seventh child in 
order of birth, and the only one in California. 
One son, Jeremiah, served in the Civil war, be- 
longing to the Twenty-ninth Indiana Volunteer 
Infantry. 

At the age of eight _\ears Henry Snyder ac- 
companied his parents to Indiana, and as soon as 
old enough helped his father to clear a farm 
from the dense wilderness in which the family 
settled, the land being situated on the St. Joseph 
river. He received such educational advantages 
as were offered by the common schools of that 
day, and at the age of twenty years began learn- 
ing the miller's trade in the Elkhart Mills, work- 
ing as an apprentice for eighteen months. In 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



433 



1855 lio went to Decorah, Iowa, and from there 
to Freeport, where he completed his trade. Join- 
ing a party bound for Pike"s Peak in 1859. he 
.started with an ox-team train across the plains, 
but meeting many returning from tlie Peak tlie 
httle band became discouraged and decided to 
change their plans and come to California instead. 
Going up the Platte river, they took advantage 
of Sublet's cut-ofif, and came along Bear river 
to Tuolumne county. Stopping while on the 
way at Mrginia City, Air. Snyder drove the first 
wagon into that city, which was then but a mass 
of boulders. There was great excitement there 
at the time on account of the finding of some 
rich ore, and he was offered tw'o hundred feet of 
Comstock ledge for his three yoke of oxen. Not 
realizing the value of the rocky ground he re- 
fused the offer and proceeded with his partv to 
Tuolumne county, where he remained until the 
fall of i860. Returning east then by way of 
Panama, he carried on milling in Iowa for five 
}ears. In 1865 he again crossed the plains with 
ox-teams, locating in Butte county near Qiero- 
kee Flat, and was there employed in lumbering 
and milling for three years, working in the mills 
belonging to Senator Perkins. 

In 1 87 1, after spending a winter in mining pur- 
suits in Plumas county, Mr. Snyder came to 
Lassen county, and for two years was an em- 
ploye in the Lassen Flour Mills in Johnstonville. 
In 1873 he purchased a half interest in the plant, 
and has since carried on a flourishing business in 
partnership with Mr. Hall. The mill is four 
stories in height, and under the management of 
its present proprietors has been entirely re- 
modeled, having been changed from a burr mill 
to a full roller process plant, which is operated 
by water power and is equipped with the most 
approved machinery. 

In Winneshiek county, Iowa, Mr. Snyder 
married Alary E. Heckert, who was born in Mis- 
souri, and died in 1865, while crossing the plains, 
her bod\- being buried at the California crossing 
of the Platte river. She bore her husband four 
children, namely : William, of Goldfield, Colo- 
rado ; Mrs. Fannie M. Heffner, a widow, living 
in Butte county ; Libbie Alice, who died at the 
age of twent\-four years : and Platte, a twin of 



Libbie .Mice, wIid died on the plains when an 
infant. 

September 17, 1879, near Johnstonville, Mr. 
Snyder married Mrs. Mattie (Powers) McColm, 
who was born in Warren county, III., a daughter 
of John Milton Powers. She comes of substan- 
tial Irish ancestry, her paternal grandfather, 
John M. Powers, having been born in Dublin, 
Ireland. He immigrated to America when young, 
settling first in Ohio, from there removing to 
Illinois and settling on a farm near Galesburg, 
where he was an extensive agriculturist and a 
large landholder. He served as a soldier in the 
Black Hawk war. John Milton Powers was 
born in Ohio, but moved with the fann'ly to Illi- 
nois, and commenced life for himself as a farm- 
er near Galesburg. In i86i he came across 
the plains with liis wife and eight children, lo- 
cating in Plumas county, near (ireenville. In 
1864 he went to the Sierra valley, thence to Co- 
lusa county, where he resided several vears, al- 
though his last days were spent with Mr. and 
Airs. Snyder in Johnstonville. Mr. Powers mar- 
rieil Martha Jane Riley, a daughter of Jolin . 
Riley. She was born in Illinois, and died in 
Greenville, Plumas county, in 1863. She was the 
mother of eight children, one of whom, Colby 
Powers, .served in the Civil war. an<l died from 
wounds received while in the army. In 1861 
Mattie Powers came with the family to Cali- 
fornia, and on October 8, 1865, in Greenville, 
married ^^'illiam Bascom McColm, who was 
lx)rn in Ohio, went to Pike's Peak in 1859, from 
there coming to California. He was engaged 
in mercantile pursuits, being an expert bookkeep- 
er and accountant. He died October 9, 1876, 
being burned in the Plattville hotel. Two chil- 
dren were born of their union, one of whom is 
living, James D., engaged in mining at Bull 
Frog, Nev. Politically Mr. Snyder is a loyal 
Democrat, and served one term as supervisor, 
being chairman of the board. Fraternally he is 
a member cif Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. M. ; 
of Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. AT.; and of 
Lassen Con.mandery No, 13, K. T. Airs. Sny- 
der is a woman of culture and talent, possess- 
ing great artistic abilit\-. She belongs to the 



434 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Order of the Eastern Star, being a charter mem- 
ber of the Janesville Lodge, and is a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal church. 



GEORGE F. MYERS. As the name would 
indicate the Myers family is of German origin, 
and the first representative in the United States 
was the grandfatlier. John Alyers, who settled in 
the land of the free when a young man. In 
his native land he followed gardening, but in 
New York state, where he lived for many years, 
he carried on farming exclusively. During his 
latter years he removed to Illinois, in which state 
his children had taken up their homes, and there 
his earth life came to a close when he was sixty 
years of age. The father, John J. Myers, was 
born on the homestead farm in New York state, 
and in performing his share of the duties per- 
taining thereto he liecanie an all-around agricult- 
urist, well fitted to take responsibilities in his own 
behalf at an early age. In 1836, when Illinois 
was still considered a part of the frontier, he 
went to the new country and took up govern- 
ment land near Naperville. Settling down to the 
life with which he was most familiar, he carried 
on farming there the remainder of his life, pass- 
ing away at the age of ninety-four years. His 
marriage united him with Lorilla Stolp, who was 
also clescended from German ancestors, although 
both herself and her father were natives of New 
York state. Mrs. Stolp was born in New Hamp- 
shire. Mrs. Myers located in the middle west the 
same year in which her husband located in Illi- 
nois, 1836, and her death occurred on the home- 
stead in the latter state. 

Born in DuPage county. 111., January 15, 1837, 
George F. Myers passed his boyhood years up- 
on the farm and was given a substantial common- 
school education. The desire to seek a home in 
new lands seemed to be inherent in the blood 
of the family and George P., in 1858, when 
twenty-one years of age, left home and friends 
and came to California. By way of Panama he 
finally reached the state, and at Howland Flat, 
Sierra countv, he engaged in mining for six 



years. From there he went to the Plumas 
Eureka mine, where for four years he worked 
for wages. Mining finally became less alluring 
and in the spring of 1869 he settled on govern- 
ment land six miles southeast of Beckwith, and 
not far from Kettle, which latter town is his post- 
office and market place. Here besides forty 
acres of timberland he has eight hundred acres 
of excellent land, all in the valley and improved 
with good buildings, barns, etc. For over thirty- 
seven years he had made his home on this prop- 
erty, and in the meantime has become known as 
one of the extensive ranchers, stock-raisers and 
dairymen in the valley. 

The lady whom Mr. Myers chose as his wife 
was I>elia M. Sharkey, a native of Ireland, who 
came to America in 1866, when nineteen years 
of age. She came to Plimias county, Cal.. in 
1869, and here it was that on April 10, 1871, 
she became the wife of Mr. Myers. Eight chil- 
dren blessed their marriage, but of the number 
two are deceased. Named in order of birth the 
children are as follows : Benjamin F., a rancher 
living in the district ; Katherine M., a teacher at 
Johnsville : George J., a stock-raiser; Elizabeth, 
who has been attending commercial school but is 
now at home ; Annie \'., a teacher in this dis- 
trict : Francis P., living at home ; and Winnieford 
and Marv, both of whom died in carlv childhood. 



AUGUSTUS CASSIUS HUNSINGER, sen- 
ior member of the firm of Hunsinger & Wood, 
was born at Burnt Prairie, White county. 111., 
November 13, 1856, a son of Benjamin F. Hun- 
singer, a farmer. Early in the '60s Benjamin 
F. Hunsinger crossed the plains with ox-teams, 
accompanied by his wife and three children, and 
after journeying for six months arrived at In- 
dian A'alley. Cal., where he was engaged in ag- 
ricultural pursuits for many seasons. In 1889 
he came to Susanville, and here resided until his 
death, in 1899. His wife, whose maiden name 
was Electra Gillison, was born in White coun- 
ty, 111., and now resides at Fort Jones, Cal. Of 
the six children born of their union four are 




•J 








^ 



HISTORICAL AND 1510GRAPHICAL RECORD. 



43' 



living, Augustus Cassius being the third child in 
order of birth. Beginning life for himself when 
of age, Mr. Hunsinger engaged in teaming, for 
ten years driving for Nevells, of Plumas Eureka 
Mine. Locating in Susanville in 1885, he em- 
barked in the butchering business, his market 
being on the same street upon which his present 
place of business is located. Twice has he been 
burned out, but each time he has rebuilt, and has 
added up-to-date improvements. The firm of 
Hunsinger & Wood has one of the neatest and 
most completely fitted markets in the city, with a 
good refrigerator, and all the requisites for sup- 
plying their patrons with the best possible serv- 
ice. The ice-house, with a capacitiy of forty 
tons, is in the rear of the market, and nearbv is 
the large packing house and electric-power es- 
tablishment, while the slaughter house is a mile 
and a half out of the city. This firm carries on 
an extensive pork packing business, and has the 
well-deserved reputation of producing and cur- 
ing the finest hams and bacon in the coimty. 

At Plumas Eureka Mine, in 1883, Mr. Hun- 
singer married Fannie Woodward, who was born 
in the Mohawk valley, Plumas county, a daughter 
of George Woodward, now residing in Johns- 
ville, Cal. Mr. and Mrs. Hunsinger are the 
parents of six children, namely : Jessie P., of 
Oakland, Cal. ; Lola, Martha, Willa, Leland and 
Alice. Politically Mr. Hunsinger is a Democrat, 
and for the past fifteen years has been a member 
of the board of school trustees, serving in igoo, 
when the new brick public school building was 
erected. Fraternally he is a member of Lassen 
Lodge No. 149, F. and A. M., of Lassen Chap- 
ter, R. A. M., and of the Rebekahs, and is past 
grand of the Odd Fellows lodge, of which he is 
a member. Mrs. Hunsinger is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church and one of its 
active workers. 



WILLL\M GERIG. Among the self-made 
men of Lassen county, no name stood higher in 
the estimation of the people than that of the late 
William Gerig. who began his career in life at 
the foot of the ladder of success, without other 



resources than his own indomitable will and 
sturdy industry. From this humble position he 
worked his wa)- steadily upward, becoming rec- 
ognized as one of the representative agricultur- 
ists of northern California, owning and occupy- 
ing a finely cultivated and well improved ranch 
in Big valley. A native of Europe, he was 
born in 1847, '" Switzerland, where he received 
his elementary education. 

At the age of twelve years, William Gerig be- 
gan to be self-supporting. Going to France, he 
spent a year in that country, and just as he was 
entering his "teens" emigrated to the United 
States, locating in St. Louis, .Mo. In 1861 he 
came by way of the Isthmus of Panama to Cali- 
fornia, and for more than ten years worked on a 
dairy farm, acquiring a thorough knowledge of 
its management. Going to Lassen county in 
1872, he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres 
of land lying west of Bieber, improved it, and 
for six years carried on general farming and 
dairying. Disposing of that property in 1878, he 
purchased six hundred acres of wild land in 
Big valley, and b\- dint of persevering labor and 
good management im])roved a fine dairy ranch, 
on which he resided until his death, February 
II, 1898. He met with excellent success as a 
farmer and dairyman, accumulating a handsome 
property, and as a man of sterling worth and 
upright character was respected throughout the 
community. 

December 9, 1872, Mr. Gerig married Sarah 
E. Carmichael, who was born in Iowa, a daugh- 
ter of Moses A. Carmichael. Mr. Carmichael 
was born and reared in Pennsylvania, and as a 
young man went to Iowa, sub.sequently becom- 
ing a pioneer of Madison county. In 1870 he 
came across the plains with his family to Califor- 
nia, settling in Solano county at first, but three 
months later Vemoving to liig valley. For two 
years he was there employed in ranching, after 
which he operated a sawmill for a quarter of a 
century, giving up his business about four years 
prior to his death. He married Martha .A. Gard- 
ner, who was born in Ohio, their marriage be- 
ing solemnized in Iowa. 

Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Gerig eleven 
children were born : William, born November 



488 



HLSTORlC.vL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



12, 1873, now living near the home farm, mar- 
ried Grace Criss, and diey have one child, Mil- 
dred; Lena, born November 4, 1875, first mar- 
ried Charles Lyons, by whom she had one child, 
Rupert, and later married Daniel Fox, of Big 
Valley, by whom she also has one child, Daniel ; 
Nancy, born February 28, 1878, married Abra- 
ham Rowley, of the state of Washington, and 
thev have three children, Pearl, Abraham and 
an infant: Millie, born January 7, 1880, is the 
wife of Frederick Waters of southern Califor- 
nia; Charles, born October 5, 1881, lives in the 
state of Washington ; Henry is deceased ; Emma 
was born March 9, 1886; Eatha is deceased; 
Birdie was born August 13, 1891 ; Peter, April 
18, 1893; and Keturah, October 14, 1895. Mrs. 
Gerig is an accomplished business woman, and 
since the death of her husband has managed the 
home ranch of three hundred and twenty acres 
most skilfully and ably. Politically Mr. Gerig 
was a stanch supporter of the principles of the 
Republican party, and fraternally he was a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
belonging to both the lodge and the encamp- 
ment at Bieber. . 



ISAAC NEWTON JONES. Occupying a 
prominent position among the more intelligent, 
enterprising and active citizens of Lassen county 
is Isaac Newton Jones, of Susanville. Possess- 
ing sound judgment and good executive ability, 
he has been an important factor in advancing the 
agricultural and industrial prosperity of town 
and county, and is now rendering good service as 
supervisor of his district. A native of Ohio, he 
was born in Harrison county, near Cadiz, Oc- 
tober 16, 1838, a son of James P. Jones. His 
paternal grandfather, Isaac Jones, born and 
reared in Wales, immigrated to the United 
States, and settled first in Pennsylvania, from 
there going to Ohio and locating as a pioneer 
farmer near Cadiz. 

Born in Pennsylvania, James P. Jones re- 
moved with his parents to Harrison county, 
Ohio, and there learned the cooper's trade, which 
he first followed in Harrison county. He after- 



wards had a cooper's shop in Zanesville, Ohio, 
for a time, but sold out and returned to Cadiz. 
In 1842 he made a trip to Iowa, and for two 
years was a resident of Lee county. Returning 
to Ohio, he remained there two years, but in 
1844 again turned his footsteps westward, tak- 
ing his famil)' to Iowa, where he improved a 
farm. In 1852 he crossed the plains to Oregon, 
and for a while was employed in mining at 
Jacksonville. Not very successful, he came to 
California, locating as a miner in Yreka. He 
subsequently lived in Red Bluft' for a short time, 
and then located in Honey Lake valley, where he 
resided until 1867. Returning east in that year, 
he remained in Henry county, Iowa, until his 
death, in 1903, at the venerable age of eighty- 
nine years. He was an honest, upright man, 
and an active member of the Methodist Church. 
He married Luc\- Hefling, who was born in Ohio, 
and died in Iowa in 1848. Her father, John 
Hefling, was born in Scotland, immigrated to 
this country, locating in Pennsylvania, and then 
in Ohio, where he was engaged in agricultural 
pursuits the remainder of his life. He was a 
man of deep religious convictions, and a meml>er 
of the Presbyterian Church. 

The oldest of a family of four children, two 
of whom are living, Isaac Newton Jones was 
but six years of age when the family migrated 
to Iowa, where he was reared and educated, at- 
tending the district school and Mount Pleasant 
Academy. After the death of his mother, when 
he was ten years old, he went to live on a farm 
with his grandfather and an uncle on the pater- 
nal side. At the age of sixteen years, being en- 
ergetic, ambitious and industrious, he started 
in life for himself, renting land and carrying on 
general farming for four years. In 1859 he 
started with a mule-team train for Pike's Peak, 
going as far as Denver, when he decided to con- 
tinue westward to the coast. Following the old 
emigrant trail to Salt Lake City, he came by 
the Carson route to California, being ninety days 
journeying from the Missouri river to Yreka. 
After a few months in that place he spent two 
years as a ranchman near Red Bluft", and then, 
in 1862, went by way of Honey Lake valley to 
Humboldt, Nev., where he remained two years. 



HlSIOUICAl. AX!J iiiOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



439 



being engagjcd for six months of that time in 
mercantile pursuits and eighteen months in the 
hotel business. Coming to Susan villc in 1864 
he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of 
land lying one and one-half miles east of the 
town, and the following two years was engaged 
in grain raising. Going then to the Tules, he 
inirchased what is known as the CJibson place, 
and embarked in the stock business, for four 
years raising cattle and shce]). Selling out, he 
si)ent a year in Susanville. He then bought land 
at Willow Creek, purchased a large band of 
sheep, and for seven years made this a specialty, 
but his venture was not successful. Returning 
to Susanville he purchased forty acres and en- 
gaged in horticultural pursuits, having a good- 
bearing orchard of five acres just nordi of the 
city. He has since sold off a part of this land, 
but has eighteen acres left, which he is managing 
most profitably. 

March 4, 1888, in Susanville, Mr. Jones mar- 
ried Elvira (Tally) Sturgiss, who was born in 
Quincy, 111. Her father, David Tally, moved 
from old Virginia, his native state, to Adams 
county. 111., where he owned and operated a 
mill until his death. His wife, whose maiden 
name was Elizabeth Neal, was born in the east, 
and died in Jackson county. Ore. She bore her 
husband two children, namely : William, of 
Gridley, Cal. ; and Elvira, now Mrs. Jones. In 
1862 Elvira Tally came by way of Panama to 
San Francisco, from there going to Jackson 
county, Ore. In November, 1887, she located in 
Susanville, and the following March was united 
in marriage with Air. Jones. By a former mar- 
riage Mrs. Jones, has two children, namely: 
Frederick Sturgiss, a stockman, living near Jack- 
sonville, Ore.; and William Sturgiss, residing 
near Albany, Ore. Politically Mr. Jones is an 
earnest supporter of the principles of the Repub- 
lican party, and is active in local affairs. In 
May, 1904, he was appointed by Governor Pardee 
supervisor of District Xo. i to till a vacancy, 
and in the fall of that year was nominated to 
that office on the Republican ticket, and elected 
by a handsome majority. He has also served for 
the past si.K years as horticultural commissioner 
for Lassen countv. Fraternallv he has been a 



member of Silver Star Lodge No. 135, I. O. O. 
F., for more than thirty-five years, and both he 
and his wife belong to the Rclx;kahs, of which 
Mrs. Jones is past grand. She is a most estim- 
able woman, and an active member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 



FRANK FERDINAND PECK. Noteworthy 
among the active and enterprising citizens of 
1 'lumas county is Frank Ferdinand Peck, who as 
manager of the I 'lumas Commercial Company 
holds an assured position among the influential 
business men of Beckvvith. He is a native of 
northern California, his birth having occurred 
November 22, 1865, at Hovvland Flat, Sierra 
county. His father, the late William De Bell 
Peck, was born and reared in Kentucky, but be- 
came a pioneer settler of California, where he 
spent his last years, dying while in the prime of 
life. Further mention of the family may be 
found elsewhere in this volume. 

His parents moving to the Sierra valley, five 
nnies west of Loyalton, in 1870, Frank F. Peck 
was there reared and educated, attending first the 
public schools and subsequently a business col- 
lege in San Francisco, after which he took a 
course in civil engineering in the Scranton, Pa.. 
International Correspondence School. Complet- 
ing his studies in 1889, he was employed for two 
or three years as clerk and bookkeeper, subse- 
quently being agent for a railway company. Lo- 
catmg in Beck with in 1899, he established him- 
self as a merchant, opening a store, which he 
managed successfully for four years. In 1903 he 
had the business incorporated under its present 
name, some of the leading ranchmen becoming 
interested in it, capitalizing it at $50,000, with 
himself and brother as the princi])al stock- 
holders, and of the Plumas Commercial Com- 
pany Mr. Peck has since been the manager. 
a position for which he is well qualified. 
I le has also other interests, being one of 
the shareholders of the Sierra Mercantile 
Ctjmpanv of Loyalton. of which his brother, W. 
O. Peck, is manager. Mr. Peck, with character- 
istic enterprise, is one of the projectors of a 
proposed electric railway extending from Beck- 



440 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



wiih to Sierraville, and is working hard to get 
the right of way, which has not yet Ijcen granted. 
November 7, 1894, Mr. Peck married Eva AI. 
Millar, who was born in the Sierra valley, Sierra 
county. Politically he is an uncompromising 
Democrat, and from 1895 until after the election 
of William McKinley as president was registrar 
of the land office at Susanville, leaving the po- 
sition with a clean record when his successor was 
appointed. Fraternally he is a member of Hope 
Lodge No. 234, F. & A. M., of Beckwith, which 
he served as master for three years. 



NORMAN JACKSON BARRY. Back in 
the early days of American history the represent- 
atives of the Barry family showed themselves to 
be men of courage, patriotic spirit and high prin- 
ciples of honor, and the examples they left for 
their posterity have been emulated by each gen- 
eration in its turn. During the Revolutj,onary 
war John K. Barry left his plow and took up 
arms in defense of his native land, becoming 
one of those ardent, self-sacrificing patriots to 
whose devotion the independence of the United 
States may be attributed. A native of North 
Carolina, he made that colony his lifelong home 
and there also his son and namesake was born 
and reared, but the latter established the family 
fortunes in another part of the country when he 
removed to Missouri and took up farm pursuits 
with the wheelwright's trade. Barry county. 
Mo., is named after this family. 

Among the children of John K. Barry, Jr., 
was a son, John N., who was born in St. Charles 
county. Mo., and grew to manhood upon a farm 
in that then frontier region. At the time of the 
war with Mexico he enlisted in a Missouri reg- 
iment, but before called into action the war 
ended and no further soldiers were needed. Dur- 
ing 1849 he crossed the plains to California, where 
for a few years he tried his luck in the mines 
of Placer county. In journeying back to his 
old home he traveled through Old Mexico to 
\'era Cruz and thence across the gulf and north 
to Missouri. Not long after his return home he 
married Mary V. Garrett, who was born in Bowl- 



ing Green, Ky., and removed to Missouri with 
her father, James Garrett, a Kentuckian and a 
member of an old and honored family. 

After having followed farm pursuits in Mis- 
souri for some years John N. Barry crossed the 
plains to California with ox-teams, and accom- 
panied by his wife and four children. On reach- 
ing Honey Lake valley he settled on a tract of 
wild land, but later removed to Shasta county, 
and after six years there he returned to Honey 
lake. Settling near Janesville he bought a ranch 
that still is known as the old Barry place. On 
this homestead his wife died in 1903, aged sev- 
enty-five years, and he passed away in August 
of the following year, at the age of eighty-two. 
All of his children still survive, namely : Eliza, 
Mrs. E. E. Rhinehart, of Oakland; Mrs. Nancy 
B. Bailey and Mrs. Lucy C. Kingsbury, both of 
Susanville ; Norman Jackson, attorney-at-law of 
Susanville : and John Thomas, a farmer at 
Standish. The next to the youngest of the fam- 
ily was Norman J., a native of Callaway county. 
Mo., boin June 21, 1861. His earliest recollec- 
tions are associated with California, whither the 
family removed during the summer of 1862. It 
was the ambition of his parents to give their 
children good educations and after he had com- 
pleted the studies of the district schools he was 
sent in 1881 to Santa Rosa, where he matricu- 
lated in the Pacific Methodist College, and con- 
tinued in the classical course until 1884. On 
his return to Lassen county he began to teach 
school and later was made principal of the Susan- 
ville public school. 

While carrying on educational work Mr. Barry 
devoted his leisure hours and vacation seasons 
to the study of law and in 1892 was admitted 
to the bar. During the same year he was elected 
district attorney for a term of two years and at 
the expiration of the time he was re-elected for 
four years, continuing in the office until January, 
1899. During his incumbency of the position he 
had one important murder case, in addition to 
numerous cases of cattle stealing, and other cases 
under both the civil and criminal law. On the 
expiration of his second term he took up the 
private practice of law, in which he has met with 
a success worthy of his ability and ambitions. 




IRVIX SHEI'AKD 



HISTORICAL AND LJIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



443 



The marriage of Mr. Barry united him with 
Miss Marietta Hardin, who was Ijorn and reared 
at I'etahima, Cal., and is a niece of Col. J. A. 
Hardin, known as the cattle king of Nevada. 
Her fatlier, Andrew H. Hardin, was a Ken- 
tuckian by liirth and a member of an old family 
of that state. During an early day of Califor- 
nia's settlement he came west and now makes 
his home at Lakeville, Sonoma countv. Mr. and 
^Irs. Barry are the parents of tliree children, 
Ethel, Mardis and Hardin. Stanch in his al- 
legiance to the policy of the Democratic party, 
Mr. Barry takes a warm interest in local politics 
and served efificienth- as chairman of the countv 
central committee. In fraternal relations he is 
associated with the Independent ( )rder of Odd 
Eellows, his membership being with Silver .Star 
Lodge No. 135, in which he is past grand. In 
addition he holds office as district deputv grand 
moderator, and is further actively connected with 
the Order of Rebekahs, to which also his wife 
belongs. 



TRVIN SHEPARD. There is a peculiar in- 
terest attached to the history of the pioneers of 
any part of our great Union, and more particu- 
larly is that true of that part of it with which wc 
are connected. Those who came into California 
in the early period of its settlement were for the 
most part brave, sturdy fellows, full of vim and 
enterprise. Among this number was the late Tr- 
vin Shepard of Adin, who for many years car- 
ried on a prosperous business in this section of 
the state, being extensively employed in the man- 
ufacture of flour. A man of honest integrity, 
upright in his dealings with others, he achieved 
success by unremitting toil, directed by sound 
business principles, and throughout the commu- 
nity in which he resided was held in high regard. 
Mr. Shepard was born November 4, 1826, in By- 
ron, Genesee county, N. Y., and died at his home, 
in .Adin, Cal, March 29, 1899, leaving besides his 
immediate family a host of friends and ac- 
quaintances to mourn his loss. 

\Mien Irvin .Shepard was a small child his 
parents removed first to ( )hio, then a frontier 
state, and subsequentl}- went to Wisconsin, 



where he completed his school life and likewise 
learned the miller's trade. Crossing the plains to 
California in 1857. he lived in various places in 
the state, working generally at his trade, and 
seeing much of the rough side of pioneer life. 
For nine years, in partnership witli H. I. Wells, 
his brother-in-law. he operated a ranch in the 
Big Shasta valley, also carrying on a dairy busi- 
ness. Prior to this, from 1863 to 1870, iie fol- 
lowed his trade in .Ashland, Ore. In 1879, in 
company with other men of enterprise and pluck, 
he established a flour mill at Little Shasta, where 
he remained nine years. Selling out in 1888, Mr. 
Shepard came to Adin. and in partncrshij) with 
J. E. Niles bought a mill, and was here engaged 
in the manufacture of flour until his death, car- 
rying on an exceedingly profitable business as 
head of the well-known firm of Shepard & Nilcs. 
In 1870 in Ashland, Ore., Mr. Shepard mar- 
ried Almeda L. Helman, who was born in 1850 
near Wooster, Ohio, and was brought by her 
parents, A. D. and Martha J. Helman, to the Pa- 
cific coast by way of the Isthmus of Panama in 
1854. They settled in Ashland, Ore., where her 
father still resides, her mother dying in 1881. Of 
the three children that blessed the union of Mr. 
and Mrs. Shepard, the eldest, Edwin, born in 
1873, passed to the higher life in 1877: the two 
living are Martha Ann and Raymond, the latter 
at home. The daughter is the wife of Charles 
D. Auble, of Big Valley. Cal., and is the mother 
of two children. Thelma and (jwendolyn. Since 
the death of her husband Mrs. Shepard, who still 
retains an interest in the flour mill, has erected a 
beautiful residence in Adin. .She is an accom- 
plished business woman, capable and well in- 
formed, and is held in high esteem by her friends 
and neighbors. I'olitically Mr. .Shepard was 
identified with the Republican party, but was 
never an aspirant for office. 



CHARLES BARHAM. The history of the 
P.arham family in America antedates tlie Revo- 
lutionary war. in which struggle an ancestor of 
Qiarles Barham, of Standish, Lassen c<HUity. 
Cal., served his country. Charles Barham was 



444 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



born in Kentucky, June 13, 1836, but was taken 
in childhood to Missouri, where he was reared, 
obtaining an education in the public schools, 
and where, in 1856, his marriage to Martha Ann 
Courtney was solemnized. She is a native of 
the south, and the daughter of Jeremiah and Re- 
becca Courtney. In 1857 Mr. Barham brought 
his family across the plains to California, the 
journey hither requiring five months. Reaching 
this state he located at Forest City, where he 
engaged in mining and farming for a time, then 
removed to Hansonville, in Yuba county, and 
for two years thereafter followed peddling. In 
1864 he went to Honey Lake valley and home- 
steaded one hundred and sixty acres of land at 
the head of the valley, unimproved, sage-brush 
land, and here he entered upon the cultivation 
and improvement of his property, erecting a 
comfortable home, barns and outbuildings, and 
engaged in the raising of grain. Later he set- 
tled upon another new tract of land which he 
improved and operated until 189 1. Nine chil- 
dren were born to him and his wife, viz. : 
Thomas L., of Johnstonville : Sarah R., who 
married John Lowe, and later died near Bunt- 
ingville; Irene Katherine, the wife of Bristo 
Rice, residing near Clinton ; Mary Belle, the 
wife of George Davy, residing near Clinton ; 
Robert Lee, a farmer near Standish : Lewis 
Jeremiah, a farmer in the vicinity of Clinton ; 
James Preston, living near Spoonville ; Augusta 
Clyde: and Qiarlcs Courtney, living in Standish. 
Mr. Barham has thirty-si.x grandchildren and 
seven great-grandchildren living. He is fra- 
ternally connected with the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, and is also identified with the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, and in poli- 
tics is a stanch supporter of the Democratic plat- 
form. His wife died April 11, 1877, and of late 
years he has resided with his children, spending 
the evening of his life quietly surrounded by chil- 
dren, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. 
His father, Lewis Barham, was born in Virginia 
and later crossed the Cumberland Gap into the 
Blue Grass state, where he resided for some 
years, then went to Missouri, where he died when 
in his forty-fourth year. The grandfather was 
descended from a prominent old English fam- 



ily, and upon coming to this country still re- 
tained his coat-of-arms. He settled in Virginia 
and was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His 
death occurred at the advanced age of one hun- ' 
dred and nine years. 

Robert Lee Barham was reared in Honey Lake 
valley on the farm owned by his father, and re- 
ceived his education in the common schools of 
that section. He remained at home until attain- 
ing his majority, and shortly afterward he rented 
a farm and entered into the work to which he 
had early been trained. He engaged in both 
general farming and extensive stock-raising; in 
1900 he purchased his present farm one mile 
south of Standish, formerly owned by the Irri- 
gating Company, and this he improved, putting 
in alfalfa, and also erecting a beautiful home. 
He engages in hay and stock-raising, his brand 
for cattle being the step H brand. In Indian 
valley Mr. Barham was united in marriage with 
Miss Mabel Peter, a native of the state, and a 
daughter of Thomas Peter, and they have one 
daughter. Claudine. Mrs. Barham belongs to 
the Salvation Army and is a conscientious worker 
for the good of humanity. Mr. Barham has been 
successful in his business ventures and is held 
high in the esteem of his fellow-citizens. 



HERBERT O. NICHOLS. In an early 
period of the colonization of New England the 
Nichols family became established among its 
pioneer farmers and several successive genera- 
tions lived and labored in Maine, winning honor- 
able recognition by exemplary lives and persever- 
ing industry. From William Nichols, Sr., the 
line descends to William, Jr., who was oi-phaned 
in childhood and grew to manhood under the 
care of an aunt. While still quite young he 
served as a soldier in the Civil war. With the 
exception of a short period spent in New Orleans 
(where he learned the trade of a ship carpenter) 
he remained a lifelong resident of New England 
and followed farm pursuits, dying in that state 
at the age of seventy-two years. During early 
life he had married Susan Young, who was born 
in Maine, remained a resident of that state 



HISTORICAL AND P-IOGRAPHIC AL RECORD. 



+45 



throughout life and there died at about seventy- 
four years. Her father, Moses Young-, who was 
bom in Maine and served in the war of 1812, 
lived to be ninety-seven years, and her mother 
attained the age of eighty-nine. 

On the home fann thirty miles from Augusta, 
in Franklin county, Me., Herbert O. Nichols was 
born Alay 22, 1853, and there he passed tlie un- 
eventful years of boyhood and early youth. On 
leaving home to take up the burden of self-sup- 
port he came direct to California, and arrived at 
Sierraville, April 24, 1873, when about twenty 
years of age. For eighteen months he was em- 
ployed in a sawmill and afterward took contracts 
for making hay, moving buildings and doing 
other work of a general nature. In 1879 he 
bought a ranch two miles from Sierraville and 
took cattle to winter, but was obliged to accept 
sixty head in lieu of their feed. After two 
years he sold the ranch and removed to rented 
land, but later bought his present homestead of 
three hundred and twenty acres, also a tract of 
three hundred and eighty acres one mile away 
at the upper end of the valley. In addition to 
superintending these tracts he engaged in team- 
ing and conducted a meat business. During i8g8 
he bought a sawmill three and one-half miles 
from Sierraville and this he now operates in ad- 
dition to the management of his ranches and his 
dairy. In the hauling of shingles, lumber, etc., 
he uses four eight-horse teams, while in his 
various enterprises he furnishes employment to 
as many as thirty men during busy seasons. For 
several years he bought hides and cattle dirough- 
out northern California. Many different enter- 
prises have engaged his attention at different 
times. In all o^them he has displayed energy, 
business acumen and ability of a high order. 
The fact that he came here poor and now ranks 
among the prosperous men of Sierra county 
proves him to be a man of excellent ability, for 
such success would have been impossible to 
mediocrity. 

The marriage of Mr. Nichols took place June 
20, 1880, and united him with Enuna Davis, a 
native of Nevada county, Cal. Seven children 
were born of their union, all of whom are at home 
except the eldest daughter. They are named as 



follows : W'illiani Llewellyn, Edwin B., Madeline 
(Mrs. Amos Maxwell), Grace. Ger^rge, Helen 
and Gaines. Ever since attaining his majority 
Mr. Nichols has voted the Republican ticket. In 
recognition of his fitness for public service he 
was chosen supervisor in 1894 and for four years 
he filled that position, meanwhile acting as chair- 
man of the board. At the solicitation of friends 
in i8g8 he consented to become a candidate for 
county sheriff. There were five candidates in the 
field, but he held a majority of the delegates 
during the opening session of the convention, 
though eventually he was defeated by political 
enemies. Since about 1891 he has filled the office 
of road overseer. Although not a member of 
any denomination he is interested in religious 
activities and contributes to church work. In 
fraternal relations he is identified with Sierraville 
Lodge No. 184, F. & A. M.. also Mountain \'ale 
Lodge No. 140, I. O. O. F., in Sierraville. 



JAMES THO.MAS AUSTIN. Pleasantly 
located in Goose Lake valley, not far from Davis 
Creek, James T. .A.ustin has here been engaged 
in farming and stock-raising for nearly a quar- 
ter of a century, and in his free and independent 
occupation has met with marked success. Tak- 
ing up the land when but a very small proportion 
of the soil was broken, he has brought his ranch 
to a good state of cultivation, and in the raising 
of stock and hay has acquired a good reputa- 
tion. His home and its surroundings are credit- 
able to his industry and enterprise, everything 
being kept in good repair, and at all points indi- 
cating the supervision of an intelligent and able 
man. He was born, December 9. 1837. in Jack- 
son county. Mo., where he lived until Ixxoming 
of age. 

Following the tide of emigration to Kansas in 
1858, Mr. Austin remained there until the fall 
of i860, when he returned to Missouri. .Again 
taking up his residence in Kansas in 1863, he 
offered his services as a soldier in the Civil war, 
taking an active part in the memorable raid 
against General Price. He had many thrilling 
experiences, and at times was in great peril 



•i-i6 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



while escorting people through the lines from 
Missouri into Kansas. In 1864. sailing from 
New York harbor, he came b\' way of the Isth- 
mus to California, and for a number of years 
was employed in mining and prospecting in Plu- 
mas county. Locating in Modoc county in 1883 
he bought and pre-empted three hundred and 
twenty acres of land in Goose Lake valley, and 
on this estate has since resided. One-third of 
the land, mayhap, had been previously broken 
up, but he has practically put the entire tract 
under improvement, much of it now being hay 
land and meadow. He makes a specialty of 
raising cattle and horses of a good breed, and 
in his agricultural operations shows wisdom and 
judgment. He pays attention to the growing 
of fruit to some extent, having set out an or- 
chard, which is quite productive, and having also 
planted the trees near the house, thus greatly 
enhancing the value and beauty of the home 
estate. 

Mr. Austin was married first, in 1858, to Miss 
Graham, who bore him two children, neither 
of whom is living. His second marriage was 
to Mrs. Leonard, and of their union two chil- 
dren were born, namely : Mrs. Cornelia Jo- 
sephine Bruce, of Chico ; and James Oliver, who 
died at the age of twenty-one years. Politically 
Mr. Austin is a stanch Republican, taking an 
intelligent interest in public aflfairs, and for seven 
years has served as justice of the peace. Wliile 
living in Plumas county he was connected with 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for a 
number of years, but is not now identified with 
any secret organization. 



ARAD WAY. Although many \ears have 
passed since death removed Mr. Way from 
among his acquaintances in Lassen county, he 
is remembered with affection by family, chil- 
dren and friends, and holds a position as one 
of the honored pioneers of F.ig valley. Born 
in New York May 21. 1830, he was nine- 
teen \ ears of age when b.e removed as far west 
as Illinois, settling in Jo Daviess county, where 
for years he worked as a tiller of the 



soil. About the year 1872 he came to Califor- 
nia, where he purchased land in Sutter county 
and there developed a farm. In June of 1878 
he came to Lassen county and bought one hun- 
dred and fifty acres of wild land situated one 
and one-half miles east of Bieber. The sur- 
rounding country remained in the primeval con- 
dition of nature. Scarcely a fence had been built 
and scarcely any attempt at improvement made. 
On his own land there was a small house, a bam 
and a garden, but no fences had been built and 
the land was wholly wild. It required many 
years of patient labor on the part of the family 
before the place was transfonned into a state of 
cultivation. After he had lived on the farm for 
a number of years he pre-empted one hundred 
and sixty acres to the south of the home place, 
but he died before he had secured the title, and 
afterward his wife secured the property under 
the homestead laws. This also has been brought 
under cultivation. While living in Illinois he 
had been made a Mason and had been active in 
lodge work. In religious views he was of the 
LTniversalist faith. Politically he favored Re- 
publican principles and at the time of his death 
he was filling the office of justice of the peace, 
to which he had been elected on the regular party 
ticket. 

During the period of his residence in Illinois, 
and while operating a farm in Jo Daviess county, 
Arad Way was united in marriage, November 2, 
1854, with Miss Amanda M. Byrum,, who was 
born in 1836. She was of eastern parentage, her 
father having come from Alassachusetts and her 
mother from Connecticut. Eleven children were 
born of their union and all were given good edu- 
cational advantages, several of them having en- 
gaged in teaching during early life. The eldest, 
Ethel Julia, married Elisha Dowell and lives at 
Santa Cruz, Cal. Hiram B. and Philo Fairchild 
are both deceased. Amy Eliza is the wife of 
Andrew Babcock. of Bieber. Hannah Sophia 
married Henry C. Cook and lives at Bieber. Will- 
iam A., who was sixth in order of birth, remains 
with his mother and has charge of the home 
ranch, for which responsibilities he is well 
adapted by native energy and careful judgment. 
Nellie T. married Albert Loomis and lives in the 




^A t^ 



<. 





(yvyiA- 




HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



451 



vicinity of Bieber. Mertie Adell and Bertie Isa- 
bel were twins. The former, in early girlhood, 
became the wife of Henry Bunselmeier, but soon 
died, and afterward the twin sister was united in 
marriage with Mr. Bunselmeier. Inez M. is 
the wife of Albert Putney and lives at Susan ville. 
The youngest of the family, Arad, is engaged in 
teaching school at Janesville, Lassen county. 

Since the death of Mr. Way, which occurred 
January 17, 1881, his widow has managed the 
property, assisted by her son, and she has cared 
for the children until they have left the shelter 
of her roof to establish homes of their own. As 
one of the early settlers of Lassen county, she 
has witnessed its gradual development and has 
won an honored place in the esteem of the people 
among whom she has lived for many years. The 
present improved condition of the homestead is 
due to her supervision, backed by the careful 
management of her son. Thirty acres have been 
sown to alfalfa, while the remainder of the prop- 
erty is in grain, wild hay and pasture, forming 
a ranch well adapted for the raising of cattle and 
the conducting of a dairy, which two industries 
are their present specialties. 



ABRAHAM EDE was born in Sussex, Eng- 
land, January 12, 1833, and was ten years of age 
when his parents came to the United States and 
settled on a farm in Waukesha county. Wis. There 
he lived until the spring of 1852, when, in 'com- 
pany with an older brother, William Ede, he 
came to California. Two years before this date 
his brother had made the trip to California and 
returned home very well satisfied with his ven- 
ture, thus his second trip was made with good 
knowledge of conditions in California and of the 
country through which they were to travel. 
Crossing the plains in a spring wagon, they 
finally reached California. Taking up mining 
claims at Howland Elat, Sierra county, they met 
with success and cleaned up quite a sum from 
their mining operations. 

In 1854 Abraham Ede returned to his home in 
the east, making the return trip via Panama 
route. He purchased a farm in Waukesha county, 
9 



married Miss Mary Jane Easton, of Giicago, and 
apparently .settled down to the life of the eastern 
farmer, but the west kept calling to him, and 
in 1859 lie sold his farm, and with his wife and 
two children started for California, their outfit 
consisting of three wagons and ox-teams. The 
tide of emigration was steadily increasing and 
advancing westward, and as they journeyed they 
were joined by other families making the over- 
land route, some of whom would certainly have 
perished but for the timely assistance Mr. Ede 
was able to render them. Mrs. Ede, with the 
spirit that characterizes the true pioneer wife, 
was a valuable assistant to her husband on the 
journey, and not only endured the hardships 
without complaint, but in addition to the work 
which naturally fell to her lot, .she often drove 
an ox team for her husband during the day. 
( )wing to the fact that the train was well armed 
and protected they were not molested to any 
extent by the Indians. 

Arriving in California they settled on the land 
which has ever since been the family home. Mrs. 
Ede and her sister-in-law were the first white 
women on the north side of the valley. During 
his lifetime Mr. Ede followed ranching, raising 
cattle and horses, and in the early days was en- 
gaged in the dairy business for several 3'ears ; 
the ranch consists of about two thousand five 
hundred acres of land in the Sierra valley, three 
and one-half miles east of Beck with, and here 
Mr. Ede died July 18. 1900, when sixty-eight 
years of age. 

Mrs. Ede was born July 25, 1840, a daughter 
of James Easton, a native of Scotland, who came 
to the United States in young manhood and went 
to work as shipping clerk with a wholesale hard- 
ware firm of Cleveland, Ohio. Later he removed 
to Chicago and still later to Iowa, where he died 
aged seventy-two years. Mrs. Ede's mother was 
Margaret Buckhart, a native of Pennsylvania, of 
German descent : she died in Washington, at the 
age of seventy-two years. 

Mrs. Ede was eight years old when her father 
moved to Chicago, where she lived until her mar- 
riage to Mr. Ede, July 9, 1856, when she was 
sixteen years of age. Their family consisted of 
twelve children. The eldest son, Walter IT.. 



452 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



lives in Idaho ; William Alfred was murdered 
while protecting his home from a robber who, 
at the same time, attempted to kill his wife ; 
Sarah Jane died at the age of three months ; 
Mary Emma, widow of John Connor, lives in 
San Francisco ; Edward James is a resident of 
San Jose, Cal. : Abraham Lincoln died at the age 
of twenty-one ; Eugene Spencer resides in Ore- 
gon ; Oscar died in infancy : Stephen R. is a 
rancher of the valle\-. Ida is the wife of Edward 
E. Anderson : Albert Arthur lives at home and 
looks after the ranch. The youngest child died 
in infancy. 

Mr. Ede was a good farmer, coming to the 
valley with practically no means, and by good 
management accumulating a valuable property ; 
though he met with reverses he overcame all ob- 
stacles and left his descendants a competency. 



JOHN ERITZ HULSMAN. Under a large 
old pine tree on the old Lassen ranch in Lassen 
countv, Cal., stands the monument erected to the 
memory of Peter Lassen, and marks the spot 
where he camped so many }-ears ago when he • 
entered Honev' Lake valley and became a pioneer 
settler. This ranch is now owned by J. F. Huls- 
man, a proiiiinent and successful farmer and 
dairvman of Lassen county. His father, Henry 
Hulsman, was of French descent, but was born 
in Germany, near Bilefeldt, and died when John 
F. was a small boy. He was a glazier and 
painter by trade, and had served in the King's 
Guard. Flis mother, formerly Hannah Aben- 
brick. was also born in Germany and died there. 
Of the nine children included in the parental 
family, six grew to manhood and womanhood, 
but onlv one of them is now living. Edward 
served in a Missouri regiment during the Civil 
war. was taken prisoner and confined in Libby 
prison in \'irginia, and died some time after the 
war. 

John Fritz Hulsman was born February i8, 
1837, "^ ^^'^'^ village of Schildesche. Gennany, 
and received his education in the schools of his 
native town. In 1853 ^^^ came to America on the 
sailing vessel Johannes, taking seventy-one days 



to make the voyage to New Orleans, from which 
city he went up the Mississippi river to St. Louis, 
Mo., spending his time until i860 in Missouri 
and Louisiana. In April of that year he started 
from Fulton, Callaway county. ^lo., with ox- 
teams for California, going by way of Lander's 
Cut-off to the Humboldt, and arrived in Honey 
Lake valley on August 24, i860. For a time 
after reaching this state he made rails on Dia- 
mond Mountain, and the following winter he se- 
cured employment on the old Lassen ranch, 
where he remained three years before buying an 
interest in the ranch, after which the business of 
the farm was carried on under the name of Ly- 
barger-Tetheringlon-Hulsman for four years. 
Mr. Hulsman then bought out the interest of Mr. 
Lybarger, and a few years later bought the in- 
terest of Mr. Tetherington, since which time he 
has continued operating the ranch alone. It is 
the oldest in Honey Lake valley, having been 
settled and improved by the pioneer, Mr. Lassen, 
to whom the monument under the old pine tree 
was erected, and which still stands on the place 
where he camped the first night he spent in the 
vallev. Mr. Hulsman has beautified and other- 
wise improved the place until it is now one of 
the show places of Honey Lake valley, contain- 
ing fine orchards of different varieties of fruit, 
beautiful gardens, shrubbery, etc. There are fif- 
teen hundred acres in the ranch, three hundred 
of which are under cultivation, and portions of 
it make excellent range for stock, upon which 
Mr. Hulsman has herds of Durham cattle, his 
Iirand being HN. He also owns a dairy, the 
butter and cheese from wdiich aflford a snug in- 
come. With his sons he is also interested in 
mining in Moonlight district in F'lumas county. 

In St. Louis, j\Io., February 5, 1870, Mr. Huls- 
man was married to Miss Hannah \'ogt, who is 
a native of Germany, having been born near 
Bilefeldt. and is the daughter of Casper Vogt, 
a farmer, who died when Mrs. Hulsman was a 
small child. Her mother, Eliza Banner, was also 
born in Germany and died there when a com- 
parativel}- young woman, leaving five children, 
three of whom are living, Mrs. Hulsman being 
the second child. Mr. and Mrs. Hulsman have 
eight children livmg. as follows: William Grant, 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



4->3 



who is mining in Plumas county ; Herman 
Henry, at liomc ; Louisa J., who is engaged in 
teaching in Lassen county ; John Fritz, Jr. ; Han- 
nah F., who is a graduate of the Reno Business 
Institute; Jessie B., who is a teacher: Evelyn C, 
also a teacher: and Ivan. Two children are de- 
ceased, Ida, who died aged twenty-two, and 
Henry, aged two years. Prior to 1900 Mr. Huls- 
nian was a Republican, hut at that time his po- 
litical views underwent a change and since then 
he has been a Democrat. He is distinguished 
among those who know him by a cordial and 
kindly nature and by a warm-hearted loyaltv to 
his friends, a man of unblemished character, and 
liberal in his views. 



JEREMIAH TYLER. During the long pe- 
riod of his residence in California, extending 
from 1859 until his death in 1890, .Mr. Tyler 
was a continuous resident of Lassen county, 
where he developed a fine ranch from the wil- 
derness and improved a homestead still in the 
possession of the family. The only attempt at 
improvement made prior to his advent was the 
putting up of a log cabin. The fertile soil still 
remained unturned and its possibilities unknown. 
It remained for him to demonstrate its adapta- 
bilitv for the raising of stock and general crops, 
and the success with which he met was ample 
proof of the wisdom of his foresight. Since his 
death the heirs have continued the work of im- 
provement, have erected substantial farm houses 
and good barns, and have brought the majority 
of the two hundred and eighty acres under cul- 
tivation, making the land well adapted to the 
dairy industrv and the stock business. 

Born in Pennsylvania, Jeremiah Tyler was 
three years of age when his jjarents moved to 
Ohio and settled in Cleveland, where he at- 
tended the common schools and later learned the 
trade of brick and stone mason. Upon starting 
out for himself he went to Iowa City, Iowa, 
where he found employment at his trade, remain- 
ing in that place until 1859, the year of his long 
journey across the plains to California. Imme- 
diateK after his arrival in Lassen countv he se- 



cured a position with Mr. Gark, but a few months 
later bought a claim from Mr. Kingsbury and 
settled down to the arduous task of placing an 
unimproved half-section under cultivation in or- 
der to secure profits therefrom. Later he had 
the ready and capable assistance of his sons as 
they were growing toward manhood and became 
able to take their share in the responsibilities of 
the homestead, and their co-operation aided him 
in making the land a profitable investment. 

The marriage of Mr. Tyler occurred l"cbruary 
14, 1864. and united him with Mr.s. Samantha 
(Parker) Fletcher, who was born in Massachu- 
setts, and at fifteen years of age left the cast in 
companv with her parents, Abel and Sarah (Dar- 
ling) Parker. After one year in Rockford, 111., 
they removed to Iowa, and in 1862 crossed the 
plains to California, settling in Honey Lake val- 
le\- and pre-empting a quarter section of bare 
land. Somewhat later they sold their original 
homestead and lx)ught one hundred and sixty 
acres near Buntingville, where Mr. Parker died 
at seventy-three years and his wife when eighty- 
seven. Both were interred in the Milford ceme- 
tery. The first marriage of Miss Parker united 
her with John Fletcher, who died in 1863, and 
three months afterward she started for the Pa- 
cific coast with her two children, traveling via 
New York and the Isthmus. After a brief so- 
journ near Oroville she came to Lassen county. 
The children of her first marriage were Adelbcrt. 
now deceased : and Lafayette, residing at Pres- 
cott, Ariz. 

Ten children comprised the family of Mr. and 
Mrs. Tyler, and all of these lived to mature 
years. The eldest. Sherman Grant, died at the age 
of twenty years, while attending a business col- 
lege m San Francisco. Two died in Lassen 
county, where also occurred the death of a daugh- 
ter. Louisa, Mrs. George R. Wales, who left one 
son, Lloyd. Those now living are as follows : 
Thomas Sheridan, at home : Stanton T., who 
married May Parker and has two children, Les- 
ter and Lydia: Laura Edith, Mrs. Henry Pet- 
tineli, of Reno, Xev., who has two children, 
Thomas Louis Tyler and \'irginia ; Sumner Cus- 
ter, a resident of Reno : Stanley Edison, who re- 
sides on the home farm and by his marriage to 



454 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Mary French has two children, Charles and 
Cecil; and Ethel, the youngest of the family. 
For many years Mrs. Tyler has been identified 
with the Methodist Episcopal church and a con- 
tributor to religious movements, which also re- 
ceived the support of Mr. Tyler during his life- 
time. Though not a partisan, he was stanch in 
his allegiance to the Republican party and never 
failed to support its men and measures. While 
living- in Iowa he became identified with the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, but he did not 
continue an active worker in the order after re- 
moving west. When sixty-two years of age his 
life work came to an end and he was buried in a 
private cemetery on the home place, mourned by 
the many to whom his manly, sterling traits had 
endeared him. 



DA\TD B. PATTERSON. The story of Mr. 
Patterson's experience may be taken as a fair 
example of the "strenuous life" during the early 
'50s in California. Fortune's smiles and frowns 
were apparently bestowed indiscriminately, 
though in very many cases there were oftener 
frowns than smiles. If anything, Mr. Patterson 
saw rather less of misfortune that fell to the 
share of the average man. Some might term 
his good fortune pure good luck, but those who 
know him best say that his success was entirely 
due to the man himself, and that the determining 
factors are to be found in his energy and fore- 
sight : in seeing an opportunity and knowing the 
exact moment to take advantage of it for his 
profit. 

]\Ir. Patterson was born March 26, 1826, at 
Hammond, St. Lawrence county, N. Y. His 
father, Edward Patterson, was also a na- 
tive of New York and served as a private soldier 
in the War of 1812, and in his early life followed 
the occupation of lumberman. About 1856-7 he 
moved west to Wisconsin and lived with a daugh- 
ter until his death, at about seventy-eight years 
of age. His wife, whose maiden name was Cath- 
erme Buck, was a native of New York, but her 
parents were of New England birth. She died 
at about sixty-seven years of age. 

Mr. Patterson's earliest years were passed by 



the beautiful St. Lawrence river. As his father 
owned and operated saw-mills, his first work was 
helping his fadier about the mills, and when he 
was old enough he rafted lumber on the river. 
They were engaged in getting out timber, which 
they marketed in Quebec, Canada. When he was 
twenty-one years old die went to Jefiferson coun- 
ty, Wis., and for three years had charge of a 
gang of fifty or sixty men driving logs on Rock 
river. Returning Argonauts brought to the east 
their tales of California and of the wonderful 
fortunes to be made in that far-off land. As a 
consequence, Mr. Patterson caught the gold 
fever, and in 1852 he joined a party of emigrants 
who were about to make the overland route with 
ox-teams. He furnished one ox-team, and also 
paid some money for the privilege of going with 
them. In addition to this he had to take his turn 
standing guard and do' his share of the work in 
connection with the wagon train. When they ar- 
rived at the Yuba river he sold his outfit and went 
to Downieville. where he bought a mining claim, 
paying $5,000 for it. Then he took four men 
into partnership, and in a few days they had 
taken out enough gold to pay for the claim and 
$1,000 more for each man. In the spring of '53 
he built a circular saw- mill on the Yuba river 
near St. Joe Bar, and after running it for one 
season, rented it for $600 a month, and later sold 
it. Having been of some service to Sheriff Ford 
when a desperado was on the point of killing him, 
the sheriff appointed him deputy sheriff of Sierra 
county. He was also collector of taxes, and held 
both offices as long as he wanted them. Then he 
bought a pack-train and packed freight into the 
mines with mules from Marysville all through 
the mountains, making a good deal of money in 
this business. When he sold out his pack-train 
in 1857 he owned three hundred and fifty mules, 
one of which he would not sell on account of its 
faithful service, and hired her taken care of 
while he returned east. In 1858 he disposed of 
all his property and went east by the way of 
Panama, staying there about a year, then came 
back to California, making the return trip also 
by the Panama route. After his return he en- 
gaged in the cattle business, and owned butcher 
shops west of the mountains. Soon afterwards 




c^^ o-i^^^J- cA^^iy^-e^P-^'y 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



457 



he formed a partnership with Hon. T. L. Fox, 
he himself attending to buying and driving the 
stock, while Mr. Fox took charge of the other 
part of the business. In the Frazer river ex- 
citement they lost about $70,000 by reason of the 
miners leaving the country without paying up 
their debts, and soon afterwards tlicy dissolved 
partnership. 

In 1859 Air. Patterson located on the ranch 
where he now makes his home. For many years 
he carried on an extensive business buying, sell- 
ing and raising stock. The magnitude of his 
operations can be imagined from the fact that 
he has bought as many as one hundred thousand 
head of cattle at one time, but when he got so he 
could not ride he gave up the business, and since 
then he has engaged in the raising of fine horses, 
principally draft stock. He has retired from 
active business life and for the past ten years has 
rented his ranch, which consists of six hundred 
and forty acres of land in the Sierra valley. 

Mr. Patterson's first wife was Miss Jane New- 
ell, a native of New Orleans, their marriage oc- 
curring at Goodyear's Bar, Cal. She died at 
the age of twenty-seven years. His second wife 
was Miss Anna Parker, a native of St. Law- 
rence county, N. Y., who has lived in California 
since i860. Their family consists of three chil- 
dren : Jane R., wife of P. D. Rainc, of Loyal- 
ton ; Cora, wife of Z. W. Keys, also of this place ; 
and May, wife of Max Dory, living on Mr. Pat- 
terson's ranch near Loyal ton. 

Fraternally Mr. Patterson is a member of 
Sierraville Lodge No. 281, F. & A. M., having 
joined the order many years ago. In the twilight 
days of his life Mr. Patterson is able to look back 
over the years with much satisfaction, feeling 
that he has accomplished many things. He can 
rightfully be termed a successful business man. 



MRS. M. A. GREENO. Many experiences, 
some pleasant and others sad, have fallen to the 
lot of Mrs. Greeno, into whose life manifold 
changes have come and numerous vicissitudes 
have been braved with womanly fortitude and 
patience. Now in the afternoon of her existence 



she is living in quiet contentment on the ranch 
near Doyle's Station, Long valley, where she 
and her sons jointly own more than nineteen 
hundred acres and conduct ranch pursuits upon 
an extensive scale. Of Eastern parentage and 
ancestry, she was born in Boston, Mass., in 1840, 
being a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Ann 
(Collins) Wallace, both natives of Boston, the 
former of French extraction, the latter of Scotch 
lineage. When the daughter was yet a small 
child, she lost her father by death, and subse- 
quently her mother came to California, settled 
in Butte county, married again, and passed her 
remaining years in the west. 

At the age of fifteen years Miss Wallace be- 
came the wife of Moses L. Oakes, a sea captain 
who lived only a few years after their marriage. 
The young widow was left with the care and 
support of two small children. The son, Tliomas 
Francis Oakes, came to California and resides 
at Richmond. The daughter, Jane Minerva 
Oakes, married Francis Qiapman and resides 
in Carson, Nev. Of her union there were the 
following children : Eva, wife of U. S. Mackey 
of Carson and mother of one daughter, Dorothy ; 
Margaret, who married James Richardson of 
Carson and has two children ; Edna, who died at 
nineteen years ; Earle, who lives at Angels Camp 
in California; and John. 

When only eighteen years of age, in 1858, 
Mrs. Oakes brought her two children by the 
Isthmus of Panama to California, where she 
remained two years in San Francisco, later made 
her home in Columbia, this state, and then re- 
turned to San Francisco. While in that city she 
became the wife of Peter Kelley and moved to 
Butte county, where she remained a number of 
years. Mr. Kelley proved to be unworthy of hei- 
trust and she sought legal separation from him. 
meanwhile leaving her son of that marriage with 
a family bearing the name of Philbrook. In the 
course of time the family became so attached to 
the child that they moved away to unknown 
parts in order that his mother could not regain 
possession of him. Consequently it was many 
years before she ascertained his whereabouts ; 
he now resides in Susanville and is known by the 
name of Alonzo Kelle\- Pbilhrnnk. 



458 



HISTORICAL AND BIOC^RAPHICAL RECORD. 



After having made her home with her mother 
for several years Mrs. Kelley became the wife of 
Charles B. Clark, with whom she moved to Sii- 
sanville and took charge of the old Stewart ho- 
tel. When Mr. Clark died she still remained at 
the hotel and for some years continued its man- 
agement. Three children were born of that 
union, namely : Charles B., who is represented 
on another page of this volume; Harriet, de- 
ceased ; and Mary Louisa, Mrs. Dewitt, de- 
ceased, who' left one son, Charles. In Lassen 
county Mrs. Clark was married to George W. 
Greeno, an honored pioneer and prominent 
stockman of Long valley, who was born in Vir- 
ginia, educated in England, and as a boy shipped 
before the mast. Early in the '50s he landed in 
California, where at first he tried his luck in the 
mines of Plumas count}-, but subsequently aban- 
doned mining for agricultural pursuits, and for 
many years engaged in stock raising in Long 
valley. At the time of his death he owned more 
than one thousand acres in his home ranch, and 
here his widow now resides, aiding her sons in 
the care of their large property and enjoying a 
degree of comfort and ease justly earned by 
years of industry. During his early years in 
California Mr. Greeno had many experiences 
with the Indians and more than once was in peril 
of his life, but with the characteristic courage of 
a true frontiersman he allowed no danger to 
daunt his spirit. Throughout all this section of 
country he was known and honored and when 
he died, September 17, 1902, expressions of re- 
gret and sympathy were heard on every hand 
and a large concourse of friends gathered to ren- 
der him the last tribute of honor when he was 
laid to rest at Willow ranch. Of his three chil- 
.dren, two (twins) died early in life, and the sole 
survivor is the son, George W., an honored citi- 
zen of Lassen county and a valued assistant to 
his mother in the management of the property. 



ELIJAH KELLOGG. Among the pioneers 
of- Big valley, and the prominent and extensive 
farmers of this locality, there is perhaps none 
who is looked upon with more respect than Eli- 



jah Kellogg, vi'ho bears a high rank in the com- 
munity in which he resides as a reliable and sub- 
stantial citizen. From a very modest beginning, 
with little means, and subsequent embarrass- 
ments of all kinds, he has made his way steadily 
upward, and is now reaping the reward of his 
early toils and difficulties, being surrounded by 
all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. 
A Canadian by birth, he was born, January 25, 
1844, i'l Ri'escotl, Ontario, but while yet a child 
in his mother's arms was taken to Winnebago 
county, 111., where he was reared and educated. 
Neither of his parents, who were pioneer settlers 
of boith Illinois and Iowa, are now living. 

At the age of eighteen years, in Rockford, 111., 
Elijah Kellogg enlisted in the Seventy-fourth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which was assigned 
to the Fourth Corps of the Army of the Cum- 
berland, and subsequently participated in many 
of the leading engagements of the Civil war. 
After serving bravely for three years he was 
jionorably discharged with the rank of sergeant, 
and was mustered out of service at Qiicago. 
Returning to the parental roof, he resided in 
^^'innebago county until 1863, and then accom- 
panied his parents to Franklin county, Iowa. 
There he assisted in clearing and impro'ving a 
farm, and there his parents hath died. Leaving 
his Iowa home in 1871, Mr. Kellogg spent a few 
months in Wyoming, and in January, 1872, came 
to California, and for fourteen months lived in 
the Santa Clara valley. Learning the trade of 
a sheep shearer while there, he subsequently fol- 
lowed it fur a number of years, l>eing employed 
at different places along the coast. Having pre- 
viously acquired a soldier's claim to the ranch 
which he now owns and occupies, he settled upon 
it in 1876, and for seventeen years resided upon 
it, in the meantime being- engaged to some ex- 
tent in mining and sheep shearing. He bought 
two different tracts of adjoining land, each con- 
taining one hundred and sixty acres, and was 
just well started as a farmer when he lost title 
to all of his landed possessions, and was forced 
to leave the county nearly penniless. 

Going to southern California, Mr. Kellogg 
then located about ten miles south of Los An- 
geles, and having purchased fifteen acres of land 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



4;V.t 



was tlicre cmijloycd in raisin^' walnuts for Iwclvf 
years. ^Meeting- witli cxcollcnt success in that 
industry, lie sold his land at an advantatjoous 
price, returned to Big valley, and in addition to 
buying hack his original claim ])urchased two 
adjoining ranches, having now one of the finest 
and best-improved farming estates to be found 
in northern California. The estate greatly de- 
preciated while he was away, and since his return 
he has made improvements of value, and is car- 
rying on general ranching nn an extensive scale, 
raising cattle, horses, mules, grain and hay, and 
at the present time is putting in alfalfa on a part 
of the ranch. 

In Big valley, in 1885, Mr. Kellogg married 
Carrie Coats, who was born in Missouri, and 
when a girl came with her jiarents, Amos and 
Elizabeth (Dolan) Coats, to California, locating 
in Big valley in 1878. Here Mr. Coats pre- 
eni]5ted and homesteaded three hundred and 
twenty acres of land, on which he and his wife 
spent the remainder of their lives. Fraternally 
Mr. Kellogg is a Mason, and politically he is 
identified with the Democratic party. Both him- 
self and wife are members of the Giristian 
church. 



THOMAS M. BARHAM. In the develop- 
ment and advancement of its agricultural and in- 
dustrial resources Lassen county has been ex- 
ceptionally fortunate, its early settlers having 
been men of great intelligence, sound judgment 
and sterling worth. Prominent among the ener- 
getic and enterprising men who assisted in trans- 
forming the wild, sage-covered land into a good 
farming region was the late Thomas M. Bar- 
bam, who was known throughout Honey Lake 
vallev as a successful agriculturist, an esteemed 
citizen, a kind neighbor and a loving husband 
and father. A native of Missouri, he was born 
in (ireene county, February 8, 1840, and died in 
Lassen county, on his home farm, November 2, 
i8i)4. his death being a great loss to the com- 
munitv in wliicb he had so long resided. 

Left fatherless at the age of nine years, 
Thomas M. Barham was brought up and edu- 
cated in his native state. In 1859 he came with 



his mother to California, ami for six years re- 
sided in 'S'uba county. Locating in Honey Lake 
valley ni 1865, he formed a partnershi]) with 
John R. Dunn, buying a ranch, which they man- 
aged together for a year, when the property was 
divided. Mr. Barham becoming owner of tlie 
farm now occupied by the liarham brothers. On 
this estate he made improvements of great value, 
fencing the land and erecting a large bam and a 
fine residence. .Subsec|uently selling out to .-\. J. 
Spoon, Mr. Barham bought the ranch on which 
Mr. Spoon and C. I". Hicks now reside, and at 
once began making needed improvements. Ik- 
was a hard working, persevering man. one who 
observed and thought for himself, possessing 
shrewd common sense, and his labors were 
crowned with success. He placed a large part 
of the three hundred and twenty acres included 
in his ranch under cultivation, and was there 
prosperously employed in general farming until 
his death, as related above. 

May 9, 1878, in Missouri, near the home of his 
early days, Mr. Barham married Columbia O. 
Lay, who was born in Greene county. Mo., a 
daughter of William and Mildred (Tatum) Lay. 
Her father was a native of Indiana, and her 
mother of Kentucky, and both died in Missouri. 
To the union of Mr. and Mrs. I'.arham six chil- 
dren were born: Williani 1)., born in Lassen 
county, Cal.. March 11. 1879, married Mamie 
Riddle, by whom he has one child. Leona I". : 
James Franklin, born in Missouri, March 11. 
1881, died Augu.st 3, 1885 ; Effie M., born July 
2, 1883. died July 30, 1885: Emma L.. born Oc- 
tober 8. 1885. lives at home ; Thomas O., born 
October 4, 1887. is also at home: and Sarah C, 
born March 3. 1890, died March 17. 1891. .After 
the death of her husband Mrs. Barham sold the 
ranch on which they were living, and bought the 
one on which she now resides, near Bunting- 
ville. It is a smaller tract, containing one hun- 
dred and fortv acres, and this she manages her- 
self, being assisted by her children. She raises 
large quantities of hay, and is carrying on a re- 
munerative business in dairying, an industry for 
which her ranch is well adapted. She is a woman 
of much force of character, possessing good busi- 
ness abilit\ and tact, and is very successful in her 



460 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



agricultural work. Politically Mr. Barham was 
a Democrat, and fraternally belonged to Janes- 
ville Lodge, No. 223, I. O. O. F. He was a 
member of the Missionary Baptist church, to 
which Mrs. Barham also belongs. 



FRANK A. HANSEN. Conspicuous among 
wide-awake and prosperous agriculturists of 
Honey Lake valley is Frank A. Hansen, who is 
busily employed in farming, stock-raising and 
dairying in Lassen county, near Spoonvillc. 
Active and energetic, with a clear head for busi- 
ness, he is a prominent factor in promoting the 
industrial interests of this section of northern 
California. A son of Nicholas Hansen, he was 
born April 26, 1868, in San Mateo county, of 
substantial German ancestry on both sides of the 
house. 

A native of Berlin, Germany, Nicholas Han- 
sen came, when a boy, to the United States, set- 
tling in Michigan. At the age of eighteen years 
he entered the employ of the government as a 
scout, and in that capacity crossed the plains to 
California several times, making his first trip in 
1859. On taking up his residence in this state 
he was at first engaged in teaming, but subse- 
quently turned his attention to agricultural and 
horticultural pursuits, and is now living near 
Redwood City, where he is an extensive fruit 
grower. He still keeps as one of his cherished 
possessions the old flintlock musket, made in 
1825, that he used when scouting. He married, 
in Alichigan. Mary Rohlwing, who was also born 
in Berlin, Germany, but is now deceased and is 
buried in Redwood Citv. 

Having acquired a good knowledge of the com- 
mon branches of study in the inililic schools, 
Frank A. Hansen remained at home until after 
attaining his majority, assisting his father in 
tilling the soil. In 1893, in partnership with his 
brother, H. T. Hansen, he came to Lassen county, 
and bought the two-hundred-and-forty-acre ranch 
which he now occupies, it being known as the 
old Charles Barham estate, and likewise pur- 
chased a homestead claim of one hundred and 
sixty acres. The Messrs. Hansen are carrying 



on the ranches together, and in their labors are 
meeting with much success. They have thirty 
acres of alfalfa, the remainder of their ranch 
being wild meadow, hay land and grazing land. 
They devote their attention principally to the 
raising of cattle, and in connection with this 
branch of agriculture have a fine dairy. The im- 
provements on their property are of the best, 
their buildings being of modern construction, and 
the equipments all that are needed on an up-to- 
date farm. 

June 18, 1905, Mr. Hansen married Mrs. Alice 
(Mulroney) Bass, who was born and educated 
in Honey Lake valley, being a daughter of 
Thomas J. Mulroney, of whom a brief sketch 
may be found on another page of this volume. 
Alice Mulroney married first, November 30, 1893, 
Richard Bass, a son of I\Irs. Mary Bass. He 
died in July, igoo, leaving two children, Joseph 
Ray Bass and Elmer Francis Bass. Religiously, 
Mr. and Mrs. Hansen belong to the Catholic 
church at Susanville. Politically, Mr. Hansen is 
a stanch Republican, and fraternally he is a 
charter member and the president of Honey Lake 
Parlor No. 198, N. S. G. W., of JanesviUe. 



CHARLES B. CLARK. Numbered among 
the wide-awake and self-reliant men who are 
ably conducting the agricultural interests of Las- 
sen county is Charles B. Clark, one of the pro- 
prietors of Willow ranch, in Long Valley. His 
untiring efforts and continued industry, combined 
with skill and practical judgment in carrying on 
his labors, have met with a well-merited reward, 
his success being unquestioned. A native Cali- 
fornian, he was born in Inskip, Butte county, 
April 24, 1863. His father, Charles B. Clark, 
Sr., died while yet in the prime of manhood, and 
his mother, of whom a short sketch may be found 
on another page of this volume, subsequently 
married George W. Greeno. Sr. 

When nine years of age, Charles B. Clark came 
with his mother and step-father, Mr. Greeno, to 
Long Valley, which has since been his home. In 
the district schools he acquired his preliminary 
education, afterwards attending Heald's Business 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ic>r> 



College in San Francisco for ten months. Find- 
ing farming an occupation congenial to his 
tastes as well as profitable, Mr. Clark turned his 
attention to agricultural pursuits, and now, in 
partnership with his mother, Mrs. Greeno, and 
his half-brother, George W. Greeno, he owns 
and occupies Willow ranch. This farm of nine- 
teen hundred acres, and more, is one of the finest 
in its improvements and appointments of any in 
this section of the county, being a credit to the 
sagacity and excellent management of its own- 
ers. 

In April, 1899, Mr. Clark married Emma Mc- 
Dermott, and at once established himself in his 
present substantial residence, on Willow ranch, 
near Doyle station. Four children have blessed 
the union of Mr. and Mrs. Clark, namely : Mary 
Estella, born December 30, 1899; Catherine, born 
August 22, 1902; Charles Lawrence, bom Feb- 
ruary 20, 1904; and Edward Lyman, born Feb- 
ruary 14, 1905. Politically Mr. Clark votes the 
straight Republican ticket, and fraternally he is 
a member of Janesville Lodge No. 232, F. & A. 
M., and of .Susanville Chapter, No. 47, R. A. M. 



BENJAMIN HANSON LEAVITT. Prob- 
ably no one in northern California is more de- 
serving of credit for what has been accomplished 
in the line of irrigation than is P.enjamin H. 
Leavitt. Soon after settling on his ranch in 
Lassen county he dug ditches and canals to 
bring water to his property, and in so doing was 
the first to resort to irrigation in order to raise 
better and larger crops. Succeeding so well in 
this modest attempt he later dug the canal of 
the Susan River Canal system, and in 1889 con- 
structed the reservoir, using Alkali lake, which 
he enlarged, the reservoir when completed cover- 
ing over two thousand acres of land. Above 
Susanville he constructed two other reservoirs, 
covering thirty-six hundred acres, all in good 
condition. He personally surveyed the land for 
this enterprise, superintended the building of the 
dam. and gained a prior and preferred right 
on this system. Subsequently, with seven oth- 
ers, he promoted the plan of the Willow Creek 



Irrigation Company of Lassen county, and in 
1903 was delegate to the Irrigation Congress 
at Ogden, Utah, afterwards making a trip to 
Washington in order to get the government to 
take up the scheme of irrigation. Failing in this, 
however, upon his return he established the com- 
pany of which he is now the vice-president. For 
years he has worked and planned to put Honey 
Lake valley under irrigation and is now the 
leading spirit in a movement which is endeavor- 
mg to tap Eagle lake and bring the water down 
through Willow Creek valley to the Susan river, 
and thus irrigate the broad expanse of Honey 
Lake valley, which will be the means of bring- 
ing another five hundred thousand acres or more 
under irrigation, and of bringing thousands of 
settlers to the valley. 

A descendant of New England antecedents, 
P.enjamin H. Leavitt is a son of Nathan Leavitt, 
a native of Maine, where he became a well- 
known lunibcrnian and farmer. Near Clinton, 
Kennebec county, he operated a sawmill for a 
number of years, using water as the motive 
power. In whatever line of business he engaged 
he was very successful and was a distinct ad- 
vantage to the community in which he made his 
home. His marriage united him with Elizabeth 
Hanson, a native of St. .Andrews, New Bruns- 
wick, and the daughter of William Hanson. 
Originally Mr. Hanson made his home in New 
Hampshire, removing from, there to St. An- 
drews, still later going to Maine, where he passed 
a\\a\- at the remarkable age of one hundred and 
five years. Throughout his life he had followed 
the sea, and had experienced all the vicissitudes 
incident to such a life, at one time being the only 
one saved from a vessel which was shipwrecked. 
The Flanson family was also of New England 
origin, and for years its members had been accus- 
tomed to life on and near the sea. Mr. Hanson's 
death occurred in St. Anthony's Falls, Minn., 
and his wife also died in that state at the age 
of eighty-nine years. Of the fourteen children 
born to Nathan Leavitt and his wife ten reached 
years of maturity and eight are still living. One 
son. his father's namesake, fought in the Civil 
war and is now postmaster in Texas. 

Benjamin H. Leavitt was born in Kennebec 



iG6 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



county, Me., November 14, 1835, and was reared 
m Clinton until he was thirteen years of age. It 
was at this age that he shipped as a sailor from 
Bangor, Me., in the coast trade, and subsequently 
he worked on the Penobscot river as a log driver. 
Having been accustomed to the sea all his life 
he could ride a log with ease, and was an expert 
swimmer, a man of powerful build and of mag- 
nificent physique. When only sixteen years of 
age he could shoulder an anchor weighing five 
hundred and twenty-five pounds. Not only was 
he well known in Maine, Pennsylvania, Massa- 
chusetts and Canada as an expert log driver, but 
he had gained a similar reputation in his work 
on the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. His 
identification with California dates from the year 
1856, he having set sail from New York city 
in September of that year. Coming by way of 
the isthmus, he debarked from the John L. 
Stephens at San Francisco, and soon afterward 
engaged in mining. His first experience in this 
line was at Timbuctoo, from there going to 
Dutch Flat, and still later mining on the Yuba 
river. At Oregon Hill, on the latter river, he 
afterwards ran a sawmill. Purchasing the mill 
in 1861, he moved it to Truckee, in Dog valley, 
setting it up there as a steam sawmill. As the 
pioneer lumber manufacturer on the Truckee 
river he cleared over $20,000 in three years. Sell- 
ing these interests to parties on credit he lost all, 
and in 1864 came to Honey Lake valley, at the 
same time purchasing a ranch in the valley. In- 
stead of settling on this, however, at that time 
he ran a sawmill at Janesville in partnership with 
J. D. Byers, for two years, at the end of that 
time taking up his home on the ranch previously 
purchased. At this time all that he had left of 
his accumulations at Truckee was a $1,500 debt, 
upon which he was paying three per cent interest. 
Not disheartened by this state of his' finances, 
however, he pre-empted one hundred and sixty 
acres of land, homesteaded one hundred and 
sixty acres adjoining, and here engaged in farm- 
ing and stock-raising. The merchants of Susan- 
ville were at this time in the habit of furnishing 
settlers with supplies on credit for a year, but 
when Mr. Leavitt applied for supplies under the 
same conditions he was refused, but before lie 



left he secured credit at one of the stores. By 
clearing and improving his land he soon had it 
in hay and grain, later adding the raising of cat- 
tle. . By persistent efforts he finally paid off all 
of the indebtedness on his property, to which he 
later added from time to time, until at this 
writing he owns over fourteen hundred acres. 
It is needless to say that his ranch is under 
excellent irrigation, which greatly facilitates the 
raising of hay and grain, which are his chief com- 
modities, although he is also well known as a 
stock-raiser, his brand being BL on the right 
hip. 

On the Truckee in Nevada, Mr. Leavitt was 
married to Miss Celera Edwards, who is a native 
of Vermont and a sister of Mrs. Hurley, of 
Susanville. Eight children were born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Leavitt, of whom we make the following 
mention : Lola May became the wife of Charles 
Bropliy. and at her death in Honey Lake valley 
left four children ; Emma is the wife of Frank- 
Johnston, and resides near Standish ; Lizzie is 
the wife of Victor Perry of Standish ; Grace 
also lives in that town and is the wife of James 
Elledge ; Fanny is the wife of Vinton Gunter ; 
James and George are both on the home farm ; 
and Benjamin died at the age of four vears. 
Politically Mr. Leavitt is a true-blue Republican, 
and fraternally he is a member of Lassen Lodge 
No. 149, F. & A. M., and Lassen Chapter No. 47, 
R. A. M. Both Mr. and Mrs. Leavitt are hale, 
hearty and active, and are the proud grand- 
parents of twenty -one children. 



JOHN ELLINGSON. Many of Lassen coun- 
ty's able and enterprising agriculturists have 
come here from foreign shores, bringing from 
their native land those habits of industry and 
thrift that are sure forerunners of success in 
whatsoever occupation they may embark. Prom- 
inent among these residents of Honey Lake val- 
ley is John Ellingson, of Milford, whose success 
as a general farmer has been brought about by 
persistent energy, well-directed toil and good 
busmess ability on his part. A son of John and 
Ann (Thompson) Ellingson, he was born Jan- 



HISTORIC\L AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



40 



nary 25, 1876, in Norway. His parents enii- 
<jratc(l to America in 1891. and the ensuing three 
years hved in .-Xstoria, Ore., hut since that time 
liave resided in Lassen county, Cal., making their 
home with their son John. The father owns a 
homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres 
adjoining tliat of his son's. 

Brought up in Norway, John l-dHngson at- 
tended school until fifteen years of age, acquir- 
ing a practical knowledge of the common 
hranclies of study. Coming with his parents to 
tlie L'nited States, he worked a numher of years 
for w'ages, by dint of economy saving some 
money. In 1898 he located on his present ranch, 
taking up a homestead claim of one hundred and 
si.xty acres six miles east of Milford, and in the 
seven years that have since elapsed he has made 
improvements of a noteworthy character, having 
built a good house and substantial barns and out- 
buililings. He has worked earnestly and wisely, 
clearing much of his land, and has put in forty 
acres of alfalfa, a fine crop to raise in this sec- 
tion. He pays considerable attention to dairy- 
ing, and in addition to raising hay and alfalfa, 
feeds cattle, making money each season in all of 
his ventures. He is also starting an orchard, and 
in due course of time he expects to have enough 
fruit of different kinds for home use and some 
to market. In politics he is a zealous Repub- 
lican, working for the best interests of his party. 



JOHN B. WEMPLE. Closely identified with 
the agricultural and industrial interests of Las- 
sen county is John B. \\'emple, of .Milford, who 
was born July 31, 1864, on the old homestead, 
where he still lives, being a son of Joseph Craw- 
ford and Eliza J. (Christe) Wemple, earl}- set- 
tlers of this section of Lassen county. As a boy 
he assisted his father in clearing the wild land, 
and with gratification and pride has watched its 
gradual development into a productive farm, 
yielding bountiful harvests each season. In this 
transformation he was an important factor, and 
as the original ranch has been enlarged by the 
purchase of other land he has continued to assist 
his father and brothers in the management of 



the large estate. Possessing a wide knowledge 
of the various branches of agriculture, he has 
been successful in his undertakings, and iiolds 
a good position among the enterprising and pros- 
perous farmers of Honey Lake valley. In ad- 
dition to general farming he is also interested to 
some extent in teaming, carrying on a substantial 
business in that line of industry. 

March 29, 1883, -^Ir. Wcmpie married Abigail 
Winslow, and they are the parents of six chil- 
dren, namely: Ina (wife of James Ferris, of 
.Sparks, Nev. ), Edmund, I^wrence, Gladys, 
Earle and Myrtle. Mrs. Wcmpie is a most es- 
timable wonian. and a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. Inheriting the political faith 
in which he was reared. Mr. Wemple is a stead- 
fast Democrat, and fraternally he belongs to 
Honey Lake Parlor No. 198. N. S. G. W., of 
Janesville. 



WILLIAM FREDERICK RAKER. Con- 
spicuous among the pioneer agriculturists of 
Honey Lake valley was the late William Fred- 
erick Raker, who during his long residence in 
Lassen county performed his full share in de- 
veloping and advancing its resources, industrial, 
agricultural and financial. He was a practical, 
energetic man, reared to habits of diligence and 
thrift, and bound to succeed in whatever he un- 
dertook. He was born November 15, 1822. in 
Wurtemberg, Germany, and wdien a small child 
came with his parents to the Cnited States, set- 
tling in Pennsylvania, where he was brought up. 

In early manhood Mr. Raker turned his face 
westward, and for a few years lived in Illinois. 
In 1853, lured by the thrilling tales concerning 
the wealth to be acc|uired in the gold regions of 
California, he came across the plains to Plumas 
county, and for four years was employed in min- 
ing in the Indian valley. Coming to Lassen 
county in 1857, he decided to locate in Long val- 
ley, and laid claim to a ranch on which he put 
up a small cabin. Subsequently, while he was 
gone for a load of timlx'r with which to make 
further improvements. Jacob McKissick took 
possession of the cabin and land and held it. 
Then forming a partnership with Mr. Goose, 



468 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Mr. Raker pre-empted one hundred and sixty 
acres of land in Honey Lake valley, near Mil- 
ford, and this ranch, when the partnership was 
dissolved, fell to his share of the property. With 
characteristic enterprise Mr. Raker labored as a 
general farmer, and as he accumulated money he 
wisely invested in real estate, in course of time 
having four hundred and fifty acres in his farm, 
which he rendered one of the most attractive and 
desirable in the community, his improva-nents 
being of the very best. He embarked to a con- 
siderable extent in stock-raising, for many years 
making a specialty of breeding fine horses. Here 
he lived, honored and respected by all, until his 
death, in August, 1897. 

Mr. Raker was twice married, his first mar- 
riage being with Mrs. Mary Decious. On April 
II, 1891, some time after the death of his first 
wife, Mr. Raker married Mrs. Joanna (O'Leary) 
Lindsey, a native of Vermont. Politically Mr. 
Raker was a steadfast supporter of the principles 
of the Republican party, and took a warm inter- 
est in local afTairs. 



JOSIAH WILLIAM TREGASKIS. In trac- 
ing the genealogy of this pioneer rancher of 
Plumas county we find that the family is of 
English stock, many generations identified with 
the history of Cornwall, whence Capt. John 
Tregaskis, a native of that shire, crossed the 
ocean to the United States as early as 1825. 
Prior to his removal from his native land he had 
followed mining pursuits in the Cornwall mines, 
but after his settlement in New York City he 
became a contractor and under contract con- 
structed the Croton reservoir for the purpose 
of supplying the city with water. After a few 
years he followed the tide of emigration toward 
the undeveloped west and established his family 
at Mineral Point, Iowa county. Wis., where he 
became the owner of large tracts of land, erected 
substantial store buildings and houses, owned a 
smelter, and in other ways was closely associated 
with the development of the locality. 

Prior to the departure of the family from 
Cornwall a son, Thomas, had been born in Sep- 



tember of 181 3, and he was a lad of eleven when 
he crossed the ocean to the country afterward 
to be his home. At twenty years of age he ac- 
companied the family to Wisconsin and later 
accompanied El Bernard, one of the first ex- 
plorers of the Lake Superior region. When 
gold was discovered in California he became one 
of the thousands of fortune-seekers who in 1849 
sought the unknown possibilities of the western 
coast. The voyage to California was made on 
a sailing vessel and passed without special in- 
cident. Going at once to the mines he bought 
a pack train and engaged in hauling supplies to 
Downieville. During the spring of 1852 he 
moved to Port Wine, where he kept a hotel as 
well as prosecuted his mining interests. From 
there in 1854 he came to LaPorte, Plumas county, 
where for a few years he engaged in the meat 
business and then conducted a livery stable for 
a long period. Eventually business reverses 
caused him to dispose of his interests in LaPorte 
in 1876. During the last ten years of his life 
he remained in the home of his son, Josiah 
William, with whom he stayed until he passed 
away at eighty-four years. Through all of his 
life he had been a Democrat, but never consented 
to hold official positions. 

The marriage of Thomas Tregaskis united him 
with Margaret Niel, who was born in London, 
England, the daughter of an expert accountant, 
and was quite a }ouiig girl when she came to 
the United Stales. While the family were living 
at LaPorte, Cal., she passed from earth at the 
age of fifty-five years. Of her union there were 
born three children who attained mature years, 
one of these being Josiah William, whose birth 
occurred at Mineral Point, Iowa county, Wis., 
November 27, 1847, and who was scarcely five 
years of age when brought by his mother to the 
west. The early years of his childhood were 
associated with Port Wine and LaPorte and he 
remained with his parents until seventeen years 
of age, when he went to a mining camp in Idaho. 
Returning in a few months he spent the winter 
at home, but in the spring of 1865 went back 
to Idaho, where he engaged in mining and pros- 
pecting with fair success. In the fall of 1866 
he returned to LaPorte and in January, 1867, 



II 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



471 



took a trip to ATexico and worked there for 
wages in a mine, returning to LaPorte in June 
of 1868. For some time afterward lie hauled 
freight in the summer months and mined during 
the winters. In Octoher, 1879, '^s removed to 
Oroville and engaged in the forwarding business 
as a commission agent. The following year he 
came to .\nierican valley, Plumas countv, and 
bought two hundred and forty acres one and 
one-half miles from Ouincy, where he engaged 
in farming. In addition, for several years he 
hauled freight to mining camps, but eventually 
gave his entire attention to the management of 
his land and the raising of stock. 

After having operated the ranch until 1903 
Mr. Tregaskis rented the land and moved to 
Quincy, where he bought a homestead of two 
acres and now resides here. Adjoining the town 
he has two hundred and twenty-three acres 
principally of mountain land, the value of which 
is enhanced by the presence of unfailing springs 
of jnire water. From this source he has secured 
the water supply for the city water works, which 
he now owns ; in addition he owns a business 
house and private dwelling in Ouincy, and has 
stock in the Plumas County Bank, which he 
assisted in founding and of which he is a director. 
Politically he votes the Republican ticket. In 
February, 1878, he married Miss Lillian V. 
Goodwin, who was born in Fairfield, Me., and 
came to California three years prior to their 
marriage. 



ISAAC MAYES STEWART. A prominent 
and influential citizen of Lassen county, Isaac 
Mayes Stewart, now serving as postmaster at 
Clinton, has been an important factor in the up- 
building of this part of Honey Lake valley, and 
in the development and advancement of its agri- 
cultural, industrial and financial prosperity has 
contributed his full share. A Pennsylvanian by 
birth, he was born May 17, 1838, in West Alex- 
ander, Washington county, which was likewise 
the birthplace of his father, the late Thomas 
Stewart. His paternal grandfather, James Stew- 
art, a pioneer settler of Washington county. Pa., 
was born in .A.ntrim. Ireland, where his father 



spent his last years, moving there from Scotland 
when a young man. 

.After learning the blacksmith's trade. Thomas 
Stewart followed it for awhile in his native 
town, living there until 1849, when he migrated 
to Ellisville, Fulton county. 111. In 1855 he 
moved still farther westward, locating as a black- 
smith in Winterset, Iowa. He afterwards re- 
moved with his family to Kansas, and there spent 
his remaining days. He married Jane Gilmorc. 
wiio was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of 
Samuel Gilmore, a farmer, who was born of 
Scotch ancestors in the north of Ireland. .She, 
too. died in Kansas. Of their family of four- 
teen children, eight are living. Four sons served 
ill the Civil war, all belonging to an Iowa regi- 
ment, namely : Samuel, now living in KansTs : 
William, who was lieutenant of his company, and 
died in Kansas ; John, who died while in the 
army ; and Thomas, who died from wounds re- 
ceived while scouting. 

Only eleven years old when he accompanied 
his parents to Illinois, Isaac Mayes Stewart com- 
pleted his early education in the pioneer log 
schoolhouse of Ellisville. Going to Iowa in 1855 
he assisted his father in clearing and improving 
a farm near Winterset. and was subsequently en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1861 he came 
with mule-teams across the plains, having rather 
an e.xciting trip. One night, when near the Snake 
river, the compain- with which he was journey- 
ing was attacked by Indians, but the savages 
were driven away by the brave little band, which 
suft'ered no serious loss in the encounter. Tak- 
ing the Honey Lake route, the party arrived in 
California in July, 1861, after a trip of three 
months. Locating first in Marysville, Mr. Stew- 
art was employed in agricultural pursuits in that 
vicinity for more than a >ear. Returning to this 
vallev ill the fall of 1862, he followed his inde- 
pendent cKCupation in Susanville until the ensu- 
ing fall, when he returned to Alarysville. where 
he continued as a tiller of the soil for three 
years. 

In 1866, after his marriage. Mr. Stewart pur- 
chased land oil the Susan river, six miles east of 
Susanville, and having cleared and improved a 
food ranch engaged in grain and hay raising. 



472 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Selling at an advantage, he afterwards bought 
what is now known as the Lanigar place, which 
he improved and sold, making money in the 
transaction. He th.en purchased what is now the 
Wright estate, and having made improvements 
of much value disposed of that also. In the 
meantime he bought his present ranch of one 
hundred and eighty acres, situated eight miles 
east of Susanville, and having cleared the land 
began its improvement. He erected substantial 
buildings, including a residence and commodious 
barns, and placed the land under irrigation from 
the Susan river, now having one of the most 
valuable and productive alfalfa farms in the 
valley. Until selling it in 1905 he also owned 
a meadow farm of two hundred and thirty acres, 
h'ing three miles below bis home farm, and dur- 
ing the fifteen years that he managed it carried 
on dairving, keeping from thirty to forty cows. 
.\pril 7, 1866, in Marysville, Mr. Stewart mar- 
ried Sophia Moore, who was born in Walworth 
count}-. Wis., near Delavan, a daughter of 
Charles Moore. Born and reared near Albany, 
N. Y., Mr. Moore chose farming as his life oc- 
cupation, and settled first as a farmer in Wis- 
consin. In 1861 he came with his familv across 
the plains with horse-teams, his son-in-law, John 
Neale, being captain of the train. After mining 
in the Butte mountains, in Yuba county, for two 
vears he moved to Marysville, where he engaged 
in horticultural pursuits. Coming to Honey 
Lake valley in 1866, he bought a ranch lying five 
miles from Susanville, and was there employed 
in farming until his retirement from active busi- 
ness, and now, a venerable man of ninety years, 
he lives with Mr. and Mrs. Stewart. He mar- 
ried Mrs. Elizabeth Haslane, who was born in 
Xew York, and died in Honey Lake valley in 
1870. By her first marriage Mrs. Moore had 
three children, one of whom is living, and by 
her union with Mr. Moore she had two children, 
Mrs. Stewart being the only survivor of this 
marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are the par- 
ents of five children, namely : Walter, engaged 
in farming with his father; Jennie, wife of 
Thomas Doyle, of Milford : Estella, wife of Will- 
iam Streschley ; Mark, farming near Clinton : 
and Laura, at home. Politicallv Mr. Stewart is 



an earnest Republican, sustaining the principles 
of his party by voice and vote. For more than 
twenty years he has served as school trustee, 
during the time assisting in building school- 
houses in three different districts. In June, 
1897, he was made postmaster at Clinton, and 
Mrs. Stewart is, deputy postmaster. Fraternally 
Mr. Stewart belongs to Silver Star Lodge No. 
135, I. O. O. F., but is not now active in the 
work of the organization. Religiously he is a 
member of the Methodist Church at Susanville. 



CHARLES WESLEY McQUEEN. As a 
man of sterling integrity and worth, and a fine 
representative of the self-made men of Lassen 
county, Charles Wesley McQueen is well de- 
serving of honorable mention in a work of this 
character. .\n able and thriving agriculturist, 
he is prosperouslv engaged in his independent 
calling on one of the pleasantest and most de- 
sirable homesteads in the Honey Lake valley, his 
ranch being ten miles southeast of Milford. A 
native of Indiana, he was born September 2, 
i860, in Fountain county, of substantial Scotch 
ancestry. His parents, John and Louisa { Hand- 
ley) McQueen, were born and reared in Scot- 
land, living there until after the birth of all of 
their children excepting the two youngest, a 
daughter and Charles W., of whom we write. 
Emigrating with their family to Indiana, they 
became early settlers of Fountain county, where 
they resided until after the death of the father. 
The mother survived him many years, dying in 
1905 in Kansas. 

During the larger part of his early life Charles 
Wesley McQueen made his home with his oldest 
sister, receiving a limited education in the dis- 
trict school. At the age of twenty-three years, 
inspired by the glowing descriptions that he 
heard of the Golden state, he migrated to Cali- 
fornia, and for three years thereafter was a resi- 
dent of San Francisco. Coming then to Lassen 
county, he located on his present ranch,' home- 
steading one hundred and sixty acres of it, and 
taking up an adjoining tract equally as large. 
The land was then in its primitive wildness, cov- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFrORD. 



473 



ered principally by sage brush. Dependent en- 
tirely upon his own resources, he set to work in 
earnest to clear the land, and in course of time 
his toilsome efforts were well rewarded. He has 
a large share of his ranch fenced and irrigated, 
and has erected a commodious barn and sub- 
stantial farm buildings, which, with their neat 
and tasteful surroundings, invariably attract the 
attention of the passer-by. Here Mr. McQueen 
is steadily adding to the improvements already 
made, and is carrying on a good business as a 
general farmer, having one hundred and fifty 
acres of alfalfa on his place, and being engaged 
in dairving and stock-raising, in all of these agri- 
cultural branches meeting with signal success. 

In October, 1893, '" Oregon, Mr. McQueen 
married Enis Traut, who was born in Nebraska, 
and into their household six children have been 
born, namely: James Clyde, Lloyd Royer, 
Joshua Baker, Charles Raymond, Elsie May and 
Lawrence. Politically Mr. McQueen is an uncom- 
promising Democrat, sustaining the principles of 
his party by voice and vote. 



HON. THOMAS A. ROSEBERRY. Prior 
to the outbreak of the Revolution Matthew Rose- 
berry left Germany, his native country, and 
crossed the ocean to Pennsylvania, settling in 
the then sparsely populated region of Greene 
county, and commencing to clear a farm from the 
primeval wilderness. When the war began he 
left his plow and shouldered his rifle, with which 
he went to the front and served during the his- 
toric and bloody struggle that ensued. During 
one of the engagements with the eneniv he was 
wounded in the forehead. At the close of the 
war he returned to his frontier home and took 
up the task of earning a livelihood from its 
uncultivated acres. IMathias, a son of this sol- 
dier and immigrant, was born in Pennsylvania, 
where for years he was an extensive farmer and 
stockman. 

Next in line of descent was Thomas H. Rose- 
berry, a native of Greene county. Pa., who about 
1844 removed to Missouri and tcwk up a tract of 
raw land in Clark county. .Although he was about 



sixty years of age when the Civil war began in 
1861, he was inspired by the example of his Rev- 
olutionary -ancestor to offer his services to his 
country. Through his efforts a company was 
raised of which he was made captain and which 
became Company G of the Twenty-first Missouri 
Infantry. However, the exposure incident to 
long marches and the hardships of army life 
were too great for one of his age, and he was 
obliged to resign his commission on account of 
ill health. After being mustered out in October 
of 1862 he resumed the affairs of private life 
in Clark county, where he served four years as 
county judge. Eventually he removed to Ver- 
non county. Mo., and there his death occurred 
at eighty-five years of age. His wife, who also 
lived to be eighty-five, was Mary Hill, a native 
of Wheeling, W. Va., and a daughter of Thomas 
Hill, who enlisted from \'irginia in the second 
war with England. 

In the family of Thomas H. Roseberry there 
were seven children who attained mature years. 
Three of the sons were in the army, Mathias. 
who enlisted in Company G, Twenty-first Mis- 
souri Infantry, June 13, 1861, was killed in the 
charge on Fort Blakely in 1865. Reese Heaton, 
a member of the same company and regiment, 
remained in service from 1S62 until the clo.se 
of the war, and is now residing in Lucerne, 
Kans. Thomas .A., who was born in Clark coun- 
ty. Mo., July 17. 1847, ^^''is the third of the 
sons to partici])ate in the struggle between north 
and south. June 13, iSru. he enlisted as drum- 
nitr bo\ in the company of which his father 
was captain. Previous to his enlistment he had 
])laved for the boys from the time of recruiting. 
.A.fter the battle of Corinth he was honorably 
discharged by the colonel of the regiment. Oc- 
tober 15. 1862, on account of physical disability. 
After his return home he attended high school 
one term and then took charge of the home farm 
for some years. 

Coming to California in December of 1870. 
Mr. Roseberry proceeded direct to Knights Land- 
ing, where he joined a brother, Barney, a pioneer 
of 1849. 3"f' "^^v ^ resident of Woodland. This 
brother was not only a farmer, but a merchant 
also, and in his store Tlmnias .A. found employ- 



474 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ment as clerk. Another brother, James, had 
crossed the plains in 1862, and is now living in 
Napa county. During the year 1873 Mr. Rose- 
berry removed to Big Valley, in Modoc county, 
and secured employment in a store at Adin, 
owned by Campbell & ^Velton, and later was in 
the employ of a Mr. Beecher. In 1876, with 
George H. Knight, he bought out the general 
merchandise store of E. Lower & Co., at Adin, 
and this was conducted under the title of Rose- 
berry & Knight, the title in 1885 being changed 
to Knight & Harvey. It was during the last- 
mentioned year that Mr. Roseberry was elected 
assemblyman from Modoc and Lassen counties. 
From merchandising he finally turned his atten- 
tion to stock-raising, which he conducted on a 
farm of four hundred and eighty acres in Big 
valley, and after 1888, when he sold his inter- 
est in the store to Mr. Knight, he had no further 
mercantile interests. Under the administration 
of President Harrison, in August of 1892, he was 
appointed register of the L'nited States land office 
for the Susanville district, including the coun- 
ties of Modoc and Lassen and portions of Plumas 
and Sierra. During the administration of Presi- 
dent Cleveland a change was made in the regis- 
tership on account of politics, but immediately 
after the election of President) McKinley he was 
returned to the position. He was reappointed 
shortly before the death of Mr. ]\IcKinley, and 
was later reappointed by President Roosevelt, 
in April, 1906. Several terms he has served as 
a delegate to the state convention and in other 
ways he has promoted the local and general wel- 
fare of his party. 

The marriage of Mr. Roseberry took place 
at Oroville, this state, and united him with Miss 
Viola May Lowry, who was born in Scott val- 
ley, Siskiyou county, her father, John H. Lowry, 
having been one of the earliest settlers of that 
vallev. Mr. and Mrs. Roseberry are the parents 
of four children, namely : Daisy, who is' the wife 
of George N. McDow, of Susanville ; George 
Knight, a student in Heald's Business College, 
where his father took a commercial course about 
thirty years ago; Thomas A., Jr., who is taking 
a course in mining engineering; and Mary 
Aileen, at home. After coming to California 



Mr. Roseberry was made a Mason in Adin Lodge 
No. 250, of which he was master, and now he is 
identified with Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & 
A. M., at Susanville. While at Adin he rose to the 
Royal Arch degree in Acacia Chapter No. 64, 
and is now high priest of Lassen Chapter No. 
47, R. A. M. ; besides being captain-general in 
Lassen Commandery No. 13, K. T., and with his 
wife is a member of the Order of the Eastern 
Star. With other veterans of the Civil war he 
takes pleasure in the reunions of the Grand Army 
of the Republic and for some years he has been 
an active worker in the camp at Susanville, of 
which he is past commander. 



N. V. WEMPLE. Among the younger gen- 
eration of Lassen county's prosperous and pro- 
gressive agriculturists is N. V. Wemple, of Mil- 
ford, a native-born Californian, being the son of 
Joseph Crawford Wemple, one of those sturdy 
])ioneers that daimtlessly pushed his way into an 
uncultivated country, and by diligence and per- 
sistent toil improved a fine homestead, and in 
the development of his adopted town and county 
performed his full share. Mr. Wemple was born 
in Milford, Cal., May 7, 1871, received his ele- 
mentary education in its public schools, and with 
the exception of a year spent at the State Nor- 
mal School in San Jose has spent his entire life 
in Honey Lake valley. 

In August, 1892, Mr. Wemple married Pearl 
]\r. Bronson, a daughter of Hosea Bronson, and 
thev are the parents of four children, namely : 
Orville E., Guy B., Frederick and Lysle. Po- 
litically Mr. Wemple affiliates with the Demo- 
crats, and fraternally he is a member of Honey 
Lake Parlor No. 198, N. S. G. W., of Janesville, 
and of Janesville Lodge No. 232, F. & A. M. 
Mrs. Wemple is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. 



JACKSON ROBERT BOGGS. A prominent 
citizen and old pioneer settler of California who 
has had a varied and exciting career, is J. R. 
Boggs, who resides at Janesville, Lassen county. 




ALLEN TRIMBLE 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



477 



He is the son of James R. Boggs, who was a 
native of Old \'irginia, and who, in early days, 
established his family home in Van Buren county, 
Iowa. In 1840 he and a brother engaged in 
flat-boating down the Mississippi, taking salt 
.to New Orleans. Three years later he went to 
Monroe county, Iowa, and took up land near 
Alhia. where he built a cabin and engaged in 
fanning until his death, in 1848. His wife, for- 
merly Jerusha Lamosters, was a native \'ir- 
ginian and she also died in Iowa. Nine of the 
children born to them reached years of maturity, 
and seven of them are still living. Two of the 
sons, Abner S. and Addison, fought in an Iowa 
regiment during the Civil war. 

Jackson Robert Boggs was born at Farming- 
ton, \'an Buren county, Iowa, July 24, 1843, 
and was reared on a farm, receiving his edu- 
cation in the public schools of that countv. When 
fifteen years of age he began life for himself 
by hiring out on a farm and two years after- 
wards started further west. Driving an ox team 
to Salt Lake City, he traveled over mountain 
and plain to California, and after his arrival in 
Placer county, September 15, i860, secured em- 
ployment on a ranch and in a hotel for a year. 
Later he went to Sacramento, where he became 
apprenticed to Wise & Jones, blacksmiths, and 
remained with them until he reached his ma- 
jority. In 1863 he volunteered in the First Regi- 
ment of California Cavalry, and was sent to 
New Mexico via Los Angeles, Fort Yuma and 
Tucson ; was in one campaign through to the 
Canadian river, now Oklahoma, his regiment 
fighting in several Indian battles, one of which 
came near being disastrous to the soldiers, and 
they were saved from being massacred by the 
two mountain howitzers they bad with them. 
Kit Carson was colonel in command of the ex- 
pedition in November, 1865, and returning to 
New Mexico he established Fort Selden. 

In 1866 Mr. Boggs was mustered out of serv- 
ice and paid off at El Paso, Texas, after which 
he came in a government train to Fort Union, 
then by freight train to Topeka. Kan., and from 
there he went back to Iowa, wdiere he remained 
until January, 1867, then returned to California 
via the Isthmus of Panama. Four years later 
10 



he cainc to Lassen county, where he worked 
at his trade and at farming for two years, at 
the end of which time lie purchased a farm in 
the Honey Lake valley. After operating this 
until 1875, he returned to Sacramento for four 
>ears, going from there to Inyo county, where 
he remained for nearly a year, eventually re- 
turning to Lassen county in .\pril, 1882, and 
establishing the blacksmitii and carriage busi- 
ness at Jancsville which he has since carried on, 
erecting his own shop. 

In Susanville, October zj, 1894, Mr. Boggs 
was married to Mrs. Mary E. (Spencer) Samp- 
son. ;Mr. Boggs had one child by his former 
marriage, a daughter, who married A. R. Nel- 
son of Philadelphia. Mr. Boggs has been school 
trustee for a number of years, and in politics 
is a stanch Republican. He is fraternally identi- 
fied with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
and belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic. 



ALLEN TRIMBLE. As an honored pioneer 
of Plumas county, and an important factor in de- 
veloping its agricultural resources and advancing 
its welfare the late Allen Trimble is specially de- 
serving of mention in this biographical volume. 
He was a hale and hearty man at nearly four 
score years of age, and though practically re- 
tired from active pursuits managed for his son 
the old homestead farm which he took up from 
the government many years ago, and on which 
he has since resided. Tliis ranch, lying three 
and one-half miles east of Beckwith, is wxll cul- 
tivated and well improved, and is considered one 
of the most valuable in the neighborhood. A son 
of Joseph Trimble, he was born January i, 1828, 
in Jackson county. Ark., where he spent his 
earlier vears. Born and reared in Kentucky, 
Joseph Trimble went to .Arkansas as a surveyor 
when a voinig man, and at the time of his death, 
at the age of sixty-eight years, was engaged in 
sectionizing the countr^•. His wife, whose maid- 
en name was Rebecca Wideman, spent her en- 
tire life of forty-five years in .\rkansas, dying in 
Jackson count}-. 



478 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



At the age of ten years Allen Trimble was 
left an orphan, the death of his father occurring 
in 1838, four years after that of his mother. For 
a number of years after that Allen lived with a 
cousin in Independence, Ark., and was there edu- 
cated. In the spring of 1846 he went tO' Texas 
to enlist as a soldier in the contest with Mexico, 
but on account of his youth was rejected. Re- 
turning to his home, he remained a year or more, 
and then went again to Texas on the same er- 
rand, and this time enlisted for service in the 
Mexican war, but peace was so soon declared 
that he was never called into active service. In 
the fall of 1849, fii'sd with enthusiasm by the 
wonderful tales concerning California's golden 
treasures, he started for the Pacific coast, travel- 
ing as far as El Paso, Tex., with General Worth. 
There, joining Col. Jack Hayes, he worked his 
passage across the plains, driving first a mule- 
team and then a pack-horse to Los Angeles, and 
crossing the Colorado river on December 25, 
1849. From Los Angeles he went to San Fran- 
cisco by water, arriving March 3, 1850, and 
camping in the brush of what is now Montgom- 
ery street. Going then to the present site of Ne- 
vada City, he was engaged in mining and pros- 
pecting with fair success for more than a year. 
Settling on land in Yuba county in 1851, on the 
banks of the Bear river, he carried on general 
farming in that section for twenty years. Sell- 
ing out in 187 1, he migrated to Plumas county, 
taking up government land in the Sierra valley, 
and by means of industry, energy' and wise man- 
agement improved the homestead where he lived 
so niany years. He met with noteworthy suc- 
cess as a general farmer and stock-raiser, im- 
proving a valuable estate, and on retiring from 
active pursuits, turned it over to his sons. 

Mr. Trimble married first Nettie Morrison, a 
native of Arkansas. She died when forty years 
of age, leaving three children, namely : Charles 
E., engaged in mining in this county : Mary 
Caroline Derbyshire, of Loyalton : and Hattie 
Bringham, deceased. Mr. Trimble married for 
his second wife Elizabeth Ready, who was born 
in IMissouri, and came across the plains to Cali- 
fornia in 1857. By this union were born four 
children, namely : Flora Lee, widow of the late 



Charles Johnson, of Reno, Nev. ; Jane, wife of 
Oscar Peterson, of Reno, Nev. ; James Henry, a 
ranchman and stock-raiser, of Surprise valley, 
Modoc county ; and Robert, of Reno, Nev. Po- 
litically Mr. Trimble was a Democrat, but never 
sought office. Fraternally he was a member of 
Hope Lodge No. 234, F. & A. M., of Beckwith. 
He died in Reno, Nev., March 17, 1906, and was 
buried with Masonic honors in Beckwith, 
mourned by his family and a host of friends. His 
widow, who survives him, makes her home with 
her daughter in Reno. 



ANTHONY OTTO. The family represented 
by this California pioneer of 1855 originated in 
Austria, where his grandfather, Mathias, was 
born and reared, and where he passed through 
the rigid military discipline of that empire. As 
a soldier in the army he went into Germany and 
was induced to establish his home in the prov- 
ince of Hessen-Nassau, where he passed the re- 
maining years of a busy life. In that province 
occurred the birth of Jacob, father of Anthony, 
and there he passed his entire active existence in 
the blacksmith's trade, eventually dying at the 
home place when eighty-two years of age. Dur- 
ing early manhocKl he had been united with Eliz- 
abeth Strite, a descendant of an ancient family 
of Germany and herself a native of that country, 
where she died in 1898, aged eighty-four years. 
Seven children were born of their union, and at 
this writing three daughters and two sons sur- 
vive, all in Germany, with the exception of An- 
thony, the second of the family and a native of 
Hessen-Nassau, born August 3, 1828. As soon 
as he was large enough to be of assistance, his 
father took him into the blacksmith shop and 
taught him the trade with the utmost thorough- 
ness, thus giving him the best of preparations 
for a lifetime of usefulness. 

On leaving the old home to seek a livelihood 
out in the world of toil and effort, Anthony Otto 
followe,! the general drift of emigration to Amer- 
ica and crossefl the ocean in a sailing vessel in 
1849. landing in New York, where, without any 
delay, he secured employment at his trade. For 





C'^-J'-Z.i^t? 




Cl2>^5---z-->-j</,?^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



481 



a time he was employed in the safe works of 
Silas E. Herrinof. where, and in other large ma- 
chine plants, he acquired a skilled knowledge of 
every detail of blacksmithing. machine work and 
engineering. The knowledge thus acquired has 
been of the utmost assistance to him in all of his 
subsequent business activities. After some years 
in New York he determined to settle on the Pa- 
cific coast, whose possibilities were at that time 
a general theme of conversation in the east. Dur- 
ing 1855 he came via Panama to San Francisco 
and from there proceeded to Eldorado county, 
where he engaged in prospecting and mining for 
si.x years without, however, scoring any very 
gratifying degree of success. 

After returning to San Francisco and spending 
three months at his trade in that city, Mr. Otto 
landed in ^'irginia City, Xev.. on the 1st of July, 
i860, and there secured work in the hanging of 
iron shutters, which proved so remunerative that 
it was possible for him to clear as much as $80 
per day. Xext he bought a blacksmith's shop 
and continued the business, besides his private 
trade having all the work for the Wells- Fargo 
Stage Company. In 1865 he came to Lassen 
county and bought a shop at Janesville, where 
he built up a large trade extending many miles 
in every direction. Some of his customers came 
from Susanville and it was upon their solicita- 
tion that he was induced to remove to this city 
in 1868, opening a shop and building up a large 
trade. Three times he lost his shop through 
fire, but each time he rebuilt a larger shop than 
before. Meanwhile he also conducted a cattle 
ranch for a time, but eventually disposed of the 
property. A stroke of paralysis in igoo left him 
somewhat enfeebled in health and he therefore 
sold his shop and retired from business, since 
which time he has passed his time quietly at his 
comfortable home in Susanville, in the possession 
of sufficient means to provide all the comforts of 
existence for his declining years. 

Two years after com.ing to .America Mr. Otto 
married in New York City Miss Magdalene 
Meyer, who was born in Alsace-Lorraine, Ger- 
many. Of the union there are five children, 
namely : .\lbert, now residing in Stockton ; Mrs. 
Emma LaSalle, of Marvsville : Mrs. Elizabeth 



Hamilton, of Honey Lake valley; Frederick, a 
blacksmith in Susanville ; and Charles, of Sacra- 
mento. During 1898 Mr. Otto enjoyed a pleas- 
ant trip back to Germany, where he visited his 
mother and those of his old friends who still re- 
mained in the land of his youth. The ties that 
bind him to the old Iwme and the scenes of his 
youth are strong, but stronger are those binding 
him to the country of his adoption and the scenes 
familiar to his mature years. He is a thorough 
patriot and a typical .American. In politics he 
supports the Republican party. After coming to 
the west he was made a Mason in Janesville 
Lodge, but now belongs to Lassen Lodge No. 
149, F. & .\. M.. also is a member of Lassen 
Chapter Xo. 47, R. A. M., and Lassen Com- 
mandery Xo. 13. K. T., and is a thorough be- 
liever in the noble principles of Masonry. 



JAMES HEXRY TRIMBLE. A man of ex- 
cellent ability and undoubted enterprise. James 
Henry Trimble occupies a noteworthy position 
among the extensive and prosperous agricultur- 
ists of Cedarville. .\ son of .Allen and Eliza- 
beth Trimble, he was born, June 20, 1865, at 
P>ear River, near Wheatland, Cal., and in this 
sunny land which gave him birth he has spent his 
life for the most part. 

Having completed the course oi study in the 
public schools, Joseph Henn.- Trimble attended 
the San Jose Xormal School for a while, after 
which he entered Heald's Business College, 
where he was graduated in 1884. The following 
two years he was employed as a bookkeeper in 
San Francisco, and then spent one summer as 
time keeper at a logging camp on Puget Sound. 
Returning to California, he worked as a farm 
hand for a time in the Sierra valley, Plumas 
county, and then bought a ranch, which he oper- 
ated until 1903. Coming then to Modoc county 
he purchased the Ehardt ranch, consisting . of 
four hundred and forty acres, and has since es- 
tablished a flourishing agricultural business. He 
makes a specialty of stock, grain and hay, having 
about forty-five acres devoted to alfalfa. 

In Mohawk \"allev, Plumas county, Cal., Mr. 



482 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Trimble married Elizabeth Jackson, who was 
born in that place, a daughter of Andrew Jack- 
son, an early pioneer of Plumas county, and into 
their household five children have been born, 
namely : Elizabeth Esther, May, Marie, Harriet 
and James Edward. Politically Mr. Trimble is 
a stanch Democrat. Fraternally he is a member 
of Surprise Valley Lodge No. 235, F. & A. M., 
and religiously he belongs to the Congregational 
Church at Sierra Valley. 



JAMES W. WEBSTER. Until recently Mr. 
Webster owned and occupied a well-kept ranch 
on the Middle Fork of Feather river, where he 
was profitably engaged in his chosen vocation, 
and ably maintained a good position among the 
prosperous and successful agriculturists of this 
part of Plumas county, his home of six hundred 
and forty acres being located about seven miles 
west of Beckwith. As a general rancher, he 
raised stock and carried on dairying until, in 
1906, he sold his ranch to the W. P. Railroad. 
In local alifairs he is quite prominent being now 
supervisor of the first district. A son of James 
Webster, he was born January 2, 1849, i" Rush- 
ford, Winnebago county. Wis., of substantial 
New England ancestry. 

A native of Massachusetts, and the descendant 
of an old colonial family, James Webster was 
reared and educated in his native state. Start- 
ing in life for himself, he went westward when 
young, setthng permanently as a farmer in 
Winnebago county, Wis., where he is still living, 
being now nearly ninety years of age. In his 
earlier years he was affiliated with the Repub- 
lican party, but is now a stanch Democrat in 
politics. He married Betsey Cary, who was born 
in Ohio, and died, at the age of fifty-nine years, 
in Wisconsin. 

Remainmg at home until attaining his major- 
ity, James W. Webster worked on the farm dur- 
ing the summer seasons, while in the winter time 
he engaged in logging. Starting life for himself 
in 1 87 1, he came to California, locating in Plumas 
county, and for five years thereafter worked for 
the Eureka Mining Company getting out timber. 



The ensuing two years he spent in the mining 
town of Jamison, Plumas county, as a butcher. 
Not liking the occupation very well he returned 
to the employ of the Eureka Mining Company, 
with which he was associated from the summer 
of 1878 until the spring of 1881, when he began 
driving a team for the saw-mill company. In 
1882 he bought a ranch of three hundred and 
twenty acres, forty of which was cleared, the 
remainder being hill and timber land. In ad- 
dition to managing his farm he also engaged in 
teaming, and later bought one hundred and sixty 
acres of adjoining land. In 1899 he gave up 
teaming, and the following year spent nine 
months in Alaska prospecting and mining, but 
with very unsatisfactory results. Returning to 
Plumas county, he rented land adjoining his own 
ranch and continued his agricultural labors there 
for three or more years. In 1904 he purchased 
the ranch on the Middle Fork of Feather river 
previously mentioned. This comprised a section 
of land, of which five hundred acres were in 
meadow and pasture, devoted to a dairy of thirty 
cows and to stock-raising, in both of which 
branches he was very successful. 

Politically Mr. Webster is a stanch adherent 
of the Republican party, and is an able and 
valued worker in the interests of the community 
in which he resides. Fraternally he is a member 
of Hope Lodge, No. 234, F. & A. M., of Beck- 
with, which he joined in 1878, and likewise be- 
longs to the Order of the Eastern Star. 



ORLO EDMUND WEMPLE. Of the many 
successful and progressive agriculturists of Las- 
sen county Orlo Ednunid Wemple, a wide-awake 
young man, in the prime of a vigorous manhood, 
is a worthy representative, his life record thus 
far being creditable to himself, and also to his 
good parents, wlio reared him in the paths of in- 
dustry and integrity, instilling into his youthful 
mind those lessons of truth, honesty and justice 
by which he is guided. A son of Joseph Craw- 
ford and Eliza J. (Giriste) Wemple, he was 
born in Milford, Lassen county, February 21, 
1877. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



485 



After completing his studies in the district 
school, Orlo Edmund Wemple assisted in the 
labors of the farm, under his father's instruction 
accjuiring- a valuable and practical knowledge of 
the various branches of agriculture. Continuing 
in the occupation with which he Ijecame so fa- 
miliar in his youth, he is still engaged in general 
farming and stock-raising, in company with his 
father and brothers carrying on a large ranch of 
fourteen hundred acres. 

September 12. 1899, ^Ir. Wemple married 
Erma Holland, a native of California, her birth 
having occurred in the Sacramento valley. Po- 
litically Mr. Wemple is a stanch supporter of the 
principles of the Democratic party and has ever 
evinced a warm interest in local progress and im- 
provements. Fraternally he is a member of 
Honey Lake Parlor No. 198, N. S. G. W., of 
Janesville. 



WILLL-\M HENRY CL.\RK. There are 
few among the residents of Lassen county who 
have been identified with its history for a longer 
period than that covered by Mr. Clark's asso- 
ciation with this region. As early as 1853, when 
he crossed the plains by way of the Platte river 
and down the Humboldt, he saw for the first 
time the locality since familiar to him, and for 
almost one-half century he has held the same 
place of residence, still owning three hundred 
acres which forms a part of the original sec- 
tion pre-empted by his father. The raising of 
stock, grain and hay occupies his time and at- 
tention, in addition to the running of a dairy, 
and he has been more than ordinarily fortunate 
in his undertakings as a farmer, stock-raiser and 
dairyman. The substantial house which he built 
in 1894, and which he now occupies, is one of the 
attractive homes of Honey Lake valley, and is 
the third house built on the same homestead. Be- 
sides his home place he owns one-half section of 
timber and grazing land in Plumas county. 

Newburgh on the Hudson, the well known old 
city in Orange county, N. Y., is Mr. Qark's 
birthplace, and the date of his birth is October 
10, 1836. His father, Nicholas, was born at 
Petersham, Worcester county, Mass., August 10, 



1816, and in youth learned the shoemaker's 
trade, but later followed the sea, and in tlie 
course of his voyages visited San Francisco in 
1843 for the first time. Again in 1846 he came 
to California as a marine in tlie navy, and dur- 
ing the same year aided in the attempted rescue 
of the unfortunate Donner part_\ . After an lion- 
orable service in the Mexican war, in recogni- 
tion of which lie afterwards received a pension 
until his death, he followed the shoemaker's 
trade in the city of Mexico, but finally returned 
to New York and from tliere went to Wisconsin, 
still working at his trade. Crossing the plains 
in 1853 he landed in Plumas county near Quincy, 
and from there came to Lassen county, in 1857 
locating the claim where his son, William Henry, 
now resides, and where he spent the remaining 
years of his life. Owing to ill health he went 
to San Francisco to secure needed medical treat- 
ment, but the change of climate and medical 
skill proved of no avail, and he died June 11, 
1892. The remains were brought to Lassen 
county and interred at Janesville, under the aus- 
pices of the janesville Lodge No. 232, F. & A. 
M., of which he was an active member. Travel 
in many regions had made him a man of broad 
knowledge and cosmopolitan impulses. When 
only thirteen years of age he ran away from 
home, and for a long period served in the navy, 
in which he traveled over almost the entire 
world, visiting all ports of prominence. His first 
wife, Mary, died when their son, William 
Henry, was a child of two and one-half years, 
and later he married Jane Hamilton, by whom he 
had a child that died at six years of age. Sub- 
sequently, on May 7, 1870, he married Lucy 
Gates, who died June 18, 1903. Politically he 
favored Republican principles and always voted 
for the men pledged to supixjrt the regular party 
platform. 

After having made his home in New York 
until 1849, Mr. Qark during that year accompa- 
nied his father and step-mother to Wisconsin, 
and in 1853 came with them to California, after- 
ward remaining with his father on the Lassen 
county homestead, which he inherited, and now 
owns. In 1864 he married Miss Lena Lyons, 
bv whom he had one child. Anna, now deceased. 



4se 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



In 1876 he was again married, his wife being" 
Mrs. Martha Gallagus, by whom he had two 
children, Edward and Lucy. After the death of 
Mrs. Martha Clark, he married Sarah Coyne in 
1886, and nine children were born of their union, 
namely : William, deceased ; Ottie, James, Es- 
ther, Timothy, Hiram, Anita, Chester and Ira. 
The family attend the Roman Catholic Church, 
of which Mrs. Clark is a faithful member. In 
politics Mr. Clark believes in Republican prin- 
ciples, while fraternally he holds membership 
with Janesville Lodge No. 232, F. & A. M. 
During his long residence in this locality he has 
witnessed many and remarkable changes. When 
he first came to this part of the state, few evi- 
dences of future civilization and prosperity ex- 
isted. Evil-doers were in abundance. Des- 
peradoes rendered perilous the lives of the true- 
hearted pioneers. In the subduing of this tur- 
bulent element he did his share, and no one de- 
serves more credit than does he for the trans- 
formation of Lassen county from a frontier re- 
gion filled with law-breakers to the abode of a 
peaceful, contented and prosperous citizenship. 



ALBERT S. NICHOLS. Because of the 
glowing reports sent back from the Pacific coast 
state Albert S. Nichols came to California in 
1866 and has never had cause to regret the step, 
from a youth barren of all promise of a future 
success save energy and determination having 
risen to a position of affluence and prominence 
among the citizens of this northern section. Of 
clean-cut. decisive style, his ambition has been 
equal to his talents and in spite of adversities, the 
trials and hardships incident to pioneer life in 
the early day, he has advanced steadily toward 
the position he now occupies, and nO' man is 
more justly entitled to the high regard in which 
he is universally held. 

Of Revolutionary stock on both sides of the 
house, Mr. Nichols was born in Hubbardston. 
Worcester county, Mass., November 15. 1843, hi^" 
father, Moses Nichols, being a native of the same 
kxaticn and the descendant of ancestors who set- 
tled with the Plymouth colony. The elder man 



engaged as a farmer throughout his entire life, 
whicli was passed in the Bay state, as was also 
that of hip wife, formerly Lucy Thompson, a 
native of Princeton, Mass. She is now eighty- 
eight years of age, and resides at Hubbardston, 
Alass. 

Albert S. was one of three children, two sons 
and one daugliter, and was the second in order of 
birth. After completing the common school 
course in the vicinity of his home he engaged in 
farming with his father and also drove a team, 
freighting for him until 1866. In that year he 
carried out his long cherished plan of immigrat- 
ing to California, making the journey via the 
Isthmus .of Panama and arriving in San Fran- 
cisco April I of that year. He immediately went 
to Howland flats and engaged in mining and 
teaming, remaining in that location until April 
I, 1869, when, with a partner, he went 
overland by mule-team to Nevada, as a 
result of the White Pine gold excite- 
ment, and there engaged in prospecting 
and teaming, the latter always being a lucra- 
tive occupation in those days. In December of 
the same year he came back to California via 
Reno, Wadsworth and Austin, in so doing pass- 
ing through the Sierra valley. In the spring of 
the following year he located in Sierraville. in the 
vicinity of which he has ever since remained. 
His first enterprise in this section was the estab- 
lishment of a fast freight line between Sierra- 
ville and Truckee, which he operated in partner- 
ship with L. Dolly. At the same time he estab- 
lished a general merchandise store in this city. 
After one year he purchased his partner's inter- 
est, shortl}' after which he took in another part- 
ner, George Wood, the two remaining together 
for the period of three years, when he again be- 
came sole owner of the enterprise. Until 1882 
he continued his dual operations of merchandis- 
ing and freighting, but in that year his store 
was destroyed by fire, and the two-story brick 
building which he had erected, the first in the 
valley, was also destroyed. Having no insur- 
ance on the property whatever, his loss amounted 
over $25,000, and he therefore decided not to in- 
vest in this enterprise again. 

In the spring of 1883 Mr. Nichols purchased 



\i 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



487 



tlie Pioneer raneh adjoining Sierravillc, consist- 
ing' at that time of four hundred acres, and be- 
gan raising stock, aUhongh he engaged in various 
other occupations during the years that followed. 
He conducted a stage line from Truckee to Sier- 
ravillc and .Sierra City, and one from Sierra- 
villc to Chat Station, also running a freight line 
over the same route, besides owning a meat mar- 
ket at Sierraville, still retaining his interest in 
the latter. The greater ])art of his time, how- 
ever, has been given to the development and im- 
provement of his rancli property, to which he 
has continued to add from time to time, until 
at this writing fourteen hundred acres are in- 
cluded in the Pioneer stock farm, besides which 
he has a range of three thousand acres in Ante- 
lope valley, where he pastures about six hundred 
head of cattle. He is also engaged in the im- 
portation of thoroughbred cattle and hogs, and 
raises both thoroughbred Herefords and Dur- 
hams. He claims the honor of being the first 
one to bring the celebrated Hereford white-faced 
cattle into the Sierra valley, and also the first 
Poland-China hogs from Iowa. He is also a 
large dealer and feeder of beef steers, and dur- 
ing the winter of 1905-1906 fed and shipped to 
the Sacramento and San Francisco markets over 
six hundred head of fine steers. 

Mr. Nichols also introduced many modern 
methods in business, and under the name of the 
Sierraville & Truckee Telephone Company, was 
instrumental, in 1877, in putting in the first tele- 
phone line in this section, connecting the two 
towns mentioned, a distance of twenty-eight 
miles. In 1887 he built the first steam creamery 
in this section of northern California, his inter- 
ests at that time being largely centered in a dairy 
business of one hundred and fifty cows. He is 
a stanch Republican in politics and although act- 
ive in his efliorts to advance the principles he 
endorses, has never cared personally for official 
recognition because of his many and engrossing 
business interests. He is a patriotic citizen and 
is liberal in his support of all movements cal- 
culated to advance the general welfare of the 
community, giving of both time and money. 

In Reno. Nev., in 1873. Mr. Nichols was 
united in marriage with Miss Christina llub- 



bartl, a native of Corinna, Me., and of the five 
children Ixjrii of this union, II. L. is interested in 
the Humphrey Supply Company of Reno, Nev.; 
May E. is deceased ; Grace L. is an educator in 
Sierraville; Dell L. is the wife of A. N. John- 
son of Randolph, Cal. ; and Edna T. is a book- 
keeper with her brother in Reno, Nev. Mrs. 
Nichols is a member of the Congregational 
church of Sierraville, both herself and husband 
being liberal supporters of all its charities. Fra- 
ternally Mr. Nichols is a member of Sierravillc 
1-odge No. 184. F. & A. M. ; Truckee Chapter 
No. 39, R. A. M. : and Nevada City Command- 
ery No. 6, K. T., and is prominent in the organ- 
ization. 



JOHN G. TOTTON. Ambitious, energetic 
and far-seeing, John G. Totton, of Clairville, 
has been actively identified with the industrial 
progress of Plumas county for many years. 
Laboring earnestly and diligently, he has ac- 
quired valuable property, and may well be classed 
with those honored citizens of the state who 
have in truth carved out their own fortunes 
bv active use of their brains and hands. A 
native of the dominion of Canada, he was born, 
.\ugust 20, 1852, in Nova Scotia. His father, 
Amos Totton, who was of Scotch descent, spent 
his entire life of thirty-four years in Nova Scotia, 
being engaged in farming and lumbering. His 
wife, who survived him, d_\ing at the age of 
forty-five years, was born in Nova Scotia, of 
Irish descent, her father having been a native 
of the north of Ireland. 

liut three years of age when his father died, 
John G. Totton was doubly bereft when but 
eleven years old by the death of liis mother, 
r.eing left practically with no one to depend 
upon for his support, he began life for himself 
by working on a farm throughout seed time and 
harvest, until eighteen years old attending school 
during the winter terms. Immigrating then to 
New England, he went to Waltham, Mass., where 
he w-as emjjloyed as a street car driver for five 
vears. With the money that he thus earned, 
he came, in 1877, to the Pacific coast, and for 
a little more than a year worked in the woods. 



488 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



first in Milford. Lassen county, and then in 
Sierra county. Coining then to Phunas county, 
he located in what is now Clairville, and was 
here engaged in ranching and Uunbering for two 
or three years. Purchasing then, in company 
with Solomon Otis, a small mill, he engaged in 
the manufacture of lumber on a modest scale. 
Four or five years later these gentlemen closed 
down the mill, and Mr. Totton again worked 
for wages. In 1893 the mill was re-opened, 
with an increased capacity, and Messrs. Totton 
and Otis operated it for seven years, carrying 
on a small business. In 1900, John Creighton 
being admitted to the firm, they built a mill 
with a capacity of thirty thousand feet a day, 
and continued under the name of J. G. Totton 
& Co. for five years. In 1905 this company dis- 
posed of their mill and their timber lands, sell- 
ing out everything, Mr. Totton closing out the 
entire business in the fall of that year. He has 
been very successful in his dealings, accumulat- 
ing property, and on the three town lots that he 
owns in Reno, Xev., he has built two residences 
to rent. He is also interested in gold mining 
near Goldfield, being interested in the Little 
George mine and other mining properties m 
Nevada. 

Politically Mr. Totton is a sound Republican 
in national affairs, but in home matters is in- 
dependent, voting for the best men and measures. 
Fraternally he united with Hope Lodge No. 234, 
F. & A. M., of Beckwith in 1889, and has since 
been a loyal member of that organization. 



WILLIAM E. REES is the son of Rev. Cyrus 
W. Rees, a name well known in the annals of 
the Baptist church of northern California and 
Nevada, for it is the name of one of the fore- 
most in the vanguard of Christian workers in 
this section of the country. He was a man so 
thoroughly devoted to the cause that he gave no 
thought to his own comfort, convenience or re- 
ward when the voice called him to carry on the 
Master's work. His life is a record of the itin- 
erancy of a minister of the gospel in the early 
days. A native of Indiana, born in 1827, he 



graduated from the theological department of 
the Baptist college of Kalamazoo, Mich. His 
ambition was to devote his life to missionary 
work, for which he was peculiarly fitted. He 
had applied for appointment as missionary and 
had been accepted by the boatd, but owing to 
lack of fundi they were not able to carry out 
their plans and Mr. Rees entered the ministry. 
In i860 he was in charge of a church at Peta- 
luma, Cal., and the following year was in Ne- 
vada, preaching the first Baptist sermons ever 
heard in Virginia City, Carson, Dayton, Silver 
City and Fort Churchill. In 1862 he came to 
Loyalton, acting in the capacity of semi-mission- 
ary and doing pastoral work for the Sacramento 
and Eastern Association. In 1865 he was at 
Eugene City, Ore., in charge of a church. In 
1869 he went to the Dalles, Ore., as pastor of a 
church and preached there three years, during 
which time he had the misfortune to lose his 
wife. Later he went to Forest Grove, Ore., 
there serving as pastor of a church foT two or 
three years, when he went to Ellensburg and 
Roslyn, Wash., and during his pastorate at the 
latter place he died June 17, 7888, at the age of 
sixty-one years. He is said to have organized 
more churches than any other one man on the 
Pacific coast. He was naturally a student, and 
was a frequent contributor to church periodicals, 
charts, etc. He organized the Baptist church at 
Loyalton. 

The wife of Cyrus \Y. Rees was Mary Abigail 
Lewis, daughter of Hiram Lewis, who came of 
a family well known in this section of country. 
She was Ixjrn in Cass county. Mo., November 
21, 1844, and was nine years old when her par- 
ents located near Healdsburg, Sonoma county, 
Cal. When she was eleven years of age she 
united with the Baptist church. She was edu- 
cated at Healdsburg Academy and was an ex- 
ceptionally bright and promising' student, win- 
ning medals, a scholarship and a Webster's Dic- 
tionary in the several school contests in which 
she took part. She is remembered as a fine 
singer, having a well-cultivated voice. She was 
married to Mr. Rees November 21, i860, and 
died November i, 1882, at the Dalles, Ore. She 
was an exemplary woman, an active Christian 




KOIJKKI M. IxiUi.EV 




MRS. BARBARA G. UOOLEV 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RKCORD. 



4!t3 



worker, and a devoted mother to her ci^hl chil- 
dren, five sons and three danghters. 

William E. Rees, the third son in the family, 
was born at the Lewis ranch in Lovalton, Sep- 
tember 24, 1867, and lived there nntil he was 
eight years of age. He attended the public 
schools at Dalles, Ore., and between the age of 
sixteen and eighteen attended the McMinnville 
Baptist College at McMinnville, Ore. When his 
older brothers went into business for themselves 
he went with them to near H(q)pncr, Ore., and 
after remaining tliere for a short time, returned 
to the family at Forest Grove. His mother had 
died and his father was away from home much 
of the time and he did what he could to keep the 
family together, working during his vacations at 
anything he could find to do. He was nineteen 
years old when he returned to Loyalton and went 
to work on his grandfather Lewis' ranch, con- 
tinuing in his assistance in supporting and caring 
for his sisters until they all had homes of their 
own. His older sister, Mrs. Marchbanks, losing 
her husband, he brought her and her two chil- 
dren from Oregon and made a home for them at 
Lewis Mill until she married again, to W. E. 
Langdon, of Loyalton. In 1888 he took a band 
of horses for the Lewises to Oregon to handle 
on shares. After about eight months he returned 
to Loyalton and went to work teaming and farm- 
ing until the winter of 1889-90, when he attended 
business college in San Francisco. After finish- 
ing his course he returned to Loyalton and 
worked at teaming in the Loyalton Lumber Com- 
pany's mill for two or three years, then went to 
Verdi to look after the company's interests, re- 
maining there seven years. After that he man- 
aged the store for the Loyalton Lumber Co. at 
Lewis mills. During this time, in company with 
his brother, Jesse S., and H. B. Neville, the Loy- 
altanian was started. Mr. Rees took the field 
work, securing advertisements and subscriptions, 
and helped run the paper until 1903, when he and 
his brother sold out their interest in it. With 
Lewis Brothers he then engaged in the real es- 
tate business, buying acreage, subdividing and 
platting additions to the town of Loyalton, and 
nearly all the lots in the residence part of the 
town were sold bv them. During the two years 



he acted as manager of the business he was also 
collector for the Loxalton Water Company, and 
in 1904 became train ilispatcher for the Boca & 
Loyalton Railroad. 

Xovember 27. 1896, while living at Verdi, Mr. 
Rees married Miss Xina Louise Robinson, 
daughter of Henry H. Robinson, of Loyalton, 
whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. 
They have a family of two daughters: Gladys 
Marion and \era Louise. Mr. and Mrs. Rees 
are members of the F)a])tisl church, Mr. Rees 
uniting with that body when he was nineteen 
years old. Both are actively engaged in church 
work, organizing the Baptist church at \'erdi, 
and later being instrumental in building the 
church at that place, besides organizing the 
Christian Endeavor Society, etc. Mr. Rees has 
been superintendent of the Sunday school here 
since its organization, and is a sub-deacon and 
treasurer of the church. In politics he is inde- 
pendent. He is one of the founders of the Sierra 
X'alley Bank in Loyalton and has been associated 
with Lewis Brothers in business more or less for 
several years. Mr. Rees has seen life from sev- 
eral different points of view, has risen to his 
present position in life through his own energy 
and industry. Whatever advantage he has 
gained he has well earned. 



ROBERT M. DOOLEY. Worthy of es- 
pecial mention in this volume is Robert M. Doo- 
ley of Long \'alley. a veteran agriculturist, and a 
fine representative of the pioneer settlers of Las- 
sen county. Pre-empting a tract of wild land 
near Doyle station forty or more years ago, he 
latored untiringly, and after years of incessant 
toil and skill has redeemed from its primitive 
wildness a valuable and productive ranch, on 
which he is spending the declining years- of his 
life in plenty, peace and comfort. .-X \'irginian 
by liirth. he was born in Frederick county, No- 
vember 20. 1832, of French ancestry, his great- 
grandfather having emigrated from France to 
the United States in colonial times. His father, 
Micajah Dooley, married Elenora Elmore, who 
survived him. He served as a i)rivate in tlie war 



494 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



of 1812, after which he returned to his \irginia 
home, and resided there until his death, in 1838. 

Left fatherless at the age of six years, Robert 
M. Dooley Hved with his mother until twenty 
years old. Starting westward in 1852, he pro- 
ceeded to Ohio, from there continuing his jour- 
ney to Iowa. Subsequently crossing the plains 
with ox-teams he settled in Albany, Ore., where 
he resided a year. Coming then to California 
he was employed in mining pursuits for about 
three years, meeting with some success in his 
undertakings. On the uprising of the Indians 
he enlisted in Company C, California Troops, 
and for ninety days served as a private in the 
Modoc war. Subsequently returning by way of 
the Isthmus and New York City to his old 
home in Iowa he engaged in farming and brick 
making in Henry county, continuing there until 
1864. Coming again to California in that year 
he located in Long Valley, one mile west of 
Doyle, near what is now called Doyle Station. 
Pre-empting one hundred and sixty acres of 
land, he at once began its improvement, and has 
since beeit profitably employed in general farm- 
ing and stock raising on his well-kept and well- 
cultivated ranch. 

December 21, 1859, in Henry county, Iowa, 
Mr. Dooley married Barbara Gardner, who was 
born in Hamburg, Ontario, May i, 1840, a 
daughter of Christ and Anna (Ross) Gardner. 
Her parents were both natives of Hesse, Ger- 
many, emigrating froiu the Fatherland when 
young and settling in Canada, where they mar- 
ried, afterwards settling on a farm. Mrs. Gard- 
ner died when Barbara was a child of eight 
years, and five years later this little girl went to 
Iowa, and from that time until her marriage re- 
sided in Henry county. She died on the home 
place February 20, 1906, at the age of sixty-five 
years, nine months and nineteen days. Of the 
union of Mr. and Mrs. Dooley five children were 
born, namely : Mary E., George W., Ida, Eva 
and Jacob M. Mary E. Dooley, the first born, 
married for her first husband Silas M. Roberts, 
who died, leaving her with four children, name- 
ly : Margaret E., Charles M., Morris E., and Ag- 
nes D. Her second marriage was with Edward 
Hilden of Milford, and they have one child, Les- 



lie \'. Ida, the twin sister of Eva, died at the 
age of six months. Eva is the wife of W. E. 
Minard of Sparks, Nev. George W., the second 
born, and Jacob M., the youngest child, are 
farming in partnership, having purchased in 
1900 a ranch of four hundred and eighty acres, 
lying one and one-half miles north of Constantia, 
where they are carrying on a large and lucrative 
business as stock raisers and general farmers. 
Politically Mr. Dooley was formerly a Whig, 
and is now a strong Democrat. Religiously he is 
a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, as was his wife also during her lifetime. 



GEORGE FREELAND HUSTON RICE. 
Especially deserving of mention in this volume 
is George F. H. Rice, a pioneer settler of Round 
\'alley, and one of its most highly esteemed and 
respected citizens. He arrived in this section 
when a large proportion of the soil of Modoc 
county was in its primeval condition, and while 
the rude dwellings of the first settlers were widely 
scattered. The little hamlet of Round Valley 
gladly welcomed within its precincts every man 
who was blessed with ambition and brains, under 
which category Mr. Rice was at once placed, 
and in which he proved himself equal to the de- 
mands made upon him. Beginning as a farmer 
on a modest scale, he has labored judiciously, 
and is now one of the extensive landholders of 
the valley. A son of Charles and Sarah (Lett) 
Rice, he was born, January 23, 1834, in Camp- 
bell county, Tenn., and at the age of two years 
was taken to Missouri, where his mother died. 
His father subsequently moved to Oregon, where 
he spent the remainder of his life. 

Brought up on a farm in Missouri, George F. 
H. Rice there obtained his early education in the 
district schools. In 1850 he crossed the plains 
with his father, locating in Oregon, where he 
remained for nineteen vears. Coming to Cali- 
fornia in 1869, he settled in Modoc county, tak- 
ing up his residence at Round Valley on July 4. 
He pre-empted and homesteaded three hundred 
and twenty acres of wild land, and in its improve- 
ment met with satisfactory results. He has since 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RKCORD. 



495 



made wise investments in land, his ranch now 
containing fourteen hundred acres, and in point 
of improvements and appliances being one of the 
best in the valley. He has carried on general 
farming most successfully, raising large annual 
crops of hay, grain and the products common to 
this locality, and has taken an especial interest in 
stock-raising. He has accumulated much wealth 
as a rancher, and is now living somewhat re- 
tired from active pursuits, enjoying a well-earned 
leisure from the activities of life. 

July 4, 1855, in Oregon, Mr. Rice married 
Martha Ann Breeden, who was born in Iowa, 
and came across the plains with her parents in 
1854. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Rice si.x 
children were born, four of whom are living, 
namely : Qiarles W., Thomas Jefiferson, Mary 
B. and Martha Jane. Charles W. Rice, the old- 
est child, born in Linn county, Ore., April 24, 
1856, came with his parents to Modoc county, 
and is now prosperously engaged in farming at 
Round \'alley, having a valuable ranch of five 
hundred acres. He married, in February, 1886, 
Emma Derr, a native of Oregon, and they have 
six children living, Christopher, Francis, Ru- 
dolph, Frank, Mahlon and Ross. He is a Demo- 
crat in politics, a member of the Masonic order, 
and both he and his wife are members of the 
Order of the Eastern Star. 

Thomas Jefferson Rice, born in Linn county. 
Ore., January 24, i860, is one of the leading 
agriculturists of Round \'alley, having a fine 
ranch containing five hundred and twenty acres 
of land. He married, in July, 1889, Berriller 
McCluer, who was born in Illinois, and when 
but six months old was brought across the plains 
to California by her parents. She has borne her 
husband eight children, namely : William, 
George, Lilly, May, Rosa, Frederick, Clarence 
and Mar}-. He. like his older brother, is a 
Mason, belonging to .Adin Lodge No. 250, F. & 
A. M. 

Mary B. Rice married Frederick Cutzman. ot 
Modoc county, and they are the parents of one 
child, Clara. Martha Jane Rice married, No- 
vember 17, 1895, William Nelson Smith, who 
was born June 10, 1869, in Texas, a son of Jesse 
and Marv Elizabeth (Roberts) Smith. Coming 



to California in i8«;o, Mr. Smith resided for three 
years at Red lilufT, and in 1893 settled at Round 
\ alley, where he has since been successfully em- 
ployed in farming and stock-raising. Four chil- 
dren were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. 
Smith, namely: Mary Juniata; Finetta Belle, de- 
ceased; Sadie Frances, deceased; and Alice Ro- 
berta. Politically Mr. Rice is a stanch Democrat. 
He is a man of influence, and a sttjckhoider in 
the I5ig \alley Co-operative Association. 



JOHN HARDGRAVE. Closely associated 
with the early history of Plumas county is the 
name of the late John Hardgrave, one of its hon- 
ored pioneers and enterprising ranchmen. Of 
Canadian birth and parentage, he was born near 
Port Hope April 30, i8i5,_and passed the years 
of youth in the schoolroom and on the farm. 
After leaving school at the age of fourteen years 
he secured work as clerk in a store and continued 
in the same position until he was twenty-one, 
when he crossed into the States and spent a few 
months at Buffalo, N. Y. Next he went to 
Michigan and secured work as a mason at Ann 
Arbor, from which cit\ he removed soon to 
Plymouth, Wayne county, same state. Buying a 
right to build cisterns in four counties, he took 
up W'Ork in this special line. After his marriage 
he became proprietor of a hotel at Plymouth. 
Three years later he removed to Jackson, Mich., 
where he engaged in the hotel business about 
twelve years. 

Life in Michigan was not entirely satisfactory 
and prospects were not encouraging, so Mr. 
Hardgrave decided to seek a home in the newer 
west. In the spring of 1852 he traveled by rail- 
road to Chicago and there took up the journey 
overland toward the west as a member of an ex- 
pedition numbering seventy wagons, three of 
which he owned, together with horse teams and 
mules. When the party arrived at Council Bluffs, 
Iowa, there were alx)ut one Inindred men in the 
train, and the large Ixxly moved slowly forward 
under the leadership of Captain Blood, an old 
mountaineer, who prevented them from encoun- 
tering any trouble with the Indians. While in 



496 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Little Grass valley twelve horses owned by Mr. 
Hardgrave died in one night. As all were val- 
uable, the loss was a heavy one for him, and he 
had but four horses and one mule left for his 
three wagons. Others of the party came to his re- 
lief and enabled him to get his supplies in safety to 
Marysville, where in October, 1852, they camped 
on the present site of the courthouse. After one 
month of camp life he removed to a ranch of one 
hundred and sixty acres twelve miles north of 
Marysville, where he carried on ranching and 
kept a road house for twelve years. Meanwhile 
he had purchased a claim, but afterward found 
that a part of the land was still owned by the 
government, and he therefore was obliged to 
pay for it twice. The ranch was improved under 
his painstaking labor and a house of two stories 
was built, forming an unusually substantial res- 
idence for those days. Expenses were high and 
provisions brought fancy prices, butter being $1 
per pound, and other products in proportion. 

Renting the ranch near Marysville in 1864 Mr. 
Hardgrave came to Plumas county and bought 
the hotel at Taylorsville, to which he built an ad- 
dition and made various improvements. After 
having conducted a hotel business there for two 
years he sold his ranch in Yuba county and 
bought eight hundred acres in Indian valley, the 
larger part of which is quite valuable and well 
adapted for the raising of general farm products. 
In politics he voted with the Democrats. At no 
time would he consent to hold public office, and 
though he was elected supervisor in Yuba county 
he refused to qualify. However, he always aid- 
ed such of his friends as were candidates for 
office and was a stanch party man. In religion 
he was of the Congregational faith and a con- 
tributor to that church. At seventy-seven years 
of age, April 7, 1892, he quietly passed from the 
scenes of time, mourned by family and friends to 
whom his manly qualities and high principles had 
endeared him. 

The marriage of Mr. Hardgrave occurred 
April II, 1840, and united him with Miss Diana 
Tiles, who was born in Wayne county, N. Y., and 
in girlhood accompanied relatives to Wayne coun- 
ty, Mich., where she was reared and married. 
With her husband and three small children she 



crossed the plains in 1852 and then assisted in 
the management of a hotel until her husband's 
death, after which she aided her son in the same 
business. In 1896 she disposed of her interest in 
the hotel to her son and moved to Salinas, Mon- 
terey county, but a year later returned to Plumas 
county and bought a residence at Quincy, where 
she and her youngest child, Sarah Ann, now 
make their home. Her oldest child, who also 
bore the name of Sarah Ann, died at the age of 
two years and three months; the second child, 
Cornelia, died March 17, 1901 ; and the third, 
William, who was manager of the Taylorsville 
hotel as well as a ranch, died January 8, 1902, 
since which time his widow and sons have con- 
tinued his interests. Though Mrs. Hardgrave is 
now eighty-three years of age she retains her 
physical and mental faculties and is remarkably 
active for one so advanced in years. Blessed with 
excellent eyesight, she can read the papers with 
ease and can even do difficult needle work and 
fancy work requiring a trained and accurate 
vision. In her age she is tenderly cared for by 
her only surviving child, with whom she lives in 
comfort, in the enjoyment of all that adds to the 
happiness of existence. 



ANDREW T. CLAYBURG. Standing high 
among the capable and systematic farmers, 
stockmen and dairymen of Lassen county who 
have met with undisputed success as agricultur- 
ists is Andrew Clayburg, living near Milford, 
where he is actively employed in general farm- 
ing. Taking possession of his land while it was 
yet in its primitive condition, he courageously be- 
gan its improvement, and by the exercise of his 
native industry atid his able business capacity he 
has rendered it one of the most productive es- 
tates in the neighborhood, having much of the 
land fenced and under cultivation, with other im- 
provements of an excellent character. He was 
born September 21, 1866, in Norway, where his 
parents, Torger and Karen (Michaelson) Clay- 
burg, have always lived. 

Having obtained a common school education 
in the schools of Norwav, Andrew T. Clavburg 




"^^ /^ g^zl^^/^. 



'^^Xj 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



499 



began the struggle of life when but sixteen years 
of age. Immigrating to America, the poor man's 
paradise, in 1882, he worked for a year in Fill- 
more county. Minn. From 1883 until 1892, he 
was similarly employed in Astoria, Ore. Prudent 
in his expenditures, and wise in his savings, Mr. 
Claybnrg accumulated some money and in look- 
ing for a place in which to locate permanently 
came to Lassen county. Settling in Honey Lake 
valley, not far from Milford, he filed upon his 
present place, taking up a homestead claim of one 
hundred and sixty acres, which he now owns and 
occupies. By dint of judicious labor he has 
cleared a large part of it from the native sage 
brush with which it was covered ; has fenced near- 
]\- all of it : put up a good house and barns ; and 
has sixty acres of alfalfa now growing. He raises 
considerable hay. and is profitably engaged in 
dairying and stock-raising, meeting with most 
satisfactory succes., '-if undertakings. 

In Astoria, Ore.. Mr. Qayburg married Mary 
Ellingson. who was born in Norway, and came 
with her parents. John and Ann (Thompson) El- 
lingson, to America in 1880. locating first in Fill- 
more county, Minn., and five years later remov- 
ing to Astoria. She is a sister of John Ellingson, 
Jr., of whom a sketch may be found elsewhere in 
this volume. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Clay- 
burg one child has been born, Thomas, whose 
birth occurred in Astoria. Politically Mr. Clay- 
burg is a stanch adherent of the Republican party. 



WILLIAM MARION COTTINGHAM. 
There is no finer farm within the limits of Indian 
valley than the dairy and stock ranch lying four 
miles from Taylorsville and owned by William 
M. Cottingham, who ranks among the progress- 
ive and prominent ranchers of Plumas county. 
The nucleus of the present property was pur- 
chased by him in 1870, when he bought a quarter 
section, and to this he has added from time to 
time, until now the ranch embraces two hundred 
and fifty acres of fertile valley land, bearing the 
best mnprovements the owner's labor and means 
can provide. The residence, erected under his 
personal oversight, aflfords comfortable and 



ample accommodations for the family, while his 
three large and substantial barns give adequate 
facilities for the storage of grain and shelter of 
stock and machinery. Dairying is one of his spe- 
cialties and his herd of forty cows brings him a 
handsome profit each year in return for his in- 
telligent care, with the assistance of his practical 
dairyman. In addition to his home place he 
at one time owned a half interest in a sawmill 
and four hundred acres of timber land near 
(ireenville. 

Coles county, Hi., is .Mr. Cottingham 's native 
place, and December 30. 1844, the date of his 
hirth. In the sketch of his brother, James W., 
on another page, will be found the family record.' 
\\\Kn tile parents crossed the plains in 1864 Will- 
iam M. was a young man of twenty, sturdy, 
self-reliant and helpful, and he being the eldest 
child was looked to by his father as the principal 
assistant in the family's support. After settling 
in the Indian valley he and his father bought one 
hundred and sixty acres and undertook the im- 
provement of the property, but the father had 
long been a sufferer from inflammatory rheuma- 
tism and the son therefore felt the responsibility 
resting upon his young shoulders. In fact, from 
the age of fourteen he had been the mainstay of 
the home, and after his younger brother and sis- 
ters married he still remained with his parents, 
caring for them until they died. It was not until 
1885 that he established domestic ties of his own. 
at which time he married Miss Mary M. Tliomp- 
son. daughter of Richard Thompson. Mrs. Cot- 
tingham was born on the plains in Wyoming 
when her parents were e^i route to California 
and she grew to womanhood in Indian valley, 
which has been her lifelong home. In the w<irk 
of building up their home place she has been of 
the greatest aid to her husband and her counsel 
and encouragement have stimulated him in his 
painstaking labors on the ranc,h. I5y precept and 
example both encourage the work of temperance 
and. while he usually votes the Democratic ticket. 
yet in local matters he gives his influence for the 
Prohibition cause and is known as a consistent 
temperance worker. Twice the Democrats have 
placed him in nomination for office, once as as- 
sessor and another time as supervisor, but the 



500 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



county is strongly Republican, and he suffered 
defeat with others on the ticket. Whatever of 
financial success has come to him may be attrib- 
uted to energetic application and unwearied in- 
dustry, supplemented by the sympathetic help of 
a capable wife. 



JAMES H. PEARCE. At the upper end of 
the Sierra valley lie the Campbell Hot Springs, 
which since 1887 have been owned and operated 
by James H. Pearce an(J which are attracting 
each season an increasing number of people from 
a distance desirous of enjoying the beneficial 
effects of the waters. The location leaves nothing 
to be desired as to picturesqueness. Immediately 
beyond the valley lie the sheltering mountains 
covered with their great forests of pine. Springs 
having their source in the hills flow through the 
valley land and not only beautify and render 
fertile the soil through which they pass, but also 
furnish water possessing curative properties in 
the treatment of certain diseases. At the time 
of its purchase by the present owner the ranch 
comprised three hundred and twenty acres, but 
he has added to the property until now it consists 
of seven hundred and twenty acres, of which three 
hundred and seventy-five acres are in the valley 
and the remainder in timber. Under his super- 
vision various improvements have been made, so 
that the Springs now rank, not only among the 
oldest, but also among the best health and sum- 
mer resorts in northern California, the hot springs 
being the especial attraction from a health stand- 
point. Bathhouses have been built and two large 
buildings with three cottages capable of accom- 
■ modating eighty guests. IModern conveniences 
are to be found here. The Springs are of easy 
access to travelers, being only one and one-quar- 
ter miles from Sierraville. The land produces 
an abundance of vegetables for the summer 
guests, while the herd of dairy cows provide 
plenty of milk, so that the table is amply supplied 
with healthful foods, and under the management 
of the landlord the hotel is operated satisfactorily 
to the guests, whose comforts are enhanced by 
his wise super\dsion. 

Of Californian birth and English lineage. 



James H. Pearce was born at Brownsville, Yuba 
county, November 22, 1856, being a son of James 
Pearce, .Sr., who crossed the ocean from England 
in 1849 ^"cl by way of the Nicaragua route soon 
afterward landed in California, where he followed 
the blacksmith's trade and also owned and 
operated a mine at Brownsville. Removing to 
the Grass Valley in 1857, he engaged in mining 
there until his death at forty-four years. After 
having attended the schools of Grass Valley for 
a brief period, at the age of fourteen years James 
H. Pearce began to learn the machinist's trade 
and five years later he went to San Francisco 
for the purpose of working at his chosen occu- 
pation. Three years later he removed to Amador 
county and secured work in a shop. Later he 
came to Sierra City and for five and one-half 
years he was emnloyed in this part of the state 
at his trade. Retiring from that occupation in 
1887, he purchased the Campbell Hot Springs 
and ranch, to the improvement of which he has 
devoted his attention with a gratifying degree 
of success. His long experience in building up 
the resort has given him a broad knowledge of 
the needs of the traveling public and he possesses 
the information requisite to the satisfactory super- 
vision of his health and summer resort, whose 
increasing popularity is bringing each summer 
a large number of people from other parts of the 
state, attracted hither by the springs and also 
b_\' the delightful climate and picturesque scenery. 



FREDERICK E. BUSH. Notwithstanding 
the fact that the Surprise Valley Bank is among 
the most recent of the banking institutions es- 
t.ablished in northern California, it already has 
gained prestige as one of the most substantial 
and deserving of the patronage of the people. 
Organized as a result of the intelligent and en- 
ergetic efforts of Mr. Bush, it was o]>ened for 
business in March of 1905, with a capital stock 
of $25,000, and since then has been conducted 
ably by a corps of officers, including Mr. Bush 
as cashier. The bank makes a specialty of loans 
and discounts, all of which are negotiated with 
keen judgment and protected by the best of 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



)01 



personal or real-estate securities, so that the in- 
terests of the stockholders arc conserved, while 
at the same time those seeking accommodations 
of such a nature find the hank ever readv to meet 
their temporary needs. During 1906 the Iiank 
intends huilding a modern hrick huilding, cost- 
ing ahout $S,ooo and equipped with modern ap- 
pliances for the conduct of their growing husi- 
ness. 

Tlie cashier of the bank is a native of Johnson 
county, Iowa, born June 26, 1876, being a son of 
Amos and May (Pratt) Bush. Primarily edu- 
cated in the grammar schools of Iowa, he was a 
youth of seventeen years when, in 1893, he ac- 
companied his mother (now a resident of Berke- 
ley, Cal.) to the western coast. After a summer 
spent in Surprise valley, Modoc county, he went 
to Goose Lake valley and secured work on a farm 
by the month, remaining in the same locality for 
five years. At the expiration of that time he 
came to Alturas and secured employment as a 
clerk, and later as bookkeeper in the Co-operative 
store, where he continued to hold a responsible 
position until he resigned to assist in the organi- 
zation of the Surprise Valley Bank, a state insti- 
tution, with which he is now identified as stock- 
holder and officer. 

In 1905 Mr. Bush established a home of his 
own, his wife being Miss Bessie Fitzgerald, a 
popular young lady of Alturas. .-Xn intelligent 
student of public questions, he believes in Re- 
publican principles and gives his stanch alle- 
giance to that party. In matters of a fraternal 
nature he has no especial connection except with 
the Knights of Pythias, in which he has been an 
active worker with the Alturas Lodge. 



CLAUS PETERS. Conspicuous among the 
energetic and enterprising pioneers of Surprise 
valley who came here to engage in farming and 
stock-raising, none met with more assured suc- 
cess than the late Claus Peters. Taking up a 
tract of land covered for the most part with 
sage brush and willows, he immediately began 
its improvement, and by dint of energy and dili- 
gence brought the land to a good state of cultiva- 



tion, erected a substantial set of farm buildings, 
rendering his estate productive and valuable. 
With the assistance of his wife, he set out nearly 
all of the trees in the beautiful grove near his 
residence, and in their rapid growth took great 
pride and pleasure. Thrown upon his resources 
when young, he acquired success through his 
own efforts, easily earning the honored title of a 
self-made man. He was born February 13. 1856, 
in Holstein, Germany, the land of sturdy habits, 
and died December 14, 1904, on his home farm, 
near Cedarville. 

Acquiring an excellent education in his native 
country, Claus Peters immigrated to the United 
States when a young man, locating in Iowa, 
where he worked at the carpenter's trade to .some 
extent, but was more extensively engaged in 
farming and teaming. Thinking to improve his 
financial condition, he came to California, cross- 
ing the plains with W. T. Cressler, with whom 
he formed a copartnership, and was for a time 
engaged in farming and stock-raising in Tehama 
in the Sacramento valley. Alx)ut 1877 he located 
permanently in Surprise valley. Buying three 
hundred and twenty acres of land that was prac- 
tically in its primitive condition, he began the 
pioneer labor of clearing and improving a ranch. 
He afterwards sold eighty acres of his jjurchase, 
but the remainder of it he devoted to the raising 
of stock, grain and ha\-, in course of time be- 
coming numbered among the most prosperous 
and respected agriculturists of this .section of 
Modoc county. L'ntil about a year ago his farm, 
lying one and one-half miles southeast of the 
village of Cedarville. was owned by his widow 
and son. who managed it with exceptionally good 
financial results until Septcml>er. 1905. when 
they sold it and moved to Cedarville. here erect- 
ing the home they now occupy. Politically Mr. 
Peters was a steadfast supjjorter of the principles 
of the Republican party, and took an active in- 
terest in the welfare of town and county, espe- 
cially contributing his share towards advancing 
the cause of education. 

September 3. 1882, Mr. Peters married Mrs. 
Elizabeth W'yiie. A daughter of Oliver and 
Mary (Hobbs) Stephenson, she was lx)rn in On- 
tario, Canada, but was brought up and educated 



502 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



in Vermont. When through school she moved 
with her parents to Iowa, settHng in Story 
county, where both her father and mother died. 
Slie there became the wife of F. D. Wylie, who 
(Hed, leaving her with four children, namely : 
Minnie, wife of John Metzker, of Cedarville ; 
Nellie, wife of Clarence Phillips, of Cedarville; 
Mary, now Mrs. Parker, resides in Plumas 
county ; and Lura, wife of William Kirk, of Sher- 
wood, Cal. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Peters 
one child was born, Harold C, who had charge 
of the home ranch and its mangement until it 
was sold. 



JOHN HEIRO COTINELL. A substantial 
and prosperous agriculturist, and a respected 
citizen of Susanville, John Heiro Cornell has 
been an miportant factor in developing and ad- 
vancing the farming and stock-raising interests 
of northern California, his abilities in this direc- 
tion being recognized and appreciated. He has 
the distinction of being a native of the state, his 
birth having occurred November 28. 1858, near 
Knights Landing, Yolo county, on the farm of 
his father, the late H. K. Cornell. 

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, H. K. Cornell learned 
the trade of a ship carpenter, and followed it 
when young. In 1850 he joined tlie gold hunters, 
coming with ox-teams across the plains to the 
Pacific coast. After mining for a short time, he 
settled in Yolo county, becoming a pioneer, and 
for a number of years was there employed in 
stock-raising and grain farming. Coming to 
Susanville in 1863, he purchased the farm now 
owned and occupied by his son John Heiro, and 
continued his agricultural labors. He also owned 
what is now Halltown, and had title to various 
other' ranches, making a business of trading 
ranches. Disposing of all his land in this lo- 
cality in 1876, he removed with his stock to 
Modoc county, where he resided for some 'time. 
Subsequently returning to Susanville, he spent 
his remaining days here, 'dying at the age of 
seventy-five years. His wife, w^hose maiden 
name was Harriet Masten, was born in Indiana, 
and died in Susanville, aged sixty-five years. 

The oldest of a family of five children, John 



Heiro Cornell ^vas brought up in Susanville, 
acquiring his early knowledge of books in the 
jnibl'ic schools. From boyhood he assisted his 
father in the farm work, and went with him to 
Modoc county, where he helped care for the 
stock. On coming of age, he started in business 
on his own account, buying a ranch on Tule 
Lake, Modoc county, and embarking in stock- 
raising. He had a good range, and made a 
specialty of raising draft horses. In company 
with his father he drove his horses to the Sacra- 
mento valley to sell, and built up a profitable 
Inisiness, his brand being H. C. (with a straight 
line above), while his father's was H. C. In 
1902 Mr. Cornell sold his ranch, horses and cat- 
tle, and returned to Susanville. Buying the old 
home farm on which he was reared, he has 
thirty acres of rich farming land adjoining town, 
anil keeps a small dairy, which yields him a 
good income. He is also proprietor of Cornell's 
ranch, in Modoc county, where he has a large 
corral and feed barns. While living in Modoc 
county, Mr. Cornell and his father established 
the Cornell postofiice, and he served as post- 
master for fifteen years after it was opened. 

In Lassen county, near Susanville, Mr. Cor- 
nell married Ida Winchester, who was born in 
this valle}-, a daughter of L. E. Winchester, and 
a granddaughter of Elliot \\'inchester, a pioneer 
settler of this place. Of the union of Mr. and 
Mrs. Cornel! the following children have been 
born : George Heiro, \'era Isabelle, John Wes- 
ley and Ida Marie. 



FRED DUBOISE HALL. A prominent 
young native son of California who lives three- 
quarters of a mile south of .Standish, Lassen 
county, is Fred Duboise Hall, the son of Wright 
P. Hall. September 6, 1871, he w^as born in 
Lassen county, where he was reared, receiving 
his education irl the public schools of Susanville, 
and remaining with his parents until he was six- 
teen years old. Branching out from the old home 
in 1887, he homesteaded one hundred and sixty 
acres of sage brush land with no improvements 
upon it except a worthless little cabin. Clearing 







ut^-^/ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



505 



up one Inindred and forty acres of this, lie put 
nearly all of it in alfalfa, and placed it under the 
Colonial Irrigation Company for irrigation. Not 
caring to raise stock on a very large scale, Mr. 
Hall sells the greater portion of the hay he raises 
at a good profit. At the time he took up this 
land he was working as a teamster. 

October 29, 1902, Mr. Hall was married to 
Miss Lena Long, daughter of T. X. Long, and 
a native daughter of California, having been 
lx)rn at Susanville, Lassen county. Fraternally 
Mr. Hall is identified with the Ancient Order of 
Ignited Workmen of Susanville, at which place 
he is also a member of the Native Sons, and in 
politics he is a stanch supporter of the Republican 
platform. He has erected a handsome residence, 
good barns, fences, etc., upon his farm, and it is 
now one of the most valuable pieces of real estate 
in the county. He has been successful in his 
business undertakings, and is energetic and in- 
dustrious in his habits. 



GEORGE LINCOLN TOMB. The county 
clerk of Lassen county is a member of an old and 
honored family of the Hudson river region and 
is himself a native of Newburgh, N. Y., on that 
historic river, around which cluster the earliest 
memories of his childhood. The family traces its 
ancestry to England, but became established in 
the east during the colonial period of our coun- 
try's history, and James Tomb spent much of his 
life in northern New York, but died in New- 
burgh. Charles S. G., who was a son of James, 
was born in the northern part of the state and 
as a youth learned the trades of harness-maker 
and saddler, which he followed all through his 
active years, conducting for some time an estab- 
lishment on Water street in the city of New- 
burgh. Though not inclined toward public life 
or desirous of political prominence, he was al- 
ways ardent in his allegiance to the Republican 
party. Fraternally he was a Master Mason and 
in religious belief was identified with the Dutch 
Reformed Church. At the time of his death he 
was fifty-two vears of age. During young man- 
hood he established domestic ties through his 
II 



marriage to Miss Harriet Odell, a native of 
Westchester county. N. Y., and a sister of Hon. 
Benjamin B. Odell. Sr.. a leading citizen and 
former mavor of Newburgh. .\ distinguished 
representative of the family is her nephew. Ben- 
jamin B.. Odell. Jr.. ex-Governor of New York, 
and a leading man of public affairs in the east. 

In a family of three children George Lincoln 
Tomb was the only one to attain mature years. 
Born February 21. iSr>8. he was orphaned in 
infancy by the death of his mother, and shortly 
afterward was taken into the home of an aunt, 
Mrs. Jane Odell Smiley, in New York City, 
where he gained the rudiments of his education 
in the public schools. At twelve years of age 
he returned to Newburgh and entered the public 
schools of that city. When he was seventeen he 
lost his father by death and then started out to 
earn his own way in the world, returning to 
New York City, where he secured a clerkship. 
From there in 1889 he came to California and 
worked as a clerk in a San Francisco store, but 
in the fall of 1890 he came to Susanville, which 
since has been his home and headquarters. For 
a time he was employed in the Odette Brothers 
mills in a clerical capacity. 

Always stanch in his allegiance to the Re- 
publican party, Mr. Tomb has been prominent in 
ihe local work of the party. In 1898 he was 
placed in nomination by the party for the office 
of county clerk and at the election received a 
majority of three hundred and fifteen votes. On 
the 1st of January, 1899, he took the oath of 
office and entered upon his duties. At the ex- 
piration of his term he was elected for a second 
time, receiving a majority of three hundred and 
sixty-five and entering upon the second term 
January i, 1903, to serve until January, 1007. 
Conscientious, faithful and painstaking, he has 
won commendation as a county official and his 
service has proved satisfactory to citizens ir- 
respective of party. In November, 1905, he 
Ixjught the A. K. Philbrook furniture and under- 
taking business which he has since carried on 
successfully. 

The marriage of Mr. Tomb occurred at Susan- 
ville and united him with Miss Maude Long, a 
native of this city and a daughter of one of its 



506 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



early settlers, John T. Long. Of this union 
there are two daughters, Nadene and Gladys. In 
fraternal relations Mr. Tomb holds membership 
with Silver Star Lodge No. 135, I. O. O. F., 
in which he is past grand and also holds the 
office of secretary. Prominent in local Masonry, 
he is the present master of Lassen Lodge No. 
149, F. & A. M., of Susanville, is further iden- 
tified with Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. M., 
and with his wife belongs to the Order of the 
Eastern Star. 



WILLIAM GREEN. The family repre- 
sented by this stock-raiser and farmer of Modoc 
county comes of southern blood. His father, 
William Alfred, was born and reared in Ken- 
tucky, but early in life went north to Wisconsin 
and secured employment in the lead mines of 
that state. At tlie opening of the Mexican war 
he and those of his brothers wlio were old enough, 
enlisted to light against Alcxico's claims and pro- 
ceeded to the center of the conflict. At the ex- 
piration of his term of service he again enlisted, 
after which he remained at the front until the 
close of the struggle. In recognition of his 
faithful services, his bravery on many a hotly- 
contested field, and his wounds in battle, the gov- 
ernment tendered him a pension throughout the 
later years of his life. 

While living in Wisconsin ^^'illiam .\lfred 
(ireen met and niarried .\manda Melvina Dick- 
inson, who was born in Pennsylvania. The year 
following his marriage he joined a party of 
gold-seekers bound for the new mines of the far 
west, and, leaving his wife with relatives in 
\'\'isconsin, he crossed the plains to California. 
Two months after he left home his first child, 
William, was born April 24, 1850. Six years 
later the mother and son went to Missouri, from 
which state in the spring of 1857 they started 
overland for California. In company with mem- 
bers of the illustrious and ill-fated Mountain 
Meadow party they traveled as far as the Forks, 
when the others proceeded to Salt Lake, while 
they traveled north and crossed the Humboldt 
desert in Nevada, thence came into California and 



joined ^Ir. Green in Calaveras county. For six 
months the family resided in Eldorado county at 
what was popularly known as "Nigger Hill." 
Afterward they engaged in the hotel business in 
Amador coimty for a number of years. 

Coming to Surprise valley, Modoc county, in 
1871 William Alfred Green took up one hun- 
dred and sixty acres five miles south of Cedar- 
ville, but he gave his attention to mining rather 
than to agricultural pursuits, and while mining 
in Plumas county, this state, in 1888 he was killed 
by a snowslide. His body, being covered by the 
snow, could not be found until the spring of 1889. 
At the time of his death he was seventy-nine, and 
his wife died June 10, 1901, at the age of seventy- 
three. In their family were the following chil- 
dren : William, the subject of this article ; James, 
deceased ; Ida, Mrs. John Dyke, who' lives near 
Cedarville ; Cordelia, who married William 
Haynes and lives at Seattle, Wash. ; Edward and 
Frank, who make their home with their brother 
on the ranch in Surprise valley. 

Being very young when he came to California, 
\\'illiam Green received his education principally 
in this state. .\t an early age he began to assist 
his father in the mines and acquired a thorough 
knowledge of every detail connected with the oc- 
cupation. In the spring of 1871 he came to Sur- 
prise valley and took up one hundred and si.xt}' 
acres situated five miles south of Cedarville. At 
this writing he owns the one hundred and sixty 
acres originally owned by his father, and alto- 
gether he has five hundred and eighty acres of 
excellent farm and stock land. His specialties 
are the raising of alfalfa and stock, with both 
of which he has been markedly successful. Po- 
litically he votes with the Democratic party. At 
one time he was a leading member of Cedar- 
ville Lodge, I. (). O. F., in which he officiated 
as noble grand, district deputy and delegate to 
the grand lodge, but about 1893 he withdrew 
from the organization. Since then he has not 
been identified with any fraternity. His atten- 
tion is given closely to the management of his 
ranch, the raising of stock and work of a kin- 
dred nature : yet he does not fail in the dis- 
charge of every duty incumbent upon him as 
a public-spirited and progressive citizen. 







^^^^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



509 



Edward, brotlicr of William Green, was horn 
in Eldorado county, Gal., September 26, 1867. 
After completing the studies of the public schools 
he paid his own way while attendinir a business 
collejje at Seattle, Wash. After leaving- the col- 
legia he was for two years shipping clerk and in- 
side salesman for a wholesale confectionery tirm 
and for some years he held a position as solicitor 
for a grocerx- firm. In 1896 he returned to Sur- 
prise valley and since then has made his home 
with his elder brother. During one winter he 
ke]^ books for Kistler Bros., at Lake City. While 
he is not a trained mechanic, he has a natural 
ability along that line, and his services as a me- 
chanic iiave proved helpful on the ranch. Like 
his brother, he is stanchly Democratic in his 
political views, but has no desire for office and 
does not i)articipate in partisan matters. Alarch 
7, 1903, he was initiated into Cedarville Lodge 
No. 249, I. O. O. F., and with tjie exception of 
the night of his initiation be has always held an 
office in the lodge, being at this time past noble 
grand. In the work of the lodge he is deeplx 
interested and its success and usefulness may be 
attributed in no small degree to his enthusiastic 
leadership. In religious views the brothers favor 
the doctrines of the Christian church and are 
leading members of that organization at Cedar- 
ville. contributing to its maintenance and sup- 
porting its missionary and other activities, while 
at the same time they are generous in their 
support of all other movements for the uplift- 
ing of the race and the moral, social and religious 
development of their comnumitv. 



ADAM DOUGLAS ELLEDGE. Among the 
pioneer settlers of Honey Lake valley no one 
is more worthy of representation in a work of 
this character than the late .A.dam Douglas 
Elledge, who was actively associated with the 
industrial, agricultural and business interests of 
this section of the state for many years. .\ 
man of sterling integrity and honesty, uprigjit 
and just in all of his dealings, he was held in 
high esteem by all who knew him, and his death 
was a distinct loss to the comnumitv as well 



as to his immediate family. A native of Indiana, 
he was born March 9, 1827, and died on his 
home farm, near Susanville, November 24, 
1894. His father, P.oone Elledge, was born and 
brought up in North Carolina, but when a young 
man removed first to Kentucky and then to In- 
diana, where he followed the trade of a stone 
mason and builder. Removing from there to 
Illinois, he spent his last years in Griggsville, 
Pike countA-. He married Rebecca P.ell, who 
was born in \irginia and died in Illinois. They 
became the parents of ten children, nine of whom 
were boys, and of these but one survives, namely : 
James Elledge, who at the age of eighty-two 
years is now residing in Gait, Mo. 

.At the age of nine years Adam Douglas El- 
ledge went v.ith his parents to Griggsville. III., 
where he attended the district school, and under 
the wise instruction of his father obtained a 
practical knowledge of farming. Soon after 
attaining his majority he was united in marriage. 
and the ensuing fourteen years was employed 
in tilling the soil, having a good farm seven 
miles from Griggsville. In 1863, deciding to 
follow the march of civilization westward, he 
came with ox-tcams to the Pacific coast, leaving 
Illinois on April 23, 1863, crossing the Missis- 
sippi river at Quincy, and the Missouri at Coun- 
cil Bluffs. Continuing along the old overland 
trail, he entered California by the Honey Lake 
route, arriving in Susanville on September 28. 
1863. Here he worked as a carpenter and 
builder for five years, erecting many of the 
earlier dwelling-houses and buildings of this 
vicinity, fn 1868 he removed with his family 
to Marvsville, where for eight years he followed 
carpentering and farming. Returning to Lassen 
county in 1876, he was engaged in carpentering 
at Tohnstonville for a time, and the same year 
bought the home farm on which bis widow and 
son now live, and was here engaged in agricult- 
ural and mechanical pursuits until his death, as 
above stated. 

February 22. 1849. in Grip-gsville. Pike county, 
111.. Mr. Elledsre married Rebecca Hodges, who 
was born March 10. 1828. in Winchester, Scott 
county. III., a daughter of .Amos Hodges. Jr. 
She comes of patriotic ancestry, her grand- 



510 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



father, Amos Hodges, Sr., who was born in 
North Carohna and settled as a pioneer farmer 
in Kentucky, having served when young in the 
Revolutionary war. A native of Green county, 
Ky., Amos Hodges, Jr., was reared to agri- 
cultural pursuits, and in early manhood bought 
and improved a farm in Winchester, 111. He 
subsequently removed to Gait, Mo., where he 
spent the remainder of his life, passing away 
at the age of three score and ten years. He was 
a man of deep religious convictions, and a de- 
voted member of the Baptist Church. He mar- 
ried Mary Scott, a native of North Carolina, 
which was likewise the birthplace of her father, 
Benjamin Scott, who served through the Revolu- 
tionary war, afterwards settling permanently in 
Kentucky. She died in Grundy county. Mo. 
She bore her husband eight children, of whom 
Mrs. EUedge and Elizabeth Shinn, of Gait, Mo., 
are the only survivors. Three of her sons, Will- 
iam, John and James, all now deceased, served 
in the Civil war. 

Since the death of her husband Mrs. Elledge 
has continued to reside on the home farm, devot- 
ing its seventy-six acres to the raising of grain 
and alfalfa. Of the tmion of Mr. and Mrs. 
Elledge eight cliildren were born, namely : 
Francis M., a carpenter residing in Standish : 
Charles W., managing the home farm; John R., 
whose farm adjoins the home ranch ; Millard, 
engaged in lumbering in ^Mendocino county ; 
James H., employed in farming near Standish ; 
Jennie, wife of Charles Spillers, of Ferndale, 
Humboldt county: David, a farmer residing in 
Standish : and Newton, of Standish. Politically 
Mr. Elledge was a loyal supporter of the prin- 
ciples of the Republican partv ; fraternally he 
was a member of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows ; and religiously he belonged to the 
Christian Church, of which Mrs, Elledge is also 
a faithful member. 



JOHN B. McKISSICK. Among the re- 
spected and highly esteemed citizens of Secret 
valley John B. ]\IcKissick holds an assured posi- 
tion, his industry, uprightness and neighborly 



dealing having gained for him the confidence and 
good will of the whole community. A pioneer 
of Lassen county, coming here a barefoot boy 
of fourteen years, and the son of a pioneer, he 
has been an able assistant in developing and ad- 
vancing the agricultural interests of this part of 
the state, and now, although practically retired 
from active pursuits, is an important factor in 
promoting the welfare of town and county. A 
son of Daniel McKissick, he was born October 7, 
1846, in Fremont county, Iowa, where he spent 
his earlier years. 

Accompanied by his wife and children, Danie) 
McKissick came across the plains with ox-teams 
to California in i860, having a long and tedious 
journey. Locating in Long valley he bought 
land near Constantia, becoming owner of a ranch 
of one thousand acres. Fencing his claim and 
improving it to some e.xtent, he lived there nine 
years and then sold out. Moving to Nevada with 
his family he was a resident of that state seven 
years. Not satisfied, however, he returned to 
Long valley, for a number of years making his 
home with his brother. Locating then in Secret 
valley, he and his son, John B., the subject of this 
sketch, became owner of ten hundred and fifty- 
seven acres of land, from which they improved a 
fine farm, which they devoted mainly to the rais- 
ing of cattle and horses. Here he spent his re- 
maining years, dying, at the age of seventy-seven 
years, in 1895. His wife, whose maiden name 
was Melissa Fowler, survived him, passing away 
in 1896, at the age of seventy-four years. 

On coming with his parents to Long valley in 
i860, John B. McKissick continued his studies 
in the district schools for awhile, in the winter 
seasons attending school in Marysville. In the 
meantime he assisted his father in the pioneer la- 
bor of clearing and improving the land, work- 
ing with an energy that betokened success. 
When he was twenty-one years old, having 
proved himself so capable an assistant, his father 
divided the home estate with him if he would 
remain at home. Accepting this magnanimous 
offer, Mr. McKissick resided with his parents as 
long as they lived, during the latter years of 
their lives having sole management of the farm, 
and being one of the largest and most successful 




^/^ y^ ^6^<^^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



513 



stock raisers and dealers of Secret valley. A 
year or two after the death of his parents, and 
that of his wife, Mr. McKissick sold his farm to 
his uncle. Jacob McKissick, and has since made 
his home with his sister, Mrs. M. M. Tipton, 
wife of J. J. Tipton. Since the completion of 
the railroad, seven years ago, Mr. McKissick 
has carried the mail from the station to the post 
ofifice at Secret, a distance of five and one-fourth 
miles. While actively engaged in stock busi- 
ness he, with his Uncle Jacol>, made frequent 
trips with cattle to Hot Springs, and in so do- 
ing broke the first wagon road from Mud Flats 
to Tipton, and across to Madeline jjlains, this 
road subsequently being used as the stage route 
between those places. His father had the dis- 
tinction of bringing the first wagon into this sec- 
tion, buying it in the fall of 1865. 

In 1889 Mr. McKissick married Jennie L. 
Swain, a native of Texas, and they became the 
parents of three children, namely : John D., Han- 
nah May and Wilbur R. Mrs. McKissick died 
in 1898, her body being laid to rest in the private 
cemetery of the McKissick family. Inheriting 
the political faith of his father, Mr. McKissick 
is a loyal supporter of the principles promul- 
gated by the Democratic party. 



NATHANIEL BAILEY FORGAY. The 
family represented by this well-known rancher 
of the Indian valley is of southern extraction and 
Scotch origin, his paternal grandfather, Sanniel, 
having crossed the ocean from Scotland to the 
south, later offering his services to his adopted 
country during the turbulent period of the J^evo- 
lutionary war, and then returning from the war 
to take up the life of a planter. James, son of 
the original immigrant, was born and reared in 
Kentucky, and during early life went to Missis- 
sippi, where he married Elizabeth Brown, a na- 
tive of Kentucky and descended from an old 
southern family. For some time he followed the 
carpenter's trade and took contracts for putting 
up houses and stores. Farm work, too, engaged 
his attention to some extent. While he lived in 
Scott count\-, .-Xrk.. the hostilities began that re- 



sulted in the Civil war. From the first he op- 
posed the system of slavery and refused to buy 
or even hire a slave. Enmities were aroused by 
reason of his frank expression of opinions, and 
during 1863, in order to escape death at the hands 
of southern .sympathizers, he was taken to Texas 
secreted in a wagon. Afterward he remained in 
Texas and there died in December, iSOj. aged 
about eighty years. His wife also died in that 
state in May of 1867. 

During the residence of the family in .Middle- 
ton, Clarke county. Miss., .\aihaniel Bailey For- 
gay was born November 7, 1835. and there he 
passed the years of boyhcKxl. In January of 
1850 he began to work as a dishwasher on a 
Mississippi river steamer, which position he held 
for eighteen months. From that time he herded 
cattle until 1854, when he was hired to drive 
cattle across the plains, and in this w-ay came to 
California, where he has since made his home. 
After mining for one w'inter with a brother in 
American valley, in February of 1855 he came to 
Indian valley, Plumas county, where his first 
occupation was that of rail maker and wocxl- 
chopper. .\fter two months he began to mine at 
Rich Gulch on the east branch of the Feather 
river, and continued there until September, 1863, 
when he sold his claim at a fair profit to Asa 
and Joe Hallsted. The next enterprise that en- 
gaged bis attention was the teaming business, 
and meanwhile he leased to others the land he 
had purchased in Indian valley, but in January, 
1865, he gave up teaming and settled on his farm. 
.After having operated the land a short time, in 
November, 1867. he sold the property and re- 
moved to Big ]\Ieadows, Plumas county, where 
he bought a large tract in partnership with an- 
other rancher. However, in about twelve moinhs 
be sold his interest and returned to Indian val- 
ley near Greenville, where he bought one hun- 
dred and sixty acres of valley land, b'rom time 
to time he has added to his original purchase 
until now he has one-half section of valley land 
an<l two hundred and eighty acres of timber, all 
in one body. On this place he has engaged in 
raising cattle, horses, sheep and hogs, and the 
crops raised on the land are used to feed his stock 
instead of being sold in tiie markets. I'-ormerly 



514 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



he made a specialty of the dairy business and 
conducted a large dairy on his ranch, but since 
1893 he has had fewer interests in this industry. 
The improvements on the ranch show his pains- 
taking care and industry. Four commodious 
barns furnish ample space for the storage of 
grain and ha> and the shelter of stock. An ex- 
cellent system of fencing has been adopted, a 
neat house erected for the family, and all the 
comforts of a modern ranch have been secured 
through the owner's energy. 

The marriage of Mr. Forgay, April 25, 1865, 
united him with Miss L\icretia Johnston, who 
was born in Pennsylvania, but removed to Iowa 
at ten years of age, and accompanied her family 
overland to California in 1864, arriving at Ta)- 
lorsville, Plumas county, after a journey of six 
months and two weeks. The children comprising 
her family are as follows : Elizabeth, wife of 
A. M. McKenzie, of Greenville ; Paradine, who 
is the widow of L. M. Kaiser and lives with her 
parents ; James A., on- the home ranch ; Arnold, 
who is a business man of Los Angeles ; Alma and 
Leota, at home. Politically Mr. Forgay votes 
the Republican ticket, and fraternally he is iden- 
tified with Indian A^alley Lodge No. 136, I. O. 
O. F., at Taylorsville, and takes a warm interest 
in all the activities of the fraternitv. 



BENJAMIN M. WAYMAN. A thorough 
and skilful farmer, and proprietor of the Alturas 
and Bieber stage line, Benjamin M. Wayman 
is a good representative of the agricultural and 
stock-raising interests of Adin, and is actively 
identified with its transportation service. He 
is endowed with excellent business capacity, pos- 
sesses keen judgment, and in his undertakings 
is meeting with uniform success. He was born, 
February 11, 1854, in Gentry county. Mo., the 
son of Williamson Wayman, who served on the 
Southern side as private in a Missouri regiment 
during the Civil war. and died from disease con- 
tracted in the army before the close of the con- 
flict. 

In 1866 Benjamin M. Wayman, then a lad 
of twelve vears, came with his widowed mother 



to California, journeying by way of the Isthmus 
of Panama and located in Mendocino county. 
Four years later he began the struggle of life 
for himself. In 1875 he located in Lassen county, 
and after working there for wages one year 
removed to Ash valley. Taking up a homestead 
claim of one hundred and sixty acres, he placed 
the land under cultivation to some extent, al- 
though for the last ten years that he resided 
there he made a specialty of the stock business. 
Selling his ranch in 1895 he removed into the 
village of Adin, where he purchased a livery 
stable, which he managed successfully for six 
years. In July, 1898, he purchased the Alturas 
and Bieber stage, and for twenty-six months 
ran it dailw since then making a trip every other 
dav between the two cities, a distance of sixty- 
five miles. In January, 1903, Mr. Wayman dis- 
posed of his livery Inisiness, and turned his at- 
tentiou to the care of the land which he had in 
the meantime acquired, having bought five hun- 
dred and thirty acres of range land in Round 
\'allev. He has since acquired title to other 
land, with his son and his son-in-law owning a 
ranch containing nine hundred and forty-six 
acres, eight miles west of Adin, a large part of 
which is now impioved, three hundred acres be- 
ing devoted to the raising of hay, while much 
of the remainder can be cultivated. He is car- 
rying on general farming, but makes a specialty 
of stock raising and dairying, a branch of in- 
dustry with which he is familiar, and in which 
he is exceedingly prosperous. Since buying his 
residence property in Adin, he has remodeled the 
house, greatly improved th.e grounds, having 
now an attractive and valuable home estate. 

In Lassen county, in 1881, Mr. Wayman mar- 
ried Amelia A. Harvey, who was born in San 
Joaquin county, Cal, and into their household 
four children were born, namely : Williamson, 
deceased ; Daisy Ethel, wife of J. L. Davis, part 
owner of the home ranch ; Marion Dennis, as- 
sociated with his father ; and Maude Irene, liv- 
ing at home. Politicallx' ]\Ir. Wayman is a stead- 
fast adherent to the Democratic party, and has 
served as school trustee and as a member of the 
county central committee. Fraternally he is a 
member of Court Adin No. 8531, A. O. F., and 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



il; 



of Adin Lodge No. 273, I. O. O. F., which he 
has served at dififerent times as nohle grand, and 
with his wife is a member of the Rebekahs. 
Mrs. Wayman lias been a representative of the 
Grand Lodge of Rebekahs. Mr. Wayman is a 
charter member and one of the organizers of the 
Big \'ailey Co-operative Association of Adin, is 
also interested in the Providence and in the 
Lookout Telephone Companies. He is a mem- 
ber of the Adin Improvement Association which 
was the means of installing the water system and 
otherwise imjjroving the town. Mr. Wayman 
has alwa\s ijeen liljeral in his support of all 
measures that have had for their uliject the 
building up of his county. 



ISAAC JAMES HASTINGS. Among the 
enterprising and successful agriculturists of Mo- 
doc county who assisted in developing its agri- 
cultural resources, the late Isaac James Hast- 
ings, of Adin, held an honorable position. Dur- 
ing his residence in this vicinity he became a 
large landholder, and by dint of diligent toil 
and good management improved a homestead 
which is worthy of more than passing notice in 
recording the growth and advancement of north- 
ern California. Liberal-minded, public-spirited 
and intelligent, he attained a noteworthy position 
among those useful citizens, who, while carving 
out their own fortunes, contributed as they had 
opfKDrtunity to the well being of the peojjle 
around them. He was born, December 15, 1853, 
in Maryland, and died on his home farm, Janu- 
ary g, 1904, his body being laid to rest in the 
Adin cemetery. 

Leaving home wdien about fifteen years old, 
Isaac J. Hastings went first to St. Louis, Mo., 
and soon after, in 1868, crossed the plains to 
California. For th.irteen years he worked for 
wages, after which he was engaged in farming 
on his own account for a number of years in 
Redding, Cal. being employed as a stock-raiser. 
Coming to P.ig \'alley, March 5, 1888, he bought 
one hundred and sixty acres of wild land, and in 
its management met with such success that he 
subsequently |)urchased another tract containing 



an equal amount of land, and at a still later 
time he bought six hundred and forty acres of 
additional land, making his homestead one of the 
largest in this section of the state. Continuing 
in his chosen calling, he was fortunate in his 
ventures, acquiring a valuable ijrojjerty, and until 
his death was prosperously employed in general 
agriculture, raising hay. grain and stock. 

October 17, 1886, in Redding, Cal., Mr. Hast- 
ings married Lucy May Thompson, who was 
born, September 21 j, 1865. in i'.utte county, Cal. 
Her parents, John Rufus and Jane 1". (Oxindine) 
Thompson, left Arkansas, their native state, in 
1849, crossing the plains to California and set- 
tling near Stockton. I-ater they moved to Butte 
county, but since the death of his wife Mr. 
Thompson has made his home in Arbuckle. 
Seven children blessed the union of Mr. and 
Mrs. Hastings, five of whom are living, namely : 
Emerson James, born Seistember 3, 1888: Zelma, 
born October 8, 1891 ; Clay \'., born July 23, 
1893 ; Lula B., born January 23, 1901 ; and Isaac 
James, born May 9. 1903. Mrs. Hastings is a 
woman of much ability and intelligence, and 
since the deatli of her husband has carried on 
the home ranch very successfully. Politically 
Mr. Hastings was identified with the Republican 
party, and fraternally he was a member of Adin 
Lodge, I. O. O. F. 



JAMES AXTHOXY COOPER. A success- 
ful farmer and dairyman of Lassen county, Cal.. 
is J. A. Cooper, a native of Steuben county, 
N. Y., who resides near Standish. He is the 
son of Benjamin and Oaymencia ( I'.lanchard) 
Cooper, both of whom died in Michigan, to 
which state they had removed from New York. 
Formerly a railroad engineer and bridge tender, 
during the Civil war, in 1864, Benjamin Cooper 
enlisted in Comjjany F, Fiftieth New York En- 
gineers. W'hen the war closed lie took his fam- 
ily to Michigan and located f(ir a time near 
Flint, then removed to near liath, where he 
followed the carpenter's trade, and from there 
went to Grand Ra]>ids, where he remained for 
some years, both himself and his wife dying at 



516 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the latter place. For a number of years before 
he died Mr. Cooper drew a pension. 

James Anthony Cooper was born in New York 
state January i, 1863, and was reared and edu- 
cated partly in New York and partly in Michi- 
gan. After leaving school he worked in lumber 
camps until March, 1886, when he came to Cali- 
fornia, locating first in the Sacramento valley, 
but the following fall he went to Susanville, Las- 
sen county, where he remained two years in the 
employ of B. H. Leavitt. At the end of the 
two years he rented the Leavitt farm, operating 
it for two years, then homesteaded one hundred 
and sixty acres of unimproved land, which he 
cleared and upon which he erected a comfortable 
house, good barns, fences, etc. He put in forty 
acres of alfalfa, and is continually increasing the 
acreage in this comnaodity, besides raising grain 
and operating a small dairy, sending his milk- 
to the creamery, and feeding cattle. 

October 14, 1891, Mr. Cooper was married to 
Olive Wright, a native daughter of this state, 
having been born in the Sacramento valley. Nine 
children have come to bless this union, viz., Roy 
Irving, aged fourteen ; Eugene Wright, Marion, 
Ralph, Rollo, Vera, all deceased ; Eunice ; Rilla 
Grace, and an infant. Mrs. Cooper is a mem- 
ber cf the Baptist church, and is a most es- 
timable woman. In politics Mr. Cooper is a 
Democrat, and fraternally has been identified 
with the Ancient Order of United Workmen of 
Jane:^ville. He is a stockholder in the Lasse" 
County Irrigation Company, and is a successful, 
self-made man, taking an active interest in the 
irrigf.tion scheme of Lassen county, and having 
over fifty acres of his own land under irriga- 
tion. 



ASA CUSHMAN WINSLOW. Wlien the 
Mayflower landed at Plymouth, Mass., in 1620, 
she numbered among her passengers three broth- 
ers of the Winslow family, which family is repre- 
sented in California by Asa Cushman Winslow, 
who resides at Standish, in the southern part of 
Lassen county. These brothers were prominent 
in the early settlement of the New England 
states. A. C. Winslow's father, Warren Wins- 



low, was a native of Vermont, where he spent his 
life as a farmer and speculator. The mother, 
formerly Arosina Wood, daughter of Cushman 
Wood, also a Vermont farmer, was born in the 
Green Mountain state, but spent her latter days 
in California and died in Lassen county. There 
were ten children born to them, of whom nine 
reached years of maturity, as follows : Charles 
W. ; j\Ionon ; George B. McC. ; Gertrude, who 
married Hiram McClellan of St-mdish ; Asa C. ; 
Belle, the widow of Mr. Shafifer of Rutland, Vt. ; 
Abbie, wife of John Wemple, of Milford ; Fred, 
who died at seven years of age; Curtis, residing 
near Spoonville ; and Lizzie, the widow of a Mr. 
Hendricks and a resident of Hot Springs. 

Asa C. Winslow was born October t."] , 1864, 
and brought up on the Vermont farm. His 
father dying when he was only seven years old 
he began working for himself at an earlv age, ob- 
taining what education he could in the public 
schools. In 1878 he determined to come to the 
west coast and try his fortune, making the jour- 
ney by the water route. Going to Milford, Cal., 
he was employed for one year on a farm near 
that town for a Mr. McFadden, for whom he 
broke horses, then entered the employ of a Mr. 
Doyle, a cattleman, remaining with him three 
years. From there he went to Janesville and 
engaged in the milling business for about a year, 
then was with a Mr. Long for a time. In 1887 
he became foreman of the Horse Lake ranch 
and devoted his time to the cattle business. He 
made three trips east to Omaha with cattle and 
horses, and out of four hundred horses lost only 
one, and out of a thousand head of cattle lost 
one cow. 

In the spring of 1903 Mr. Winslow resigned 
from his position as foreman for Mr. Long and 
purchased one hundred and ten acres of land 
adjacent to Standish, where he engaged in rais- 
ing, buying and selling cattle and horses and 
putting a portion of his farm in alfalfa. He also 
purchased a corner lot in the center of Standish, 
upon which he erected a residence, which he 
rents. Mr. Winslow is a self-made man, having 
started out in life for himself when a mere lad 
with no means, and has won financial success by 
l;is individual labor and perseverance. In poll- 




WILLIAM D. I'ECK 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



olO 



tics he is a stanch supporter of tlio Repubhcan 
platform, and is hehl in high esteem by his fel- 
low-citizens. He and his brothers are worthy 
sons of their hardy New England ancestors, and 
are all physically large men, standing six feet and 
over in height. 



A\'ILLIAM O. PECK. The manager of the 
Sierra Mercantile Company holds a prominent 
position among the business men of Loyalton, 
where for years he has been an important factor 
in the development of commercial enterprises 
and the general upbuilding of the town. Having 
resided in this vicinity practically all of his life, 
he is familiar with its resources, acquainted with 
its possibilities and devoted to its interests, a 
citizen of the type so valuable in the progress of 
a small city. While his work has been mainly 
along the line of commercial afifairs, he also has 
maintained a close connection with educational 
matters and for some years held a position as an 
instructor in the Loyalton schools, where he 
aided in advancing the standard of education 
and introducing modern methods of pedagogy. 

On a ranch five miles west of Loyalton Wdl- 
iam O. Peck was born December 8, 1863, being 
a son of William D. and Margaret A. Peck, and 
a brother of Frank F. Peck, well known among 
the progressive men of Sierra county. During 
his early life he was orphaned by the death of 
his father and afterward made his home with his 
mother, Mrs. Margaret A. Schroeder, who now. 
widowed a second time, resides on the old home- 
stead in the suburbs of Loyalton. In her 
sketch tin another page of this volume the family 
history will be found. After having completed 
the studies of the local schools William O. Peck 
was sent tu the California State Normal School 
at San Jose, where he took the complete course 
of normal instruction, being graduated in 1886 
with an excellent record for satisfactory work 
in the classroom. F'or two years afterward he 
was interested in mining at Gold lake with the 
Lewis brothers, with whom, together with his 
brother. Frank !•". Peck, in 1888 he organized the 
Loyalton Lumber Company. For two years he 



continued to be actively connected with the man- 
agement of the business, but at the expiration of 
that time the plant was sold to the Roberts Lum- 
ber Company, by wjiom it since has been oper- 
ated. 

Stanch in his allegiance to the Democratic 
party, Mr. Peck has been a leading factor in its 
local councils. On the regular party ticket he 
was elected county assessor in 1890 and served 
for four years to the satisfaction of the people 
of the county. In 1894 he was his party's can- 
didate for the assembly, but suffered defeat with 
the remainder of tlic ticket. .\t this writing he 
holds a position as deputy county clerk and in 
addition he has rendered efficient service as school 
trustee. In 1895 'le began to teach in the Loyal- 
ton schools and remained in the same position for 
five years, resigning in 1900 in order to become 
timber cruiser for the Roberts Lumber Company. 
The following year, in partnership with Lewis 
Brothers and Capt. J. II. Roberts, he organized 
the Sierra Mercantile Company, which under his 
management has risen to be one of the most im- 
portant commercial enterprises of the town and 
county. While giving his attention closely to 
business affairs, he has found leisure to main- 
tain an active part in Masonic matters. On the 
organization of the Loxalton Lodge No. 359, F. 
& A. M., he became one of its charter members, 
and later he was also a charter member and a 
prominent factor in the founding of Loyalton 
Parlor No. 226. N. S. G. W. In this county 
he was married. June 10, 1895. to Miss Marie 
-Mcroux. who was l^irn and reared at Downic- 
ville, and their union was blessed with three 
children, l-'ranklin .Adolph. William Otway and 
Lucv Erma. 



WILLIA.M D. 1T-:CK. A native of the south, 
born and reared in Kentucky, William D. Peck 
came to California the year following the dis- 
covery of gold, going direct to Sacramento, then 
little more than a mining camp, destitute of per- 
manent improvements, and with a cosmopolitan 
population as yet unassimilated with their en- 
vironment. It was under these conditions that 
he established himself in the drav business in 



520 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the future capital of the state. Giving this up 
some time later he finally became interested in 
mining, working in the mines at Forest City 
until settling down to agricultural pursuits. 
Coming to the Sierra valley in 1870, he took up a 
tract of government land and engaged in stock- 
raising and general ranch pursuits throughout 
the remainder of his life. 

Mr. Peck formed domestic ties in 1863 by his 
marriage with Miss Margaret Ann Badenoch, a 
Canadian by birth, born in Stanstead county, 
Quebec, April 14, 1833. Two children blessed 
their marriage, William O. and Frank F.. both 
of whom are well known in business circles in 
this part of the state. .A. number of years after 
the death of Mr. Peck his widow became the 
wife of Salvatus Schroeder, who though born in 
Prussia was from his earliest _\ears a resident of 
the L'nited States. As one of the early pioneers 
of the Sierra valley he built one of the first frame 
houses in the locality. .A.t the time of his death 
he left to his widow a quarter section of land 
adjoining Loyalton. Sierra county, a part of 
which has since been sold to the town and sub- 
divided into lots. Mrs. Schroeder still owns 
the remainder of the property, which since the 
death of her husband has been rented to tenants, 
although she still superintends its management. 



MRS. MARGARET ANN SCHROEDER. 
Adjacent to the village of Loyalton, Sierra 
county, lies the ranch of one hundred and forty 
acres which for a long period has been the home 
of Mrs. Schroeder, a well-known pioneer woman 
of the Sierra valley. Ever since coming to the 
Pacific coast country she has made her home in 
this valley and consequently is thoroughly fa- 
miliar with its gradual development as well as 
with the possibilities of its soil and the oppor- 
tunities afforded by its commercial interests. Not- 
withstanding a very busy life, filled with all the 
cares incident to existence remote from the con- 
veniences of civilization, she is now well-pre- 
served, able to read and sew without the aid of 
glasses, and in her energetic body and active 
mind shows few traces of former privations and 



sacrifices. It has been her privilege to survive 
to advanced years and to witness the improve- 
ments made by the opening years of the twen- 
tieth century in the community to whose inter- 
ests she is keen!}' devoted. 

The daughter of Scotch parents. Miss Mar- 
garet Ann Badenoch was born April 14, 1833, 
in Stanstead county, province of Quebec, Can- 
ada, just across tlie line from the United States. 
Nothing of importance occurred to mark her 
early life until she came to California in i860 
via the Panama route, and to this day the recol- 
lections of that long and tedious voyage remain 
vividly impressed upon her mind. Immediately 
after landing at San Francisco she proceeded to 
a ranch in the Sierra valley, where in 1863 she 
became the wife of William D. Peck, a native 
of Kentucky, and a California pioneer of 1850. 
For a time after coming to the west Mr. Peck 
conducted a dray business in Sacramento, later 
worked in the mines at Forest City and in 
1870 came to the Sierra valley, where he took 
up a tract of government land and engaged in 
stock-raising and general ranch pursuits until 
his death. Of that union two sons were born, 
namely : William ( ). and Frank F., both of 
whom are mentioned elsewhere in this volume. 

Some years after the death of Mr. Peck his 
widow was united in marriage with Salvatus, 
Schroeder, a native of Prussia, but from early 
life a resident of the United States. While still 
a young man he settled among the pioneers of 
the Sierra valic}-, where he built one of the first 
frame houses in the entire valley and took up 
a tract of government land in Sierra county. 
\\ bile general ranching engaged his attention, 
he made a specialty of the dairy business and 
met with considerable success in his chosen oc- 
cupation. At the time of his death he left to 
his widow the quarter section which he had en- 
tered from the government. Twenty acres of 
the property she sold to the town of Loyalton 
to be platted into town lots, but the remainder 
she still owns, renting the land to tenants since 
the death of her husband, although she still 
maintains a general supervision of the estate, 
keeps the buildings in repair, makes improve- 
ments as desired and is proving herself to be as 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



523 



vigorous in tTie aftemoou of life as in the years 
when youtii crowncil her days with busy act- 
ivities. 



ROBERT LESLIE McGILL. Into a hfe pro- 
tracted beyond the usual period allotted to man- 
kind there have come varied experiences on land 
and sea, the memory of which makes interesting 
the advancing years of Mr. AIcGill and invests 
his personality with the romance of a past gen- 
eration. Notwithstanding an unusually active ca- 
reer and exposure to hardships and the inclem- 
encies of weather on sea and shore, he has 
reached the age of eighty-seven in the full pos- 
session of his faculties and shows a physical ac- 
tivity surpassed by few men twenty years his jun- 
ior. Among the people of Plumas county, with 
whose mining interests he has been associated for 
many years, he has a host of friends who seek 
his counsel and appreciate his companionship as 
that of a pioneer successful beyond the ordinary 
experience of men. 

A native of Glasgow, Scotland, born April ig, 
1818, Robert Leslie McGill was the son of an 
engineer who moved the family to Greenock. 
Scotland, when the son was only an infant. 
When eleven years of age he ran away from 
home and took up a seafaring existence in the 
humblest position offered on a sea-going craft, 
in which manner he made several voyages to Que- 
bec. In a few years be bound himself as an 
apprentice to the work of a sailor, but the bard- 
ships were so many and the treatment so cruel, 
that he eventually ran away at Quebec. 
.Anxious to get out of reach of his master, be 
accepted a place with a lake captain who wanted 
a cook, but when it was discovered that lie had 
no experience in the culinary art, the captain 
gave him a flogging for the deceit employed in 
gaining a place. However, he stayed with the 
ship that season, and then shipped with another 
vessel, where be worked his way up to be a sailor. 
While shipping before the mast he came around 
the Horn i,n 1849 ^nd cast anchor in the (iolden 
Gate on the last day of the year. The first work 
which he did was to carry a trunk for a man to 



the Plaza, for which he received two five dollar 
gold jaicces. Later he engaged in wheeling sand, 
for whicli he was paid one ounce of gold per day. 
After a week he rented an old scow in the bay 
and engaged in stevedoring ; although he paid his 
employes $2 per hour and gave $30 a dav in 
rent, be cleared all the way from $50 to $200 per 
day in the business. 

(iiving up the scow after a month Mr. McGill 
went to Bidwell's Bar. where in a month be made 
$1,000 on another man's claim, and then with a 
partner bought a claim on American Bar, in 
which forty-two parties held an interest. An- 
other interest was given to a physician in return 
for bis location among them for medical care 
during sickness. However, forty-three proved 
too many and the result was a failure, so the 
claim was aliandoncd. Thereupon Mr. McCiill 
came to Plumas county and worked at bis claim 
on the east branch of the b'eatber river, at Rich 
liar, where be took out considerable gold, but 
an attempt to dam the river made bis enterprise 
unprofitable. An experience during 1858 in the 
mines of the Eraser river proved disastrous and 
after eighteen months be returned to Rich Bar, 
Plumas county, where he intended to take 
charge of his one-half interest in a saw-mill : 
but this enterprise had been sold out while he 
was away and be resumed mining, developing a 
mining claim at Twelve-Mile Bar, Plumas coun- 
ty. During 1861 be went to Round valley at 
the time of the building of the first quartz mill 
and secured employment in the mill, after which 
be, with five others, took up and developed the 
Lone Star mine near Greenville. After a stamp- 
mill bad been erected and the work was well un- 
der way, dissensions arose among the owners and 
the mine was abandoned. While Mr. McGill still 
owns this claim, no work has been attempted in 
the mine for some years. Eor twelve years he 
held mining interests with George Standard, and 
after the death of Mr. Standard his son, Frank, 
continued the work', taking his father's place in 
llic partnership. The McClellan mine, which 
they owned and operated, they had tunneled for 
almost four hundred feet, and is still in successful 
operation. In HKH .Mr. McGill sold his interest 
in the AlcCiill and Standard mine for $23,000, 



524: 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



since which time he has to some extent reUn- 
quished his mining enterprises. 

In the suburbs of Greenville lies the ranch of 
one hundred and sixty acres which Mr. ^McGill 
homesteaded in an early day and all of which is 
mountain land with the exception of forty acres 
at the edge of town, where he makes his home. 
In politics he votes the Democratic ticket, but 
his interest in public afifairs is from the stand- 
point of a citizen, not an office-seeker. During 
a visit to Canada, in 1872, he became associated 
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and 
now holds membership with the lodge at Green- 
ville. As early as 1858 he was made a Mason at 
Elizabethtown, Plumas county, and now holds 
membership with Sincerity Lodge No. 133, F. & 
A. M., at Greenville ; Lassen Qiapter, R. A. M. ; 
Lassen Commandery No. 13, K. T., both at Su- 
sanville. 



WILLIAM SPURGEON LEWIS. The 
name Lewis stands well up towards the head 
of the list of names of men whose energy and 
enterprise have contributed so much in develop- 
ing the natural resources of this section of Cali- 
fornia. If the man that made two blades of 
grass grow where only one blade of grass before 
grew was a benefactor to all mankind, how much 
more so are the men who open up new indus- 
tries which give remunerative employment tc 
scores of their fellow-men. The railroad and 
sawmill interests in and around Loyaltoii are due 
in no small degree to the keen foresight and 
business ability of the Lewis brothers, the exer- 
cise of which qualities has placed them among 
the captains of industry in this part of the com- 
monwealth of California. Aside from their in- 
terest in the railroad and the Roberts Lumber 
Company, the Lewis brothers own three thou- 
sand acres of farming land in the Sierra valley 
and Loyalton, the Hotel Sierra, and other valu- 
able properties, and are at present much inter- 
ested in promoting an irrigation enterprise of 
magnitude whereby large quantities of water 
may be stored in reservoirs and about sixty thou- 
sand acres of land in this valley brought under 
irrigation. If this can be brought about it will 



inaugurate an era of unparalleled prosperity in 
the valley and benefit the whole community. 

There are now a great many native sons of the 
Golden West, but William Spurgeon Lewis be- 
came one when they were not as numerous in 
any respect as they are at present. He is one 
of the pioneer sons of the state, for he was born 
at Vacaville, Solano county, February 17, 1859, 
a son of Hiram and Sarah Lewis, whose life 
sketch appears elsewhere in this work. He is 
better known as "Spurge" Lewis, and the de- 
nominational faith of his parents may be deter- 
mined from the name they gave him, for none 
but good, straight, out-and-out Baptists woidd 
have thought of naming a boy in honor of the 
distinguished Baptist divine of that name. Mr. 
Lewis was six years old when his parents moved 
to this section of the country, his boyhood days 
being passed on a farm, a most excellent place 
for a boy to get a right kind of start in life. He 
attended the public schools, and later one term 
at the University of Oregon at Eugene City. In 
1887, in company with his brothers, R. H. and 
H. E. Lewis, and W. O. and F. F. Peck, he 
built the lumber and saw-mills ten miles south 
of Lovalton, known as Lewis' mills. One year 
later Lewis Brothers bought out the Peck in- 
terests and continued the business by themselves, 
subsequently interesting Captain Roberts, a 
prominent Sacramento capitalist, to engage in a 
partnership with them for the purpose of enlarg- 
ing their plant and the general scope of their 
business, and branching out into new fields of 
industry. Mr. Lewis furnished the ideas and 
Mr. Roberts furnished the money to carry them 
out. They then built a fine new mill, one of the 
largest in this section of the country, and for 
four years operated steam wagons in hauling 
their lumber. In 1900 they built a line of rail- 
road from Boca to their mills, extending it in 
1901 to Loyalton and then on to Beckwith. They 
have now fifty-six miles of railroad in operation ; 
also large mills and factories. Spurge Lewis 
is general manager of the Boca & Loyalton Rail- 
road. 

May 29. 1882, Mr. Lewis married Miss Edith 
Ilorton, a native of Virginia City, Nev., and a 
daughter of L. E. Horton, whose sketch appears 





^Q 




HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



elscwlierc in this volume. Having no children 
of their own Mr. and Mrs. Lewis took a little 
girl of four years to rear and educate. Gertrude 
Lewis, as she is known, is now twelve years old. 
In ])nlitics Mr. Lewis is a Democrat, and al- 
though he takes an active interest in political 
matters, has never held office, and so far has 
refused to accept one. He is not a member of 
any church organization, but the church of his 
father, as well as the other Cliristian organiza- 
tions, receive his cordial support in every way. 
The Baptist church at Loyalton was built as a 
memorial church to his father, whose life was 
devoted to the church cause and work. Mr. 
Lewis has pronounced views on the temperance 
([uestion, being a relentless foe to the saloon, 
which he believes to be a destructive element and 
a demoralizing influence to any comnumity. By 
using his utmost endeavors Loyalton is an anti- 
saloon town. By right of birth Mr. Lewis is a 
member of the Native Sous of the Golden West, 
being a charter member of Loyalton Parlor No. 
226, and is also a member of Loyalton Lodge No. 
22, K. P. He represents the business interests 
of a large community and it is almost needless to 
say that he is a capable, energetic, enterprising 
business man. 



JOSEPH CRAWFORD WEMPLE. Con- 
spicuous among the pioneer settlers of Lassen 
county is Joseph Crawford Wemple. a veteran 
agriculturist, who has been actively identified 
with the prosperity and progress of northern 
California for nearly half a century. He is one 
of the most intelligent and thriving farmers of 
this county, a man of strict integrity and high 
moral character, and is numbered among its 
most respected and valued citizens. A native of 
New York, he was born in Schenectady, Decem- 
Ijer 20, 1830, a son of John N. and Nancy 
(Crawford) Wemple, both natives of the Em- 
pire state, the birth of the father occurring in 
1808, and that of the mother in 1810. John N. 
Wemple served in the State Militia when a 
voung man and died while in the prime of life in 
his native state. His wife survived him, after 
his death removing to Michigan, wliere she 



spent the remainder of her life. The Wemple 
family are of .Mohawk-Dutch descent, the emi- 
grant ancestor having come from Holland to this 
country in colonial days, settling in the Molwwk 
X'alley, and the Crawford family are of Irish an- 
cestry, the founder of the branch from which 
Mr. Wemple descended having emigrated from 
Ireland to the United States. 

The second child in a family of six childriu. 
Joseph Crawford Wemple received his early ed- 
ucation in the public schools of Schenectady. At 
the age of sixteen years, after the death of his 
father, he went to Michigan, locating in Ingham 
county, where he worked for wages for a time 
and also taught school one term. Early in 1859 
he started for Pike's Peak with a party, but 
while on the way met so many returning from 
there, tired and discouraged, he changed his 
plans and came by the North Platte route to Cal- 
ifornia, arriving in Lassen county on August 14, 
1859. Securing a position in a saw mill near 
Janesville, he worked there a short time, and 
then began carpentering, at which he had 
worked some in Michigan, helping to put a 
frame over the mill and to build a cabin for the 
men. The same fall, in partnership with Jud- 
son Dakin, he located near Milford, and erected 
the house and barn now standing on the McDer- 
mott farm. During the summer of i860 he was 
employed in various occupations, and the same 
year volunteered for military duty, taking part 
in the skirmish at Pyramid Lake when General 
Ormsby was killed. In the spring of 1861, with 
his partner, he built a grist mill in Milford, the 
first one in Lassen county, and as long as he was 
able he managed it, operating it successfully. 

His health giving out, Mr. Wemple disposed 
of his interest in the mill and turnerl his atten- 
tion to agriculture. Locating on his present 
ranch, he first bought a claim of two hundred 
acres, which he subsequently pre-empted, the 
original purchase being situated between Mil- 
ford and the lake. As a general farmer and 
stock raiser he has met with unquestioned suc- 
cess, and from time to time has bought adjoining 
land, and now, with his sons, owns about four- 
teen hundred acres of land, on which he has 
made improvements of great value. About four 



528 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



hundred acres of his land, used for grazing pur- 
poses, lies over the mountains, in Phimas county. 
In 1864 he built his dwelling house, and since 
that time he has erected a large barn and com- 
modious outbuildings, his ranch being in point of 
improvements and appointments one of the best 
in Honey Lake valley. 

March 28, 1855, ^Ir. Wemple married Eliza J. 
Christie, an aunt of the Christie brothers of 
Janesville. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Wem- 
ple eight children have been born, two of whom 
died in infancy, and six are living, namely : Eliz- 
abeth J., born in Michigan, April 23, 1856, and 
now the wife of Thomas T. Harris of Elko, 
Nev. : John B., of Milford: X. V., of Milford; 
J. C, a farmer, residing just north of Milford; 
Frank O., junior member of the firm of Brown 
& Wemple, Spoonville : and Orlo Edmund of 
Milford. Of late years Mr. Wemple has leased 
his farm to his sons, although he controls it yet. 
He is a stanch supporter of the principles of the 
Democratic party, and has served his fellow-citi- 
zens in many positions of responsibility' and 
trust. In September. 1869, he was elected coun- 
ty assessor, and served for six consecutive years ; 
and for ten successive years was one of the su- 
pervisors of Lassen county, serving at the time 
the county hospital was built. Mr. Wemple has 
been somewhat handicapped during his entire 
active life, having accidentally had the four 
fingers of his right hand cut off when he was 
eighteen months old, while holding a stick for 
his lirother to whittle, and while crossing the 
plains being hit in the right eye, receiving a blow 
that impaired the sight. 



HON. EPHRAIM VAN BUREN SPEN- 
CER. No name is more intimately associated 
with the history of Lassen county than that of 
Judge Spencer and none is more worthy of per- 
petuation in the annals of this portion of Cali- 
fornia. Honored wherever known, the recipient 
of the respect of acquaintances, the admiration 
of friends and the awe of evil-doers, he was 
especially qualified to discharge the duties of an 
official in a dav when law and order had not 



yet risen out of the chaotic condition incident to 
a frontier environment. Absolute fearlessness 
guided him in his efforts to supplant peril by 
peace ; force of character and determination of 
will made his citizenship an incentive and in- 
spiration to the people ; a lofty sense of duty to 
liis fellowmen and his commonwealth impelled 
all of his acts ; and to round out the harmonious 
elements blending in his character there was 
added a love of home, family and friends, habits 
above reproach, geniality of disposition and dig- 
nity of manner. 

The life which this narrative delineates began 
at Whitestown, N. Y., January 28. 1836. and 
closed at .Susanville. Cal.. October 3. 1904. The 
family is of ancient and honorable lineage, of 
English ancestry on his father's side and Hol- 
land-Dutch on that of his mother. Through 
his father. Luther Spencer, he was a direct lineal 
descendant of John Jay. the first chief justice of 
the L'nited States, while his mother, who' bore 
the maiden name of Mary \"an Buren, was a 
cousin of Martin \'an Buren, and had the honor 
of being invited by her cousin, then a widower, 
to preside at the White House during the four 
years of his service as president. As early as 
1843 '^'''^ Spencer family became pioneers of 
Michigan, settling near Battle Creek, where the 
father, aided by his sons, engaged at the car- 
penter's trade. At the age of twenty-three years 
Ephraim \'an Buren Spencer started for Cali- 
fornia, accompanied by his brother, Luther, and 
after his arrival in Honey Lake valley he se- 
cured and operated a sawmill on the banks of 
the Susan river. It was while filling the posi- 
tion of sawyer in this mill that he was injured 
in the right shoulder so severely as to force him 
to abandon work at a trade. Instead of being 
a misfortune, as it seemed at first, this accident 
proved in reality the foundation of his subse- 
quent success, for thereby his attention was 
turned toward the profession of the law. 

During the early '60s Lassen county was in- 
fested with a gang of desperadoes who' held the 
better element in constant terror and who there- 
fore continued stealing horses and robbing people 
without molestation. During his service as the 
first district attorney of Lassen county Judge 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



520 



Spencer determined to drive the gang- from the 
valley and this he succeeded in doing, although 
they sent him word that, if he proceeded with 
his charges against them, they would shoot him 
in cold blood. Against the a])peals of friends, 
he pushed the prosecution against the despera- 
does, and appeared at the call of court, boldlv 
facing the gang, wiiom he so cowed by his bit- 
ter invective and fearlessness that thev sneaked 
from the room one by one, and from that time 
the county was never troubled with them again. 
In addition to the term of service as district 
attorney, made memorable in local history 
through his defeat of the desperadoes, he served 
in the same office two other terms, those of 187: 
and 1873, and then, as before, he was distin- 
guished by faithful service and intelligent ap- 
plication of the principles of ihc law. Though 
not an educated man, from the standjioint of 
the university curriculum, he possessed a knowl- 
edge more varied and deep than that which 
many a college graduate can boast, and especially 
in his chosen profession was his knowledge ac- 
curate and broad. Men able to judge state that 
he had few equals in northern California as a 
criminal lawyer. Through his logical reason- 
ing, plain and sensible interpretation of the law, 
eloquence and powerful command of language, 
he wielded an acknowledged influence over 
juries, by whose members he was recognized as 
an impartial and brilliant exponent of jurispru- 
dence. From the time of his admission to the 
bar until his death about forty years later, no 
case of any importance was tried in his county 
m which he had no part. To his clients he was 
a bulwark of strength and they reposed the ut- 
most faith in his knowledge and fidelity. 

The ability displayed by Judge Spencer in 
the responsible position of district attorney 
proved him to be the possessor of qualities ad- 
mirably adapting him for the public service, and 
the people testified to their appreciation of his 
abilitx in their selection of him as their repre- 
sentative in the state assembly, where he served 
during the session of 1895. As a legislator he 
gave his support to all measures for the benefit 
of the people of his district, as well as those 
more public undertakings in which the entire 



state was interested. The hill for woman's 
suffrage was passed through the lower house 
largely as the result of his zealous support. 
\\'hen he espoused a cause he did so with fervor 
and enthusiasm and so popular was he in the 
house that he became known there as "Lassen 
County's Grand Old Man." When death re- 
moved him from the sphere of his activities he 
was mourned throughout the length and breadth 
of the county whose interests he had served so 
long and faithfully. Survived by his wife (for- 
merly Miss L. 1'. M<3ntgomery), whom he had 
married in 1867, and by two daughters, Mrs. 
J. E. Baker, of Alturas, and Mrs. H. D. Bur- 
roughs of Susanville ; by two brothers, Edgar 
Spencer, of Bremerton, Wash., and Chester 
Spencer, of Los .•\ngeles, also by one sister, Mrs. 
C. McDiarmid, of Bremerton, Wash., he was 
mourned not only by them, but also by the large 
circle of friends wliom he had won by his 
sterling traits of manhood and recognized ability. 



EZR.A. M. WILSON. Noteworthy among the 
more active and progressive residents of .Adin, 
Modoc county, is Ezra M. Wilson, whose influ- 
ence in local affairs is recognized and appreciated 
by his fellow-citizens. He has done much to 
promote the prosperity of the town, being prom- 
inently connected with its leading industries, and 
in business circles and in private life is held in 
high regard. A native of Illinois, he was born 
November 30, 1866, in Putnam county, a son of 
Samuel A. and Frances H. (Williams) \\'ilson. 
His parents came to California in 1871. locating 
first at Emigrant Gap, Placer county, where his 
father was engaged in timbering for five years. 
On account of better educational and business 
advantages they subsequently located in .Adin. 
where they are now living. 

But four years of age when he came with his 
family to Placer county. E. M. Wilson received 
his preliminar}- education in the public schools 
of .\din. .\t the age of sixteen years, in the 
office of the Adin Argus, in whicli his father 
had a half interest, he began learning the printer's 
trade. At the end of a vear and a half he liought 



530 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



out the office, and for fourteen years, from 1883 
to 1897, conducted the paper 011 a paying basis, 
increasing its circulation to a considerable ex- 
tent. During the time he served for four years 
as deputy postmaster, and for an equal length 
of time as postmaster. Selling out his paper in 
1897, he lived free from business cares for about 
a year, and in 1899 incorporated the Big Valley 
Co-operative Association, of which he was sec- 
retary and manager for about six years. Retir- 
ing from mercantile pursuits, he later became 
■associated with .the lumber interests of Modoc 
county, and as a representative of New York and 
Michigan capitalists distributed throughout this 
section of the country $160,000 in buying up tim- 
ber claims, thus raising their financial value, and 
thereby greatly assisting the inhabitants. Dur- 
ing this time he has also carried on his two hun- 
dred and eighty-acre ranch, which adjoins the 
village on the s(Mith, and has platted a few of the 
lots, on which buildings are now being erected. 
He is likewise serving as president of the Adin 
Electric Light and Power Company, which has 
the credit of possessing the second best water 
power in northern California. 

In 1889 Mr. Wilson married May E. Lee, and 
they have one child, Edith. Politicallv Mr. Wil- 
son affiliates with the Republican party. Fra- 
ternally he is a member and past noble grand of 
Adin Lodge No. 273, I. O. Q. p., and both he 
and his wife belong to the Rebekahs. He is 
prominent in Masonic circles, belonging to both 
the Adin lodge and the Adin chapter, and is also 
a member of Court Adin No. 8531, A. O. P., 
having passed the chairs of the order. 



HARRY DePOREST BURROUGHS. Many 
xears have come and gone since the founder 
of the Burroughs family in America crossed the 
ocean from England and became associated with 
the pioneer element of the undeveloped regions 
of the new world. Several generations remained 
residents of Long Island, and Joseph, Sr., and 
his son and namesake were natives of Queens 
coimty on that island, but the former transferred 
the headquarters of the family to a farm some 



distance up the Hudson river, and Julian, a son 
of Joseph, Jr., was born and reared in Colum- 
bia county a short distance from the historic 
Hudson. Por more than twenty years Julian 
Burroughs held a position as principal keeper of 
the New York state penitentiary it Sing Sing. 
Upon resigning from that responsible office, in 
the fall of 1883 he came to California and em- 
barked in the mercantile business at Qiico. 
After his retirement from business enterprises 
he served some eight years as city recorder 
of Chico and was still acting in that capacity at 
the time of his death, which occurred in igoo, 
at seventy-eight years of age. In his marriage 
he became allied with the Prench-Huguenot fam- 
ily of DePorest, who were kindred of the Scher- 
merhorns and other colonial families of aristo- 
cratic lineage. His wife, Mary, who was a 
daughter of Jacob DePorest, a native of Schen- 
ectady, N. Y., was likewise born in that vicinity 
and passed the years of girlhood on a farm 
there. Accompanying her husband to Chico, 
Cal.. she remained in that town until her death 
in 1891. Throughout all of her active life she 
was identified with the Dutch Reformed Church. 
In a family ol seven children, of whom two 
sons and three daughters survive, Harrv De- 
Porest Burroughs was the youngest in order of 
birth, and was born at Sing Sing, N. Y., Novem- 
ber 14, 1866. Educated in the grammar and 
high schools of New York, he was qualified to 
enter upon the active duties of business life 
when in 1883 he accompanied other members 
of the family to Chico, Cal., where he learned 
the trade of watchmaker. Prom boyhood his 
inclinations had been toward the profession of 
law and in 1895 the way opened for him to 
gratify that desire. September of 1897 found 
him in Susanville, a student of law in the office 
of his father-in-law, the late E. V. Spencer. 
Two years later he was admitted to the bar and 
began professional practice with Judge Spencer, 
with whom he remained until the death of the 
Judge. October 3, 1904. Meanwhile he had be- 
come active in the local affairs of the Republican 
partv, on which ticket in 1902 he was elected 
district attorney by a majority of three hundred. 
]n January of 1903 he entered upon the duties 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



533 



of the position for a term of four years and now 
gives his attention to official work, in which he 
has shown marked' capabilit}- and a profound 
knowledge of the law. 

The marriage of Mr. Burroughs was sol- 
emnized at Susanville .\pril i-j, 1893, and united 
him with Miss Glad.\s Spencer, who was born 
and reared in this city and is the younger of 
the two daughters of Judge E. V. Spencer. 
After having graduated from Qiico Normal in 
1891, she took up the study of law under her 
father and afterward continued the same while 
her husband was studying, the two being admit- 
ted to the bar ;luring the same vear. 



BENJAMIN FRANK LIN GIBSON. 
Among the more enterprising and progressive 
farmers and stock raisers of northern California 
is Benjamin Franklin Gibson, living four miles 
west of Hot Springs, in Lassen county. Since 
locating here he has toiled with the resolute and 
ambitious spirit of a vigorous manhood, and 
along the pathway of success has journeyed 
swiftly and surely, so that now, in the prime of 
life, he occupies an assured position among the 
thrifty and respected agriculturists of this sec- 
tion of the state. He was born October 2, 1865, 
in Coshocton county, Ohio, which was also the 
birthplace of his parents, William and Jennie 
(McCune) Gibson. 

William Gibson spent the earlier years of his 
life in Ohio, being engaged in farming. Subse- 
quently removing with his family to Iowa, he 
continued his free and independent occupation 
there until after the death of his wife. Coming 
then, in 1890, to California, he located in On- 
tario, east of Los Angeles, and there resided un- 
til his death, in 1900. 

Being taken by his parents to Guthrie county, 
Iowa, when young, Benjamin Franklin Gibson 
was there reared and educated. A natural me- 
chanic, handy with tools of all kinds, he learned 
the trade of carpenter, which he followed a num- 
ber of years. Coming to the Pacific coast in 
1887, he settled first as a carpenter in Los An- 
geles, but afterward worked at his trade in Reno, 



Nev., for a time. Deciding, after his marriage, to 
turn his attention to agriculture, he came with his 
bride to Lassen county in pursuit of a favorable 
location. Renting a ranch containing si.x hundred 
and forty acres in Honey Lake Valley, he at once 
embarked in his chosen occupation, investing the 
few hundred dollars that lie brought with him in 
a judicious manner. In addition to the land that 
he leased he bought eleven hundred acres of 
timber land lying north of Susanville, purchased" 
a half interest in the Purser ranch of eleven hun- 
dred and sixty acres, situated about two miles 
west of Hot Springs; four hundred acres near 
Standish, and has proved up on three hundred 
and twenty acres of desert land, making in all 
over two thousand acres, Two hundred acres 
of the Purser ranch he devotes to the raising of 
alfalfa, a profitable crop at all times. He makes 
a specialty of stock-raising, carrying on an ex- 
tensive business in this line of industry, his 
brand, which he originated, being a diamond 
with a tail to it. In addition he also runs a pub- 
lic feed station, and is well patronized. Realiz- 
ing the great need of irrigation in this vicinity, 
he has identified himself with beneficial projects, 
and is one of the promoters of the Lassen Wil- 
low Water Company, which proposes, by tap- 
ping Eagle Lake, to furnish water to irrigate 
one hundred and fifty thousand acres of the land 
in this valley. He owns a fifth interest in the 
company, of which he is the treasurer, and is 
very influential in extending irrigation through- 
out the county, thus reclaiming much waste land, 
rendering it fit for cultivation and enhancing its 
value a hundred fold. 

In 1895, in Reno, Nev., Mr. Gibson married 
Clara Ritch, the eldest daughter of Andrew 
Ritch, and into their pleasant household six chil- 
dren have been born, namely: Jay; Erma; 
Frankie and Fern, twins ; Gara : and Jessie. 
Politically Mr. Gibson is a straightforward Re- 
puljlican. but has never been an aspirant for offi- 
cial honors. 



GEORGE THOMPSON, an early settler of 
Lassen county. Cal., was born March 7. 1838. at 
Ogdensburg, N. V. He was educated in his 



a34 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



native town for the profession of teaching, which 
occupation he engaged in immediatel_v after his 
school days were over. The work proved to be 
too confining, however, and liis health failing 
him his physician ordered a change of climate 
and an outdoor life and he came to California in 
1869 and engaged in farming and stock raising. 
He settled in Lassen county in 1870 and met 
with very great business success, having ac- 
quired a holding of twelve hundred acres of 
land before his death. 

In 1868 Mr. Thompson was married to Miss 
Alary Jane Curry, a native of Ogdensburg, N. 
Y., and to this union were born three children : 
Harriet J. ; Samuel James ; and Lucy, who is 
now the wife of T. W. Wilson. Politically Mr. 
Thompson affiliated with the Republican part}', 
but he had no desire for official position and 
was content to do his duty as an intelligent citi- 
zen at the ballot box. His death November 15, 
1886, removed from the community one of its 
most esteemed and highly respected leading men. 



WILLIAM KNOTT. It is said that only ex- 
perience can broaden life and give it color and 
character. If this be true then Mr. Knott is 
well qualified to judge of its value, for his ex- 
periences have been somewhat varied. William 
Knott was born in Lincolnshire. England, July 
^3. 1833- When he was four years of age his 
parents emigrated to the United States and set- 
tled on a farm on Long Island, N. Y. Wlien he 
was fourteen years of age he decided to seek his 
fortune away from the hearthstone that had 
nourished his infancy, and without adieu to his 
]>arents left home and went to Middletown, 
Conn., where he found work, earning from $2 
to $4 per month for about two years, a very 
himible beginning. At the end of this time he 
went to New York City and was employed as 
night watchman in a hotel for about one year 
and a half. In 1852 he came Iiy way of Panama 
to California, stopping in San Francisco, where 
he assisted in setting up the first billiard tables 
brought to that city. There he found many 
good opportunities for investment, and in part- 



nership with another young man purchased the 
lot on which the Grand hotel now stands, in the 
very heart of the business center of the city. 
Unfortunately, however, the title to the property 
was defective and in consequence the invest- 
ment did not prove as profitable as was antic- 
ipated. 

After staying in San bVancisco about a year 
l\Ir. Knott went north to Sweetlands, Nevada 
county, and engaged in prospecting and min- 
ing there, later going to Foster's Bar on the 
Yuba river. He was able to clean up quite a 
sum from his mining operations the first vear, 
but in the year following he lost it all. At the 
end of four years he had again succeeded in 
saving up an amount of money, which he loaned. 
In 1857 he bought a dairy ranch with twenty- 
two cows near Oregon Hill and sold the milk at 
[irices ranging from seventy-five cents to one 
dollar per gallon. He continued in that busi- 
ness until 1859, when he lost all but one of his 
cows from murrain. Later he bought a ranch 
and range on the Honcut, in Yuba county, and 
raised stock for several years. Still later, dur- 
ing 1859 and "60, he ran a meat market. Sell- 
ing his ranch in 1862 he moved up to the head 
of Nelson creek, in Plumas county, and ran a 
butcher shop for five years, after which he 
bought the Eureka ranch in Mohawk valley. 
He could get only a squatter's title to the prop- 
erty at that time, but when it came on the 
market he pre-empted one hundred and sixty 
acres. In the meantime he conducted a large 
wholesale meat business, furnishing meat for the 
Eureka mine, and also owned an interest in the 
mine. His meat contracts covered a period of 
ten years. 

Mr. Knott was largely instrumental in pro- 
curing the first government mail contract and 
establishing the first postoffice in the valley, 
the office being known as Mohawk. He was the 
first postmaster and held the office eighteen 
years in succession. When he sold the Eureka 
ranch he bought the ranch he now owns, hotel, 
hall, etc. The ranch consists of three hundred 
and sixty acres, most of it in the Mohawk val- 
ley. For the next eighteen or twenty years he 
was a busy man, and in addition to looking after 





^ 








HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



his rancli, raised, bought and sold stock and 
operated a sawmill until he sold the property. 

In 1857 '^l''- R'lott married Miss Paulina Sut- 
ton, a native of Indiana, who crossed the plains 
with her parents in 1852 and settled in Yuba 
coimty. She was an invalid for several years 
prior to her death, Xoveniher 21, 1902. Mr. 
Knott has leased most of his property for several 
years past and in 11J03 he moved to the coast, 
now making- his home in Novato, Marin count\-. 



JUSTUS RICH BAILEY. Since coming 
west during the year 1864 IMr. Bailey has had 
varied and important interests in northern Cali- 
fornia, but is now living retired from business 
activities and at his homestead one mile east of 
Buntingville he and his wife have a pleasant 
summer home, while during the winter months 
they go to the coast. When he came to this lo- 
cality Indians had not yet dispersed before the 
rising tide of civilization. The surroundings 
were those of the frontier. Little attempt had 
been made to place the land under cultivation 
and its possibilities were unrealized by the few 
inhabitants. With the subsequent development 
he was closely associated and at one time owned 
considerable property, but of late years he has 
disposed of his entire landed holdings, retaining 
only a life lease in the homestead. Once since 
coming to the coast he has revisited the cast and 
during that time he observed closel\' the differ- 
ences between the two sections of country, but 
came back to California emphatic in his opinion 
that the Honey Lake valley was his choice for a 
home. 

The Bailey family is of old Eastern stock. Mr. 
Bailey is a native of New York, born in St. 
Lawrence county. December 16, 1829, being a 
son of Moody and Fannie Bailey, natives of 
Vermont. Though almost wholly without edu- 
cational advantages, never having attended 
school for more than thirty da\s at any one time, 
he has acquired through experience and observa- 
tion a broad knowledge of the world. On start- 
ing out to earn his own way in the world he left 
Ogdensburg, N. Y., September 9, 1848. and 



went to Lewiston. Among his most vivid rec- 
ollections of that journey is of riding around Ni- 
agara Falls in a car drawn by one horse. Going 
from there by railroad to Buffalo, he there took 
passage on a lake steamer for Qiicago. The 
present metropolis was then a hamlet, with few 
houses and little inducement to offer prospective 
settlers, .\fter one niglit there he started south- 
ward and went to Sangamon county, where he 
worked for wages on a farm west of Springfield. 
During 1856 he removed to Henry county, Iowa, 
having first disposed of his Illinois lands. With 
the profits of his Illinois sales he bought land in 
Iowa and there remained until 1864. when he 
sold out and crossed the plains to California by 
way of the North Platte river. After a journey 
of six months he arrived in Janesville, Lassen 
county. 

In a few days Mr. Bailey ])roceeded to Cliico, 
where he arrived with a sick wife and $10 in 
greenbacks (then worth but fifty cents on the 
dollar.) After remaining for a year on a rented 
farm, in 1865 he returned to Lassen county and 
took up one hundred and sixty acres north of 
Janesville, in addition to which he homesteaded 
another quarter section. The care and cultiva- 
tion of these tracts occupied his time until about 
1871, when he sold out and purchased the hotel 
in Janesville, where for nine years he engaged in 
the hotel business. Eventually he traded the ho- 
tel for a ranch of three hundred and forty acres, 
where he engaged in feeding stock during the re- 
maining years of his active life as a farmer, but 
finally about 1899 disposed of the property in or- 
der to retire from agricultural responsibilities. 

The marriage of Mr. Bailey in 1852 united 
him with Miss Mary McMurphy, who was born 
lune 30, 1832, in St. Lawrence county, N. Y., 
but removed to Illinois in girlhood. Born of their 
union are four children, namely : Ira Eugene, 
living near I'.untingville ; George, who is en- 
gaged in farming five miles east of Spoonville ; 
Walter Leroy. who now owns the old homestead 
and resides with his parents ; and Lola J., who 
married Orin Dewitt and lives near Monterey, 
this state. The interest which Mr. Bailey always 
has maintained in educational affairs led him to 
accept the office of school trustee, in which he 



538 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



rendered acceptable service for a long period of 
years. Politically he votes the Democratic tick- 
et. In fraternal relations he is connected with 
Lake Lodge, A. O. U. W., at Janesville, in which 
he officiates as past master, besides having been 
selected as delegate to the grand lodge. In relig- 
ious faith both he and his wife are of the Uni- 
versalist belief. In the locality where for so 
many years they have lived they have a host of 
warm personal friends to whom their happiness 
and prosperity is a source of gratification. 



HENRY NESEMAN. Prominent among the 
pioneer farmers of the ]\Iohawk valley was the 
late Henry Neseman, who took up a tract of 
wild, uncultivated land, and during the thirty 
years that he was subsequently engaged in agri- 
cidtural pursuits cleared and improved a valuable 
ranch, which is now owned and occupied by his 
widow, Airs. Barbara Neseman. Honest, indus- 
trious and thrifty, he won success through his 
own efiforts, becoming an excellent representative 
of the self-made men of Plumas county, and one 
of the most respected and esteemed citizens of the 
community in which he so long resided. He was 
born May 14, 1827, in Hanover, Gemiany, and 
died on the home ranch, June 16, 1898, his death 
being deeply regretted by all. 

After completing his early education, Henry 
Neseman served an apprenticeship at the baker's 
trade in the Eatherland, remaining there until of 
age. Coming to the L^nited States in 1848, he 
followed his trade in this country for five years, 
first in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then in Milwaukee, 
Wis. Becoming head of a household then, 
he purchased land in Waukesha county, Wis., 
and for another five years lived in that state, 
being engaged in agricultural pursuits, and 
meeting w'ith fairly gcKid results as a general 
farmer. Selling out in 1863, he came by the way 
of Panama to California, bringing his family, 
and settling in Quincy, Plumas county, where 
for three years he was employed in the brewing 
business. Looking about for a place in which to 
make a permanent location, he purchased a squat- 
ter's right in the Mohawk valley, and this he 



afterwards homesteaded and pre-empted, becom- 
ing owner of a portion of the land now included 
in the home ranch. As he accumulated money, he 
bought adjacent land, and in course of time had 
a valuable ranch of four hundred acres of good 
grazing land, mostly in the valley. As a general 
ranchman and dairyman he met with signal suc- 
cess, and in his mining pursuits he was also for- 
tunate, obtaining a competency for himself and 
family. 

October 28, 1853, in Wisconsin, Mr. Neseman 
married Barbara Hahn, who w-as born in Hesse- 
Darmstadt, Germany, January 16, 1831, and came 
with her parents to W'isconsin in i8^8. Six 
children were born of the union of Air. and 
Mrs. Neseman, namely : Annie, wife of Jacob 
Stephan, engaged in the livery business at Quin- 
cy. this county ; Henry, who was born February 
26, 1856, and died in 1890; Bertha, wife of John 
B. Sutton, of Reno, Nev. ; Frederick John, pro- 
prietor of a hotel at Loyalton ; Nellie, who died 
at the age of three years ; and Hattie, wife of 
Frederick H. Barton, who manages the home 
ranch for Airs. Neseman. Politically Air. Nese- 
man was a Republican in his views, but never 
sought office. Both Air. and Airs. Neseman were 
reared in the Lutheran faith. 



PLUMAS A. YOUNG. As an able official 
of his native county, Plumas A. Young is up- 
holding the best interests of this section. He is 
a native son of California, his birth having oc- 
curred in Taylorsville, Plumas county, on the 
13th of November, 1864; his father, William G. 
Young, was a native of Canada, but in early 
manhood located in the United States, and in 
1850 crossed the plains to California, intent upon 
trying his fortunes among the promising if 
pioneer conditions of the Pacific coast state. In 
addition to ranching pursuits he established a 
general store at Taylorsville, in which, after 
completing the course of the common schools, 
his son, Plumas A., engaged as an assistant. 
After the death of his father his mother sold the 
store to an uncle, J. C. Young, and in 1899 he 
joined his brother, G. W. Young, who was then 




fkj2„}iA.nia4 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



.HI 



located in Burns, Harney count)', Ore., and en- 
gaged in stock-raising and general ranching. He 
remained in that association for alxjut four years, 
when he returned to California, and in Indian 
valley was once more identified with mercantile 
pursuits, working with his uncle in the store at 
Taylorsville. A Republican in his political con- 
victions, he early assumed a prominent place 
among those who sought to advance the best 
IX)litical measures of the county, and although 
strong on national issues, he was always too 
loyal to give his unqualified support to a local 
ticket. Hence, he came to be trusted b\- his fel- 
low citizens who had the county's welfare most 
at heart. In 1898 he was nominated for county 
clerk against H. C. Flournoy, and although pre- 
vented by sickness in his family from making a 
canvass, he was defeated by only thirty-six votes. 
September 6, 1905, he was appointed county as- 
sessor of Plumas county, and since his assump- 
tion of his duties has ably demonstrated his abil- 
ity as a public official. Undoubtedly he has a 
future in the political honors of the countv. 

In Taylorsville, in March, 1896, he was united 
in marriage with Miss Lillie M. Chapman, a na- 
tive of Missouri, who came with her parents to 
California when a child. They are the parents 
of one son, Arthur. In his fraternal relations 
Mr. Young is a member of Hope Lodge No. 234, 
F. & A. M., of Beckwith, Cal., and is a charter 
member of Plumas Parlor No. 228, N. S. G. W., 
of Tavlorsville. 



PHILIP J. GOUMAZ. The family repre- 
sented by this retired rancher of Lassen county is 
of Swiss origin and possesses the sturdy perse- 
verance characteristic of the race. The first of 
the name to cross the ocean were his parents, 
Peter and Luzetta ( Lambert ) Goumaz, who, ac- 
companied by their children, started from the old 
world to seek a home and livelihood in the west- 
ern hemisphere. During 1851 they landed in 
New York and after eighteen months in that 
state they proceeded west to Illinois, where in 
1853 the father died in Fayette county on a farm. 
Eleven years later his wife passed away. Of 



their nine children who attained maturity five 
are now living. Two of the sons, Xavier and 
Joseph, served in an Illinois regiment during the 
Civil war. Three members of the family sought 
homes in the far west, namely: Philip J., of 
Susanville; Isadore, who crossed the plains in 
1859, but later returned to Kansas and there 
died ; and Anna, who is the wife of L. C. Stiles, 
represented elsewhere in this volume. 

The next to the youngest among the children 
was Philip J., who was born in Pierne, Canton 
Fribourg, Switzerland, October 9, 1843, and ac- 
companied the family to America in 1851, later 
settling in Illinois, where he attended district 
schools for a brief period. During 1863 he left 
his old home and started for California via the 
Nicaragua route, being a passenger on the ship 
Aloses Taylor to San Francisco, from which 
jx)int he proceeded to Indian valle\-. During the 
next two years he worked as a farm hand in the 
summer and attended school in the winter. Com- 
ing to Lassen county in 1865 he rented land on 
Gold Run Flat, three miles below Susanville and 
the following year bought the tract of two hun- 
dred acres, where he engaged in raising cattle 
and hay. Selling that property in 1884, he re- 
moved a distance of forty-five miles to Grass- 
hopper valley, where he owned eight hundred 
acres with fine springs and excellent range. At 
one time he had six hundred head of cattle and 
one hundred and fifty head of horses and mules, 
being one of the largest stockmen in the entire 
county. During 1900 he removed to his com- 
fortable home in Susanville, and five years later 
he disposed of his ranch and stock. 

For many years after coming to California Mr. 
Goumaz remained unmarried, but on the 28th of 
June, 1880, he established domestic ties through 
his marriage to Miss Susie Talbot, who was 
born in 1858 on board ship A. H. Stevens off 
Peru. South America. Two children came to 
bless their union, but Lina alone survives, the 
son. Philip S.. having Ix^en taken from the home 
by death when he was a bright and promising 
boy of twelve years. Mrs. Goumaz was one of 
four children now living, the others being as 
follows: Mary S.. wife of Granville Pullen. of 
Janesville, Cal. : Stanwood E.. of Vallejo : and 



542 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Eben B., who makes his home at East Oakland. 
The Talbot ancestry is traced to Lord Talbot of 
England. The founder of the family in Amer- 
ica was captain of a sailing vessel, and in the in- 
terests of his work was led to remove from 
England to Maine. Capt. Enoch Talbot, a son 
of the original immigrant, was lx)rn in Maine 
and early became familiar with the life of a 
sailor. As captain of his own ship he sailed to 
many parts of the world (once visiting his rela- 
tive Lord Talbot), returning to his shipyard at 
Freeport, Me., for repairs and reloading. When 
advanced in years he died in Maine. Among his 
children was a son, Capt. E. S. Talbot, a native 
of Freeport, Me., and a sailor from boyhood, 
eventually becoming captain of a merchant-ma- 
rine vessel that rounded the Horn and the Cape 
of Good Hope several times and once suffered 
shipwreck off the last-named cape. After his 
marriage to Sophia Bacon he made his head- 
quarters in his wife's native town, Alexandria, 
A'a., and ran the steamer City Point from Wash- 
ington to City Point with mail and express. Later 
he had charge of a passenger steamer and event- 
ually returned to the deep sea. 

Cpon retiring from the life of a sailor Capt. 
E. S. Talbot in 1875 brought his family to Cali- 
fornia and bought land near Johnsville, where he 
began general ranch pursuits. Soon he was 
elected county judge and continued in that ca- 
pacity until the office was discontinued. Later 
he was retained as deputy sheriff. In 1885 he 
removed to San Francisco and became captain of 
the tugboat Anashay, after which for ten years 
he was government inspector of steamships. 
The latter position he filled until his deadi, which 
occurred July 21, 1896, at the age of sixty-one 
years. Though the nature of his occupation was 
such as to preclude participation in public affairs, 
he was always stanch in his allegiance to the 
Democratic party. In religious faith he was con- 
nected with the Baptist Church, and fraternally 
was a Mason of the Knight Templar degree. 
His wife, like himself, was of sea-faring ances- 
try. Her father, Capt. Eben Bacon, a native of 
Maine, for many years was a captain on the 
deep sea and eventually died at Alexandria ; in 
earlv manhood he had been united with Susan, 



daughter of Capt. Henry and Sarah (Field) 
Bayne, natives respectively of Virginia and Eng- 
land, the former for years a captain on the At- 
lantic ocean. Since the death of her husband 
Mrs. Talbot has made her home in East Oakland, 
where her younger son also resides and where 
her daughter, Mrs. Goumaz, has a host of friends 
and is still a member of the Baptist Church of 
that city. 

Ardent in his allegiance to the Republican 
party, Mr. Goumaz at this writing holds a posi- 
tion as member of the county Republican central 
committee and maintains a deep interest in mat- 
ters pertaining to tlie local progress of the party. 
For two terms of four years each he held the 
office of supervisor, in which capacity he was in- 
strumental in promoting projects for the develop- 
ment of the county. In fraternal relations he 
has been connected with the Masons since 1867, 
when he was made a Mason in Lassen Lodge 
No. 149, F. & A. M. Since that time he has ex- 
tended his affiliations by becoming a member of 
Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. M., in which he is 
past high priest, also Lassen Commandery No. 
13, K. T., and in addition with his wife he holds 
membership in the Order of the Eastern Star 
at Susanville, 



WALTER EDE. In the early days of the 
American colonization of California, ere yet the 
broad lands of the Sierra valley had attracted 
settlers, there came to Plumas county as a per- 
manent settler and progressive rancher the late 
Walter Ede, an Englishman by birth and parent- 
age, but by education and citizenship an Ameri- 
can of the energetic, resourceful type commonly 
found in new countries. Descended from an old 
family of Great Britain and himself a native of 
Sussex, born July 29, 1835. he was only eight 
years of age when the family sought a home 
amid the greater opportunities offered by the 
United States. Among the recollections of his 
childhood which lingered with him through 
manhood and into old age was that of the long 
voyage in a sailing vessel across the Atlantic 
ocean in 1843 and of the subsequent trip via ca- 



HISTORICAL Ax\D BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



543 



nal, lake and wagon into Wisconsin, whore lie 
passed the years of youth. 

While still <|uite young Mr. Ede was attracted 
to the Pacific Coast by reason of the discovery of 
gold in the mountains of California, and he 
made the long journey across the plains, endur- 
ing all the hardships and privations incident to 
such a trip in the days before the building of 
railroads. Shortly after his arrival in Califor- 
nia he came to the Sierra valley in Plumas coun- 
ty and in 1863 took up land, where he engaged 
in raising stock and general farm products. As 
the years passed by new settlers were attracted 
to this part of the state, farms were laid out, 
stock began to be more abundant, and the little 
vallev took on an appearance of prosperity. 
Through wise investments in land that increased 
in value and through the judicious management 
of his crops and stock, he accumulated an estate 
valued at $45,000, all representative of his ardu- 
ous labors after coming west. His death, which 
occurred April 8, 1901, was mourned by the peo- 
ple of Plumas county, who looked upon him as 
one of their most influential citizens and saga- 
cious stock raisers. Surviving him are his widow 
(formerly C. Amanda Dean, a native of Ohio, 
whom he married in 1870) and seven children, 
as follows : Cora May, the wife of Beal Sellman, 
of Reno, Nev. : Leonard G., a well-educated 
young man who is now engaged in teaching 
school at Vinton, near the old home ranch : 
Charles W., of \'inton ; Irene, a teacher in Reno, 
Nev.; Allan S.. a teacher in Wadsworth, Nev.; 
Ada, at home with her mother ; and Alfred L., 
a midshipman at Annapolis. 



WILLIAM DAMS THORXE. Travelers 
whose business interests bring them into the 
Sierra valley find at I^yalton all the comforts 
of a home in the Keys Hotel, of which Mr. 
Thorne is the popular and efficient landlord. 
Since assuming the management of this place 
Mr. Thorne has gained a wiile circle of friends 
among the traveling public and at the same time, 
by refusing to permit a bar to be conducted in 
connection with the hotel, he has proved him- 



self more desirous of establishing a first-class 
reputation for the place than of accumulating 
quick profits from its management. Included 
in his possessions are a number of town lots 
in Loyalton and property at other [ilaces, all of 
which represents his unaided exertions, for he 
had no assistance is securing a start in the busi- 
ness world. 

In Prince Edward county. Ontario. Canada 
West. Mr. Thorne was born October 18, 1847. 
being the son of parents born in the same county 
as himself. On the paternal side lie traces his 
lineage to Scotland, while ibrougli his mother 
he is of English extraction. As a boy he alter- 
nated work on the home farm with attendance 
upon the common schools, and meanwhile learned 
lessons of self-reliance that have been of inesti- 
mable value to him in maturer years. M the age 
of twenty-one years he left home to make his 
own way in the world and came to California 
via the Panama route, settling at San Jose. In 
a short time he secured work as a ranch hand 
in that locality. During the fall of 1869 he came 
to Gibson vdle, Sierra county, and began to work 
in the mines, also engaged in contracting timber 
and lumber for the mines. For a long period 
he continued in the same locality, but in 1893 
he removed to Giallenge Mill, ^'uba county, 
where he took up work at contracting and log- 
ging. In i8g6 he went to Honcut, Butte county, 
this state, and for some years was busil\- occupied 
in teaming from Marysville to Gibsonville, La 
Porte and other places, using in the work two 
teams of ten and twelve horses each. Selling 
out his teaming equipment in 1901, he came to 
Loyalton, wdiere for one season he followed 
teaming for the Roberts Lumber Company and 
since has been interested in the hotel business. 

The marriage of Mr. Thorne was solemnized 
October 18, 1876, and united him with Miss 
Sarah O'Rake. who was born in Ireland, but 
immigrated to California in 1868 with her par- 
ents, settling at LaPorte and remaining there 
until subsequent to lier union with Mr. Thorne. 
They have three children, of whom the daughter, 
Lucetta. is a popular teacher in the Loyalton 
schools. The older son, Robert William, resides 
at Lovalton and is employed as fireman on a 



1 



54-t 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



locomotive, while the younger son, George Owen, 
is employed as clerk in a store in Los Angeles. 
Matters relating to national issues receive earn- 
est attention on the part of Mr. Thome, who has 
been a lifelong believer in Republican principles 
and a consistent supporter of the party ticket. 
Fraternally a Mason, he was initiated into the 
blue lodge at Colusa in 1872, and after coming 
to Loyalton became identified with Lodge No. 
139, F. & A. M., in the founding of which he 
was prominently interested. Three years after 
he was made a Mason he was raised to the 
chapter degree at LaPorte, Plumas county, with 
which he remains connected to the present time. 



JAMES P. TONEY. Among the pioneer ag- 
riculturists of Modoc county who are noted for 
the eminent success they achieved while indus- 
triously employed in their free and independent 
calling is James P. Toney. a well-known and 
highly esteemed resident of Lake City, now liv- 
ing retired from active pursuits. When he took 
possession of his farm, lying east of the city, 
thirty-five years ago, the land was in its primeval 
wildness, but by the exercise of energy and in- 
telligence he brought it to a good state of cul- 
tivation, making it one of the most valuable and 
productive ranches of Surprise valley. He has 
the distinction of beuig one of the oldest pioneers 
of the Pacific coast, having lived continuously in 
Oregon or California since 1847, and is also an 
excellent representative of the self-made men of 
our times, by perseverance and industry accumu- 
lating a handsome competency. A son of the late 
James Toney, he was born November 18, 1833, 
in Callaway county. Mo. He is of French de- 
scent, his great grandfather, William Toney, 
having emigrated from France to the United 
States in 1773, locating in Franklin county, Va. 
He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, 
as did his son, Edmund Toney, the next in line 
of descent. 

Born and reared in Franklin county, \'a., until 
he was sixteen years old, James Toney then went 
to Ohio, where he married Martha Thornton, a 
native of South Carolina. Following the march 



of civilization westward, he located in Missouri 
at an early period of its history, and from the 
dense forest cleared a homestead. In the spring 
of 1847 lis crossed the plains with his family, 
and for a number of years resided in the Willa- 
mette valley. Ore., subsequently, however, com- 
ing to Modoc county, where he lived with his 
son James until called to the higher life, his death 
occurring in i8gi, at the venerable age of ninety- 
two years. His wife died in 1863, in Oregon. 

James P. Toney was born in Missouri and 
lived in that state until fourteen years old, when 
he went with the family to Oregon, becoming a 
pioneer of Yamhill county in the Willamette val- 
ley. Coming from there to Mod(3c county in 
1871, he bought one hundred and sixty acres of 
land in Surprise valley, east of Lake City, on 
which there were no improvements, the land 
being completely covered with sage brush. La- 
boring with untiring diligence, he succeeded in 
placing a large part of it under cultivation, mak- 
ing his ranch one of the best in point of its im- 
provements and appointments of any in the val- 
ley. Succeeding well from a financial stand- 
point, he bought other tracts of land, and now, 
with his sons, owns six hundred and forty acres 
of rich farming land, devoted to the raising of 
alfalfa, grain, etc. In 1905 Mr. Toney retired 
from active business, and is now enjoying all the 
comforts of life in his pleasant home at Lake 
Cit\-. He is patriotic and public spirited, and 
while living in Oregon, in 1855 and 1856, served 
in the Piute Indian wars. In politics he is an 
independent Democrat, and in religion is a mem- 
ber of the Christian church. 

In Oregon, January 21, 1858, Mr. Toney mar- 
ried Sarah Elizabeth Metzker, who was born in 
Iowa, and died in 1903 on the home farm, in 
Surprise valley. Ten children were born of their 
union, five of whom have passed to the higher 
life, namely,: Jonathan Benjamin, Christopher 
and Eleanor died in childhood ; Mervin died at 
the age of twenty-one years ; and Mary Alice. 
who married Charles Seyferth, died in early wom- 
anhood, leaving four children, James, Lawrence, 
Mabel and Lester, the youngest of whom lives 
with Mr. Toney. Of the five children living we 
mention the following : George Washington, en- 




JOEL E. FREEMAN 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



547 



gaged ill farming in Surprise valley, married 
Mary Jane Cole, by wliom he has six children, 
Minnie, William, Harry, Mervin, Winnie and 
Susie; Martha Belle married L. Paschal and had 
one daughter, Edna : after the death of Mr. 
Paschal she became the wife of John C. Cannon, 
of Surprise valley, by whom she has three chil- 
dren, Mervin, Roxie and Lemuel ; John Lemuel, 
also of Surprise valley, married Mary Elizabeth 
Hall, by whom he has two children, Ruth and 
Elmer; and Laura, now keeping house for her 
father, married first Robert Toncy, who died, 
leaving her with two children, Effie Blanche and 
Crban Arthur ; she later married George C. Can- 
non. Mr. Toney has always been interested in 
the maintenance of good schools and served as a 
director a number of vears. 



JOEL E. FREEMAN. There are few men 
now living within the Sierra Valley whose arri- 
val in this portion of California antedated that 
of Mr. Freeman, an honored pioneer and pros- 
perous rancher residing eight miles west of Loy- 
alton. At the time of his settlement on his pres- 
ent ranch, in the spring of i860, the land had 
not been surveyed and no atteinpt had been made 
to bring it under cultivation or make needed im- 
provements. From time to time he has added 
to his original purchase until his landed posses- 
sions now aggregate twenty-five hundred acres, 
perhaps one-half of which is in meadow and in 
grain, while the balance is utilized for the pas- 
turage of the horses and cattle. Usually he has 
on the ranch about two hundred head of cattle, 
for which number he has an abundance of pas- 
turage. In addition he has a team of ten horses 
and another of eight horses, these being used in 
the hauling of freight between Loyalton and 
Sierra City. 

Born in East Tennessee, January 9, 1836. Joel 
E. Freeman is a son of William M. and Sarah 
(Qiurchman) Freeman, also natives of East 
Tennessee, and members of old Southern fami- 
lies. His father, while still young in years, 
proved himself an efficient soldier at the time of 
the war with the Cherokee Indians. Reared on 



a farm in Tennessee, he remained in his native 
locality until 1848, when ,he removed to Iowa 
and settled upon a tract of government land in 
Jeflferson couirty. The following year, when 
news came of the discovery of gold in California, 
he came across the plains with ox-teams and set- 
tled on the Russian river near Healdsburg in So- 
noma county, where he began the life of a ranch- 
er in the midst of primitive conditions. About 
1855 he returned to Iowa and engaged in the 
mercantile business in Jeflferson county, but in 
1859 he disposed of his interests there and, ac- 
companied by his family, came to the Pacific 
coast country as a permanent settler, making the 
journey with oxen and wagons. Coming to the 
Sierra valley, in the spring of i860 he took up 
government land and began the task of improv- 
ing a farm. After some years he disposed of the 
property and returned to Sonoma county, where 
he died at an advanced age. His wife had died 
in Iowa at the age of about sixty years. 

\\'hen twelve years old Joel E. Freeman ac- 
companied his parents from Tennessee to Iowa 
and when twenty-three he became a resident of 
California, settling in the Sierra Valley at that 
early day. The year of his removal across the 
plains was also the year of his marriage, which 
was solemnized prior to his departure from Iowa 
and united him with Miss \'irginia Cooksy, a 
native of Indiana. Six children were born of 
their union, namely : Willis, who is engaged in 
ranching near the old homestead ; William, a 
rancher near Smartville, Yuba county, this state ; 
John, who assists his father in the management 
of the large home ranch ; Sarah, who is married 
and resides in San Francisco; Thomas Edward, 
now living at Reno, Nev. ; and Qiarles, who is 
still with his parents. In political views Mr. 
Freeman has always been a believer in Demo- 
cratic principles. However, no trace of partisan- 
ship has ever appeared in his actions ; on the con- 
trary he is liberal in his opinions and concedes 
to others the same freedom of thought which he 
demands for himself. At no time in his long 
and busy life has he had the leisure to take an 
active part in politics, nor have his tastes inclined 
in that direction, for he is pre-eminently a man 
of domestic tastes, more content with the quiet 



548 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



round of daily duties than with the excitement 
incident to business or political affairs, yet ever 
willing tO' discharge each duty belonging to a cit- 
izen of public spirit and patriotic impulses. 



JOHN PRENTICE HOLMES. Among the 
successful ranchers of Lassen county is J. P. 
Holmes, who resides two miles east of Standish. 
His father, Nathaniel Holmes, was a native of 
Massachusetts, and a member of a prominent 
old New England family. During the early '50s 
he came via Panama to California, where he en- 
gaged in mining for a time, and during the 
gold excitement at A'irginia City erected a hotel 
at Washoe City, Washoe county, Nev.. running 
it for many years. Disposing of the hotel he 
went to Franktown, four miles from Washoe 
City, where he purchased another hotel, then 
rented the Sandy Bowers ranch, and operated 
both for two years, at the same time running a 
hotel omnibus from Carson to Virginia City. 
After disposing of his property in Nevada he 
returned to California, and going to Honey Lake 
valley, entered government land, taking up three 
hundred and twenty acres of sage brush land, 
which he improved and put under cultivation, 
and spent the remainder of his life there, dying 
in 1895. H^ ^^'^s a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, and in politics supported 
the Repulilican platform. His wife, formerly 
Martha Irene Prentice, is a native of Connecti- 
cut, and is the daughter of John Prentice, one of 
the pioneer settlers of this state. She resides 
at Pacific Grove, Cal., and is the mother of eight 
children, viz., Edward, who resides at Oakland; 
Nathaniel, living at Sacramento ; Lizzie Ross, 
of San Francisco ; Jessie, who married Walter 
DeWitt, and resides at DeWitt, Lassen county ; 
John, Harr}- and George, all three of whom are 
farming on the home ranch ; and Mabel, who re- 
sides at Pacific Grove. 

John Prentice Holmes was born September 
18, 1868, in Washoe county, Nev., where he was 
reared on a farm, receiving his education in the 
public schools, and helping with the farm work. 
Attaining his majority he became a partner with 



his father in the farming operations, as did his 
brothers, Harry and George, and when their 
father died, they became the owners of the land 
and stock. The brothers have put the whole of 
the three hundred and twenty acres under cul- 
tivation, and are extensive stock raisers. Their 
cattle brand is A-|-A, and that for horses is an 
N within a circle. 

Near Standish, in Honey Lake valley, Mr. 
Holmes was married to Catherine Hartson, who 
is a native of California, having been born in 
the valley, and is the daughter of Charles Hart- 
son, a pioneer settler of this county. Three chil- 
dren have come to bless this union, whose names 
are as follows: Roland, ISernard and Berle. In 
politics Mr. Holmes supports the Republican 
platform with stanch fidelity, and his political 
friends demonstrated their appreciation of his 
abilities by sending him to the county conven- 
tions, and making him school trustee. His genial 
and kindly disposition have won for him many 
warm friends. 



WARREN D. PACKWOOD. The village of 
Bieber in the northwestern part of Lassen county 
has been the home of Mr. Packwood for a long 
period of years, and various of its leading com- 
mercial enterprises have been promoted by his 
enthusiastic co-operation and keen judgment. 
Now in the prime of life, he faces a future of 
steady progress and gratifying success, should 
unexpected misfortune not intervene. Of east- 
ern parentage, he was born in Des Moines 
county, Iowa, July 24, 1869, and from his native 
coimty came to California with his parents in 
1880, settling in Sonoma county, where he com- 
pleted the studies of the common schools and also 
took a course of study m the Healdsburg Com- 
mercial College, of which he is a graduate. 

On coming to Bieber in 1890 Mr. Packwood 
secured employment as a clerk in a store owned 
l)y I. Packwood, with whom he remained for a 
number of years. In i8g8 he became associated 
with his father in the mercantile business, but 
after a year the partnership was dissolved and 
the store sold. Tlie next enterprise to which he 
devoted his attention was that of stock-raising, 






> 

•A 
o 
ei 

s 

X 
< 

PS 

< 



HISTORICAL AND CIOGRAI'HICAL RECORD. 



651 



in wliicli lie formed a partnership with his father 
and secured a tract of one thousand acres of 
grazing land l\iiig; immeciiately south of the vil- 
lage. A portion of the land is in timber, but 
the principal acreage is suitable for the purpose 
of pasturage. Besides conducting fiis stock-rais- 
ing interests upon a large scale, Mr. Packwood 
acts as manager of the Big Valley Co-operative 
Store at Bieber, which was opened in August of 
1905 and with which smci_- then he has been iden- 
tified. 

During 1890 ]\Ir. Packwood was united in 
marriage with Miss Clara Hopper, by whom he 
has three children, Myrle, Ruth and James. In 
religious views Mr. and Airs. Packwood are in 
sympathy with the doctrines of the Methodist 
Episcopal Qiurch Soiith, of which botli are mem- 
bers. Both are also connected with Esther Chap- 
ter No. 74, Eastern Star, at Adin, of which Mrs. 
Packwood is worthy matron. Politically a stanch 
believer in Democratic principles, Mr. Packwood 
takes a warm interest in local affairs and for 
years has been a local leader in party affairs. 
During the second term of President Cleveland 
he was tendered the appointment as postmaster 
at Bieber and held the office until the national 
administration became Republican. Several 
times he has been chosen a delegate to the county 
conventions of his party and in addition he has 
officiated as a member of the county central com- 
mittee. Twice he was chosen to represent his 
party and count}- in the Democratic state con- 
vention, but both times business duties prevented 
him from attending the convention. In 1900 he 
was chosen a member of the county Ixjard of 
supervisors, the duties of wdiich position he as- 
sumed in January of the following year. .At the 
expiration of his term in 1904 he was re-elected 
to the office, which he is now filling with the 
same energy and devotion to the county's welfare 
that he displayed in the former term. In Ma- 
sonry he has been both interested and influential. 
Adin Lodge No. 250, F. & A. M.. at .Adin, has 
honored him with the office of worshipful master, 
and he has passed the cliairs in Acacia Cliapter 
No. 64, R. A. M., at Adin, besides which he is 
a member of Lassen Commandery No. 13, K. T., 
at Susanville. The Independent Order of Odd 



Fellows has also been the recipient of his intel- 
ligent advocacy and local leadership. Identified 
with Big Valley Lodge No. 286, at Bieber, he 
ranks as past noble grand of the lodge, and in 
addition has been honored with the office of chief 
patriarch of the encampment at the same place. 



THOMAS J. MULRONEY. Prominent 
among the early settlers of Lassen county is 
Thomas J. Mulroney, who is closely identified 
with the agricultural interests of this part of Cal- 
ifornia. He located here nearly half a century 
ago, at a time when the brave pioneers were 
obliged to avail themselves of every possible ad- 
vantage in order to make both ends meet, pro- 
vide themselves and families with the neces- 
saries of life, and proceed with the improve- 
ments on their new homesteads. Energetic and 
persevering. Mr. Mulroney labored courageous- 
1\, and his efforts met with well-deserved re- 
ward, the tide of prosperity so flowing in his di- 
rection that in a comparatively few years he had 
a large number of acres of his ranch in a good 
yielding condition, and had erected new barns 
and outbuildings, while the rude log cabin had 
been replaced by his present substantial dwelling 
house. Like many of our most respected and 
thrifty citizens, he is of foreign birth, having 
been born in Kilkenny county, Ireland, August 
20, 1838. 

At the age of eight years Thomas J. Mulroney 
came with his parents to America, and until 
nineteen years of age remained at home. In 1857, 
desirous of trying his fortunes in the gold re- 
gions of this state, he sailed from New York 
City for San Francisco, coming by way of the 
Isthmus of Panama. Coing to Plumas county, 
he was engaged in mining for a brief time, but 
not meeting with the success that he had antici- 
l^ated he came to Lassen county, locating near 
Susanville. where he bought a claim of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres. He subsequently pur- 
chased adjoining land, and for five years was 
employed in general farming. Selling out to his 
brother in 1862. he took possession of his present 
farm, pre-emjiting one hundred and sixty acres, 



552 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and taking up a homestead claim equally as 
large. All of this was wild land, the only im- 
provement on the ranch being a small log cabin. 
He has since bought fifty-five acres of land, and 
has one of the best-kept and most productive 
ranches in this locality. By diligent toil he has 
added excellent improvements, having all of his 
land fenced, one hundred and fifty acres broken 
up and much of it under cultivation, devoting it 
to the raising of grain. He also raises and feeds 
stock, making a specialty of this branch of agri- 
culture, and like all wise and practical farmers 
has his land under irrigation. 

April 6, 1866, near Susanville, Mr. JMulroney 
married Sarah Thompson, who was born in 
Monroe county, N. Y., June 9, 1849, a daughter 
of Richard and Margaret Thompson, both na- 
tives of Ireland. Richard Thompson emigrated 
to the United States when a young man, and 
was married in New York. Some years after- 
wards, leaving his family in the east, he came to 
California, and settled as a miner in Plumas 
county. Making some money, he invested it in 
land, and having purchased a ranch near Susan- 
ville sent for his wife and children, his daughter 
Sarah then being a girl of fourteen years, and 
was subsequently here engaged in farming and 
stock raising until his death. Both he and his 
wife are buried in Susanville. Of the union of 
Mr. and Mrs. Mulroney six children were born, 
namely: William, who died at the age of three 
years ; Ellen Gertrude, wife of Robert Dunn ; 
Alice, wife of Frank A. Hansen, of whom a 
brief sketch may be found elsewhere in this vol- 
ume ; Thomas of Spoonville ; Mary Agnes, living 
at home ; and Richard Edward, living at home. 
Mrs. Mulroney passed away February 13, 1906. 
Politically Mr. Mulroney is a stanch Democrat, 
and for several years has served as school trus- 
tee. Religiously he and his family are members 
of St. ]\Iarv's Catholic Church at Susanville. 



DA\TD RAKER. A well-known agricultur- 
ist of Honey Lake valley, David Raker is num- 
bered among the sturdy, energetic and prosper- 
ous farmers of Lassen county who thoroughly 



understand the vocation which thev follow, and 
are enabled to carry it on with pleasure and profit. 
He was born April 10, 1859, in Knox county, 
111., of thrifty German ancestry, being a son 
of the late Christian Frederick Raker, a native of 
Germany. 

Born and educated in Wurtemberg, Gemiany, 
Christian Frederick Raker emigrated to this 
country when young, and for many years resided 
in Illinois. In 1871, accompanied by his eldest 
son, George, he came to Lassen county, and here 
pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land. 
In 1873 he went back to his old home, leaving his 
son on the land which he had taken up, and in the 
fall of that same year returned to Honey Lake 
valley, bringing with him his wife and the 
younger children. Being taken ill soon after his 
return, he was unable to prove up on his claim, 
and in June, 1874, he died, and his body was 
buried in ^lilford. His wife, whose maiden name 
was Alary Ellen Rambo, was born in Cumber- 
land, Pa., and now, an active woman of seventy 
\ears, is living with her youngest daughter, in 
Orange county, Cal. She bore her husband 
seven children, namely : George, who accompa- 
nied his father on his first trip across the plains ; 
Lucy, wife of J. A. Gilman, of Susanville ; David, 
the subject of this sketch; Charlotte, wife of 
Julian Johnson, of Sacramento; John E., of Al- 
turas, county judge of Modoc county; Clarence, 
also of Alturas ; and Hattie A., wife of Frederick 
Spencer, of Orange county. 

While living in Knox county. 111., David 
Raker received his preliminary education, and 
after coming to Lassen county continued his 
studies for awhile in the common schools of Mil- 
ford. Soon after the death of his father he be- 
came self-supporting, for a number of years 
working for wages. In the meantime, in com- 
pany with his brother George, he bought the one 
hundred and sixty acres of land now known as 
the Crawford place, which was then partly im- 
proved, and with the wages earned paid for his 
share. These brothers subsequently purchased 
the Joe Nettle's ranch of one hundred and fifty 
acres, which Air. Raker took for his share when 
he and his brother dissolved partnership and di- 
vided the property. He has continually added to 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



555 



the iinjiroveinents previously besun, and lias al- 
ready i)ut in tliirty acres of alfalfa. He raises 
considerable grain, and has an excellent dairy, in 
the management of which he receives a good in- 
come. 

December 17. 1885. Mr. Raker married Caro- 
line E. Batman, who was liorii in Marin countw 
Cal.. June 13. 1863. a daughter of J. W. Uatman, 
now residing in Colusa, Cal. .\ native of Mis- 
souri. Mr. Batman lived in his native state until 
1853, when he crossed the plains to Oregon, 
crossing the summit of the Rocky mountains on 
the twenty-first anniversary of his birth. In the 
spring of 1854 he came to California, and for a 
number of years was engaged in mining in Placer 
county. While there he married Claraette Allen, 
a native of Maine, who came to California by 
way of the Isthmus, leaving New York City in 
December, i860, and arriving in San Francisco 
early in 1861. Seven children have blessed the 
marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Raker, namely : Chris- 
tian W., Grace E., William, George C, Royce 
A.. Pearl E. and D. Drew. Politically Mr. Raker 
is a true-hlj.ie Republican. Fraternally he is a 
member and past noble grand of Janesville Lodge 
No. 223, I. O. O. F., which he represented at the 
Grand Lodge in San Francisco in 1898. Both Mr. 
and Mrs. Raker are members of Janesville Lodge 
No. 190, Daughters of Rebekah, of which Mrs. 
Raker is past noble grand and past district dep- 
utv. 



EDWIN DOUGLAS HOSSELKUS. In the 
list of prominent pioneers of Plumas county be- 
longs the name of the late Edwin D. Hosselkus, 
an influential merchant, rancher and dairyman of 
the Genesee valley, who for years before his 
death held a leading position among the agricult- 
urists of this section and as a monument to his 
industry left to his family a well-improved, val- 
uable ranch accumulated through his arduous la- 
bors. Born in New York, he was a small child 
when he went to Illinois in company with his 
parents, Nicholas and Lucretia (Bryan) Hossel- 
kus, natives of New York and pioneer residents 
of Ellisville. Fulton county. 111., where the father 
transformed a tract of raw land into a valuable 



farm. Removing to California in 1864 he settled 
at TaylorsvilJe and there passed from earth at 
eighty years of age, his wife dying in the same 
place when seventy-four. In politics he was a 
pronounced Democrat, but not a partisan nor 
active in public affairs. The lineage of his family 
was traced back to the colonial days of New 
York, when the founders of the name in this 
country immigrated from Holland ; his wife also 
was a member of an old family, but her ancestors 
were of the Puritan stock. 

A frontier farm in Illinois formed the environ- 
ment familiar to Edwin D. Hosselkus in boy- 
hood. Cpon starting out to earn his own way 
he secured work as clerk in a local store, but the 
prospects seemed discouraging and his eyes were 
turned toward the greater opportunities offered 
by the west. In 1852 he worked his way across 
the plains and secured employment on a ranch 
immediately after his arrival in California, but 
a year later came to Elizabcthtown, Plumas 
county, where he engaged in the mercantile busi- 
ness for a few years. The next enterprise in 
which he became interested was mining in the 
Indian -valley, after which he carried on a store 
at Susanville and next conducted a mercantile 
business at Taylorsville. Meanwhile his profits 
were invested in land, and during 1865 he left 
the store and settled on a ranch near Genesee in 
the valley of the same name. With an entinisiasm 
natural to him he began the development of the 
land and soon the results of his energy were ap- 
parent in the added improvements made on the 
ranch. In a few years he opened a small store 
near his house. Next he was instrumental in 
securing the establishment of the postoffice of 
(lenesee and was appointed the first postmaster, 
a i^osition that he continued to hold until his 
death. From time to time he added to his hold- 
ings until he had acquired about thirteen hundred 
acres, of which about eight hundred acres were 
in Genesee valley. Farming was the basis of all 
of his operations, but dairying was his specialty, 
and for several years there were about ninetv 
milch cows on the farm. About six months be- 
fore his death he was obliged to give up the 
management of the property and suffered from 
that time with increasing severity from heart 



556 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



trouble, which eventually caused his death, May 
30, 1892, when he was sixty-three years of age. 
During the Civil war Mr. Hosselkus became 
a stanch supporter of the policy adopted by Abra- 
ham Lincoln and ever afterward he supported 
the Republican party. For twelve years he served 
as a member of the board of supervisors of Plu- 
mas county, but with that exception declined to 
become a candidate for public offices. In 1859 he 
married Miss Mary A. Tate, a native of County 
Armagh, Ireland, but a resident of California 
from the age of sixteen years, and still living on 
the home ranch in the enjoyment of' excellent 
health. Four children were born of their mar- 
riage, namely : Frank Bryan, who has been post- 
master at Genesee since the death of his father: 
Allie T., wife of C. F. Barker, of Reno, Xev. : 
Marv L., who married W. E. Murray, a miner 
now living in Nova Scotia ; and John, of Plumas 
countv. Prior to his death Mr. Hosselkus di- 
vided his property among his wife and children, 
giving the ranch to the two sons, the daughter 
Mary, and the wife, and leaving a bequest for 
Mrs. Barker. In 1904 a company was incor- 
porated for the management of the ranch, which 
has been in charge of the older son since the 
father's death. Lender his intelligent supervision 
the ranch is maintained in a high state of culti- 
vation, a dairy of thirty cows is operated, and in 
addition there are about two hundred head of 
Durham cattle pastured on the ranch, the whole 
forming an important addition to the agricultural 
industries of the vallev. 



SAMUEL LEONIDAS FRAZIER. In the 
developn-icnt and advancement of the agricultural 
and horticultural interests of Lassen count)- Sam- 
uel Leonidas Frazier. of Janesville, has been 
an important factor. A man of intelligence. 
ability and practical judgment, he has met with 
success in his chosen calling, and by careful at- 
tention to the interests of others and to those 
things which are of benefit to the general public 
has shown himself a public-spirited and highly 
useful member of tlie communit)- in which he 
resides. He was born March 22, 1844, in Ten- 



nessee, where the first three years of his life 
were spent. His father, F. I. Frazier, was born 
and reared in Henry county, Tenn., removing 
from there to Greene county. Mo., in 1847, there 
following farming and stock-raising until his 
death, when seventy-two years of age. For one 
term he represented Greene county in the state 
legislature, and for two terms served in the state 
senate, representing the senatorial district com- 
posed of Greene, Stone and Taney counties. 

Moving with his parents to JNIissouri in 1847, 
Samuel Leonidas Frazier grew to manhood on 
the home farm, receiving a limited education in 
the district school. In 1862 he enlisted in Com- 
pany A, Third Missouri Cavalry, and for two 
years served as a private under Capt. A. Dan 
Brown, doing duty west of the Mississippi river 
all of the time. He took part in many engage- 
ments, among others being the battle of Helena. 
At the close of the war he turned his attention 
to agricultural pursuits, and was engaged in 
farming and stock-raising in Missouri for a num- 
ber of years. Coming to California in 1882, he 
located in Lassen county, buying three hundred 
and thirty acres of land bordering on Honey 
lake. A systematic, thoroughgoing farmer, he 
at once began its improvement, put in sixty acres 
of alfalfa, and for fifteen years was prosperously 
enjployed in dairying and stock-raising. Selling 
then at an advantage, he purchased his present 
farm, adjoining Janesville on the east. It con- 
tains two hundred and forty acres of valuable 
land, a part of which he devotes to the cultivation 
of alfalfa and fruit, having a good orchard and 
good grain and ha}- land. He raises apples, 
peaches, pears and prunes in abundance, selling 
them at the home market, and receiving top prices 
for all of his fruit. He has one hundred and 
sixty acres of his ranch fenced, and in addition 
to feeding cattle keeps a small dairy. Since 
coming here he has added greatly to the value of 
his estate, not only by his labors, but by the im- 
provements which he has made, rendering his 
estate one of the most attractive in the neighbor- 
hood. 

Mr. Frazier has been twice married. He mar- 
ried first Isabella Lay. who died in early woman- 
hood, leaving six children, namely : Jane H., 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



557 



wlio married Charles Hass, of Elysian valley, and 
has fdur children. Qara, Howard. Warren and 
Qvde; Julian E.. at home; Samuel .\., at home; 
Mattie Hell, at home ; Ona. who became the 
wife of G. P. Johnson, a school teacher, and ha.> 
one chilli. Pester; and Rollo Raymond, at home. 
Mr. I-"razier married for his second wife Mary 
L. Dunn, a daughter of John R. Dunn, and of 
their union four children have been born, namely: 
Hazel \'esta, Alvin Chester, George Ruel and 
Virgil Ruby. Politically Mr. Frazier is a loyal 
advocate of the principles of the Democratic 
party, and for a number of years has served as 
school trustee. Both he and his wife are mem- 
bers of the Baptist church, with which he united 
thirtv vears ago. 



ROBERT C. HOYT. Prominent among the 
pioneer settlers of Big Valley, Lassen county, 
is Robert C. Hoyt, who located here in 1872, and 
since that time has been industriously employed 
as a tiller of the soil. Coming here when the 
countr\' roundabout was in its original wildness, 
he had a few years of rough experience, endur- 
ing all of the hardships and privations of frontier 
life, after a long struggle overcoming all ol> 
stacles. Hardy, self-reliant, endowed with an 
almost unlimited stock of American push and 
energy, he toiled perseveringly, and in the years 
that have since elapsed he has improved a large 
and valuable ranch, on which he is now living 
in peace and plenty. The second winter that Mr. 
Hoyt lived here food was hard to obtain, and 
for one whole week he lived on boiled wheat, 
without salt. The fall of snow that season was 
unprecedented, being estimated at twenty-two 
feet, and he had the misfortune to lose all of his 
stock. On the first day of April, 1874, there was 
between three and four, feet of snow on the 
ground, and the suffering was intense. The In- 
dians, however, gave the few jjeople here no 
trouble, being friendly rather than otherwise. 
Mr. Hoyt was bom, October 18. 1852, in Lick- 
ing county. Ohio, but was brought up in Polk 
county. Iowa, whither his parents settled in 1856. 

Migratir.g to California in 1870, Mr. Hoyt 



was engaged in sheep-raising in Yrcka for two 
years. In 1872 he located at Big \allcy, buying 
a tract of raw land, and to this tract he has 
since made valuable additions, being now tlie 
owner of twelve hundred acres, about four hun- 
dred acres of which is devoted to the raising of 
hay. grain and alfalfa, the remainder being used 
for grazing purposes. Mr. Hoyt is one of the 
foremost stock-raisers of this section of the state, 
raising good blooded horses, mules, cattle, sheep 
and chickens, as a breeder of fine stock being 
exceptionally fortunate. He is a man of influ- 
ence in these parts and in the establishment of 
beneficial enterprises lends his aid and encourage- 
ment. He is one of the stockholders of the Big 
Valley Co-operative Association, of which he was 
one of the organizers, and is also a shareholder 
in the local telephone company. He is a strong 
Republican in his political aspirations, but has 
never been an aspirant for official honors. 

In 1879 'Mr. Hoyt married Sylvia A. Herr, 
of Yreka, who was Ixirn in California, of Ger- 
man ancestry, her father having been a native of 
Germany. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt 
has been blessed by the birth of eight children, 
si.x of whom are living, namely : Robert Perry, 
of Goldfield, Nev. ; .Anna, the wife of Benjamin 
McClure, of Hayden Hill, Lassen county; For- 
est, a resident of Hayden Hill : Effie, Frank and 
Irene, at home. 



WILLIAM GEORGE GIBSON. A man of 
superior business tact and ability, honest and 
just in all of his dealings, William George Gib- 
son is intimately associated with the industrial 
and mercantile interests of Plumas county, and 
as head of the firm of Gibson & .Sj^encer, lumber 
manufacturers, and also of the mercantile firm 
of Gibson, Mathews & Young, of P.eckwith, is 
one of the leading citizens of this section of the 
state. A native of Canada, he was lx>rn in Hunt- 
ingdon district, Quebec. May 18, 185.^, and was 
there brought up on a farm. 

.\fter completing his studies in the common 
schools, William G. Gibson .served an apprentice- 
ship of three years at the blacksmith's trade, and 



558 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



then continued at work one year where he had 
served liis apprenticeship, later for eighteen 
months conducting a shop of his own in his native 
town. In April, 1876, he came to California, 
locating in Sierra valley, and for a short time 
working at his trade in Sierraville. The follow- 
ing winter he worked in the timber on the Carson 
river, and the next fall settled in Beckwith, 
where for ten years he operated a blacksmith's 
shop. His health failing, he then engaged in the 
cattle business in Lassen county, remaining there 
until 1898, when he disposed of all of his stock, 
and returned to Beckwith. In company with 
Frank F. Peck, Mr. Gibson was here engaged 
in mercantile pursuits for two years, when the 
partnership was dissolved and the business of 
which he is now the senior member was organ- 
ized by Messrs. Gibson, Mathews and Young, 
and until 1905 he devoted his entire time and 
attention to the management of the store, the 
company building up an extensive and lucrative 
business. In January, 1905, Mr. Gibson became 
head of the firm of Gibson & Spencer, which 
erected the saw-mill near Beckwith, and for one 
season divided his time between the store and 
mill, at which time he sold out the milling busi- 
ness. 

Fraternally Mr. Gibson is a member of Hope 
Lodge No. 234, F. & A. M., of Beckwith, and 
now (1906) is one of five of the oldest members. 
Politically he is a stanch Republican, and is 
postmaster of Beckwith, having been appointed 
bv President jMcKinley, the postoffice being in 
his store. 



WILLIAM B. MATHEWS. Prominent 
among the well known and highly respected cit- 
izens of Plumas county is William B. Mathews, 
who is serving as postmaster at Johnsville, and 
is also agent for the Wells-Fargo Express Com- 
pany at that place. Of Welsh descent on the pa- 
ternal side, he was born, April 10, 1857, i" 
Pomeroy, Meigs county, Ohio, a son of the late 
David Mathews. 

Born and reared in Wales, David Mathews 
was there employed in mining for a number of 



years. In 1854, shortly after attaining his ma- 
jority, he immigrated to the United States, and 
in the ensuing years visited many of the central 
states, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wis- 
consin and Missouri. Not finding a desirable 
place in which to locate permanently, he came 
to California in 1862, and for about eight years 
worked for wages in the mining region of How- 
land Flat, Sierra county. Saving some money he 
then filed on government land in the Sierra val- 
ley, Plumas county, and having improved a 
ranch was there actively engaged in general 
farming until his death, March 8, 1902, at the 
age of three score and ten years. He married 
Mary Bowen, a native of Meigs county, Ohio, 
and she is still living, being now a resident of 
Beckwith. 

Coming with his parents to California when 
a boy of five years, William B. Mathews re- 
mained at home until twenty-one )-ears old, when 
he began working on a ranch, earning enough 
money to pay his way through the Pacific Busi- 
ness College in San Francisco. The following two 
years he was employed in the mines at Howland 
Flat, after which he was clerk in a store in 
Johnsville for a number of years. Giving up his 
position he operated a ranch and carried on a 
hotel at Alohawk for three years, being quite 
successful in his undertakings. Returning to 
Johnsville, he was appointed postmaster in July, 
1899, by President McKinley, and has since 
served ably and satisfactorily to all concerned. 
At the same time he was made agent of the 
Wells-Fargo Express Company, and since 1888 
he has also been notary public. 

August 13, 1886, Mr. Mathews married Flor- 
ence E. Woodward, who was born in Plumas 
county, a daughter of George Woodward, of 
whom a brief sketch appears elsewhere in this 
volume. Seven children have blessed the union 
of Mr. and Mrs. Mathews, of whom two died in 
infancy, and five are living, namely : Qiester D., 
Nelson G., Arthur J., Llewellyn and Alice. Po- 
litically Mr. Mathews is a stanch supporter of 
the principles of the Republican party, and fra- 
ternallv he is a member of Mohawk Lodge No. 
292, I. O. O. F., of Johnsville, and of Ouincy 
Lodge No. 127, A. O. U. W., of Quincy. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



00! 



REV. THOMAS GRACE. The Right 
Reverend Thomas Grace, bishop of the dio- 
cese of Sacramento, Cathedral of the Most 
Holy Sacrament, is one of the most prominent 
figures in the Roman Catliolir Church, whose 
interests he has zealously upheld throughout his 
entire career as a churchman, covering a period 
of almost a half century. A son of James 
Grace, who was of Norman extraction and a de- 
scendant of the famous Raymond Le Gros, of 
the twelfth century, he is a native of county 
Wexford, Ireland, born in 1841, and in the local- 
ity of his birth he was reared to young manhood. 
A preliminary education was received through 
the medium of the private schools in the vicinity 
of his home, after which he was given instruc- 
tion at St. Peter's, Wexford, by Bishop Furlong. 
Later he became a student at All Hallows Col- 
lege, Dublin, and in that city was ordained to 
the priesthood in the year 1867. In September 
of the same year he came to California and in 
this state first had charge of the parish at Red 
Bluff, Tehama coimty, being the first pastor of 
that church. During this pastorate he built the 
Convent of Mercy and through his endeavors 
materially increased the congregation. He made 
many friends who regretted his removal to Grass 
Valley in 1870, his pastorate there continuing 
until 1874, when he was transferred to Marys- 
ville, Yuba county. In July, 1881, he came to 
the city of Sacramento and here assumed charge 
as pastor of St. Rose's Church, which position he 
filled acceptably until he became bishop in 1896. 
He stands exceptionally high among the digni- 
taries of his church, and is as well accorded a 
high place as a citizen, his best efforts and most 
unselfish endeavors having been given to ad- 
vance the general welfare of the city where he 
has made his home for nearly a quarter of a 
century. 

In 1890 Rev. Father Grace took a trip to 
Europe, visiting among other places the scenes 
of his early childhood. In 1905 he made his 
official visit to Rome, at the same time visiting 
almost all the European countries. In 1900 Mrs. 
Jane Stanford deeded the former Stanford man- 
sion in Sacramento to Rev. Father Grace. This 
was dedicated in 1904 as the Stanford Lathrop 
13 



Home for Friendless Children, now in charge 
of the Sisters of Mercy. Under his auspices 
the Mater Miser Icordiae Hospital was built in 
1898, and this also is in charge of the Sisters 
of Mercy. As the result of the efforts of 
Father Grace the Christian Brothers College 
has recently been enlarged by the addition of a 
west wing. Not the least worthy of notice of 
the many enterprises with which he has had 
to do is St. Stephen's Giurch, at the corner of 
Third and P streets, in the erection of which he 
matcriallv assisted. 



COL. EDWIN A. FORBES. The genealogy 

of Edwin A. Forbes of Marysville reverts to the 
Scottish Highlands. For many generations the 
male ancestors were soldiers in the Highland regi- 
ments of the British army, chiefly the Gordon 
Highlanders. As an adjutant of this regiment 
the grandfather, John Forbes, bore a part in 
numerous engagements, among them the memor- 
able battle of Waterloo. After a service of twen- 
ty-one years in the same regiment he resigned 
his commission and immigrated to Canada, where 
he served as an adjutant of the East Canadian 
militia during the Fenian outbreak. At the time 
of his death he had passed his ninetieth year. 
From him his descendants inherited mental en- 
dowment of no common order, and several of his 
sons were university graduates and successful 
professional men. 

The father of Colonel Forbes was Alexander 
R. Forbes, who was born in Scotland and grew 
to manhood in Canada, coming from that coun- 
try to the Pacific coast at an early age. For 
some time he followed the blacksmith's trade in 
addition to trying his luck at various inining 
camps. For a time he worked in Sierra county, 
Cal.. but in 1867 settled upon a farm, the Ore- 
gon House valley, Yuba county, where he added 
stock-raising to the growing of grain. From the 
time of his arrival in California in 185 1 until 
bis death in 1897 he was warmly interested in 
the growth and progress of the state, in which 
he bore his part as a public-spirited citizen and 
progressive farmer. After coming west he mar- 
ried Catherine Kraker, who was born in Ger- 



5G0 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



many and came to America at twelve years of 
age. Their son, Edwin A., was born at Brandy 
City, Sierra county, Cal, July 20, i860, and was 
seven years of age when the family settled on 
a farm. While still a mere lad he began to as- 
sist in the cultivation of the farm and the work 
of the blacksmith's shop. A favorite pastime of 
those years was riding over the ranges after 
stock, through which work he developed a fine 
phvsicjue and robust constitution. Meanwhile his 
education was not neglected. During such months 
of the vear as schools were in session he was in 
attendance and thus acquired a fund of knowl- 
edge sufificient to win for him a first-grade teach- 
er's certificate at the age of eighteen years, his 
standing being second in a class of twenty-four 
applicants. For three years he taught school in 
Yuba county. The savings thus secured were 
utilized in defraying his expenses in the law de- 
partment of the State University. During the 
ensuing three years he taught school in vaca- 
tions from the university, or, when a school could 
not be secured, he worked in the harvest fields, 
also for a time clerked in a law office in San 
Francisco. By means of the money thus earned 
he was enabled to complete his law course. In 
May of 1884 he was graduated from the Hast- 
ings Law College. 

A month after graduation iNIr. Forbes opened 
a law office at Marysville, and in 1885 formed a 
partnership with ^^'allace Dinsmore, which, under 
the firm name of Forbes & Dinsmore, was con- 
tinued for twenty years. During July after his 
arrival ]\Ir. Forbes was nominated for district 
attorney of Yuba county, and in November won 
the election, after which he contintied to fill the 
position efficiently until 1892, a period of four 
terms. As a practitioner his work has been va- 
ried, including corporation, probate and criminal 
practice. Scarcely- any criminal cases have been 
tried in northern California for yeats in which 
he has not been interested. In his defense of 
Brady, Green, Campbell (tried for the murder 
of a mining superintendent at Oroville), Schmidt 
(for the murder of Mrs. Gardmeyer in Sutttr 
county) and Buchanan (accused of the murder 
of Billv Miles) he saved each from the death 
penalty, his defense of Buchanan being on the 



ground that he was insane. Besides their private 
practice, he and his partner were attorneys for 
the Rideout Bank, Bay Counties Fower Com- 
pany, Marysville & Yuba City Street Railway, 
etc., entailing upon them numerous responsibil- 
ities. Owing to the increase of V.is personal busi- 
ness afifairs Colonel Forbes aud Mr. Dinsmore 
dissolved their co-partnership January i, 1905. 

Mr. Forbes then retired from general practice, 
still continuing his private and corporation prac- 
tice in the afifairs in which he is interested. He 
is the owner of a stock ranch of five thousand 
acres in Yuba county, the principal owner of the 
Marysville & Yuba City Street Railroad, a large 
ownei of dredging lands on the Yuba river, presi- 
dent of the New Era Gravel Mining Company, 
formerly vice-president of the Sacramento Val- 
ley Development Association, ex-president of the 
Marysville Chamber of Commerce, and president 
of a number of private corporations. Through 
his efforts the Brown's Valley irrigation district 
was formed and the waters of the Yuba river 
brought over the dry foothills of Yuba county. 
He negotiated the sale of the Brown's valley 
mines. Another important enterprise was the 
interesting of capital in the development of the 
Yuba river power resources, resulting in the or- 
ganization of the Bay Counties Power Company, 
owners of the most remarkable electric plant in 
the entire state. In January, 1905, he became 
sole owner of the Marysville Appeal, a daily Re- 
publican paper founded in the early '50s, and 
one of the oldest papers in northern California. 

The marriage of Colonel Forbes was solemn- 
ized in Sierra county and united him with Miss 
Jennie Yore, who was born there and is a grad- 
uate of Notre Dame College at San Jose. Of 
their union two children were born. Hazel J. and 
Floyd. Mrs. Forbes is a daughter of Peter Yore, 
a pioneer of 1849, who built the Sleighville hotel, 
also built and owned the Sierra turnpike extend- 
ing from Camptonville to Downieville. In his 
community he continued to be a man of influence 
and prominence until his death, which occurred 
in 1887 in Sierra county. 

Any narrative of the life of Colonel Forbes 
would be incomplete without mention of his mil- 
itary career. As early as 1879 he joined Com- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



561 



pany E, First Artillery, Fourth Brigfade, Cali- 
fornia National Guard. Upon its reorganization 
in T882 he joined Company C, Eighth Regiment, 
which was called out in the railroad strike of 
July, 1894. From Governor Markham, Septem- 
ber 17, 1894, he received a commission raising 
him to the rank of captain. When the regiment 
was merged into the Second Regiment. Governor 
Rudd commissioned him captain of Company D. 
Fehruary 3, 1896, he was chosen lieutenant-col- 
onel of the Second California National Guard, 
and with his regiment enlisted in the Spanish- 
American war, July 12. 1898. about the same 
time receiving a commission as major of the 
Eighth California Infantry, United States Volun- 
teers, the commission dating from July 8, 1898. 
At Camp Barrett he was commander of the third 
battalion and after commanding at Benicia was 
transferred to the first battalion, assigned to Van- 
couver barracks. For three months he was in 
command at that large post and the troops there 
stationed were from Oregon and Washington, to- 
gether with detachments of regulars from Al- 
aska. In December, 1898, he was detailed to the 
command of Angel Island, where he had two 
companies of the Eighth Regiment and one bat- 
tery of heavy artillery in the signal corps. There 
he continued in command until mustered out of 
the service January 28, 1899. While at Van- 
couver he served on many important government 
details, including the board of survey; and with 
the examining boards was called upon to drill 
the battalions when the regular army officers 
were being examined for promotion from lieu- 
tenant to captain. Since the expiration of the 
war he has continued as lieutenant-colonel of the 
Eighth Regiment of National Guard. 

In the Guard Colonel Forbes has a reputa- 
tion as a crack shot. As captain of the Marys- 
ville company, in 1895, he broke the world's rec- 
ord for target shooting with fifty men. In sharp- 
shooting with rifle and revolver he has frequent- 
ly won the championship. Political matters have 
engaged his attention and such has been his prom- 
inence in the Republican party that in 1900 he 
was chosen chairman of the state convention at 
Sacramento. Under his appointment was formed 
the executive committee of the Republican party 



which successfully managed the campaign of that 
year. In 1900 he was a candidate for congress 
from the second district of California, but was 
defeated by one vote in the Santa Cruz conven- 
tion. Fraternally he was made a Mason in Cor- 
inthian Lodge No. 9, F. & A. M.; is affiliated 
with Washington Chapter No. 13, R. A. M., 
and Marysville Comniandery No. 7, K. T. The 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Benevolent 
Protective Order of Elks, Foresters of America 
and Woodmen of the World number him among 
their members, and he is further connected with 
the Marysville Parlor, N. S. G. W., of which 
he has officiated as president and which for years 
he has represented as delegate to the Grand Par- 
lor. 

Not only in professional circles, but among the 
general public, it is conceded that Colonel Forbes, 
as the Nestor of the bar of Marysville. sustains 
the credit of the profession with dignity and 
honor. Few men possess equal gifts and few 
attain a ripeness of intellect so rounded and so 
profound. The gifts which Nature bestowed up- 
on him have been cultivated with diligence. Cul- 
ture and education have supplemented natural 
endowments. Lofty aspirations have been pur- 
sued with the fervor of genius and have brought 
honors and successes professional, political, mili- 
tary and social. Only a man of broad mind 
could successfully pursue the varied interests 
which engage the colonel's attention, but with 
characteristic versatility he throws himself into 
each one with enthusiasm, bringing into its man- 
agement the weight of his sagacious judgment 
and extended experience. In his success his fel- 
low-citizens have taken a just pride, recognizing 
the fact that the residence in Marysville of such 
men contributes to the prestige of the city. 



EDWARD FRISBIE. Among the promi- 
nent men of California and especially of the Sac- 
ramento valley, is Edward Frisbie, now living 
retired in Oakland. He is a son of Eleazer 
Blackman and Cynthia (Cornell) Frisbie, both 
natives of New York state. Tliey owned a farm 
in the suburbs of Albanv, now included in the 



562 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



limits of that city. The father died in 1830, and 
the mother in 1894, at tlie age of seventy-eight 
years. They had four sons and one daughter. 
Of tliese. Gen. John Blackman Frisbie came to 
California with General Stevenson's regiment in 
1847, arriving in March of that year, and served 
in the Mexican war in California, ranking as 
lieutenant. At the close of the war, in 1848, he 
located in Solano countv and became associated 
with General Vallejo in business, and later pur- 
chased the Vallejo grant; he was the principal 
in laying out the city of Vallejo, also very active 
in projecting public improvements of Vallejo and 
Benicia, both cities being laid out on his land. 
He was the prime mover in the building of the 
California Pacific Railroad from Marysville to 
Sacramento and Vallejo and later other branch 
roads. He secured the location of the Mare Is- 
land Navy Yard ; seeing the advisability of lo- 
cating a navy yard, and the desirable land, he 
purchased the island from Victor Castro and 
with others interested the government in estab- 
lishing this yard on the Pacific coast. In 1877 
he was appointed representative from Washing- 
ton to Mexico during the trouble with that coun- 
try, which negotiations resulted in the choice of 
General Diaz for president and established the 
friendly relations that have since existed. He 
became largely interested in mining and met with 
good success in that business, as well as becom- 
ing a large land owner and cattleman ; liking the 
country so well, he removed his family to Buena 
Vista, a suburb of the City of Mexico, where he 
is living practically retired. He married Fanny, 
a daughter of General Vallejo. 

Dr. Levi C. Frisbie graduated from the Med- 
ical College at Albany, came to California in 
1850, practiced medicine, and in time became one 
of the prominent physicians of the Sacramento 
valley. He married Adella Vallejo, also a daugh- 
ter of the general. Cynthia, who died in Syra- 
cuse, N. Y., was the widow of Patrick Lynch. 
Edward Frisbie of this review was the fourth in 
order of birth, and Eleazer, who died in Redding 
in 1888, came to California with General Steven- 
son, served as private in the Mexican war, and 
later became a large rancher in the Sacramento 
vallev, where he lived after the close of the war. 



Edward Frisbie, bom in Albany, N. Y., No- 
vember 18, 1826, was educated in the public 
schools and Albany Academy. At the age of 
fourteen years (his step-father having met with 
reverses) he was thrown upon his own resources, 
to carve out his own future and fortune. His 
two oldest brothers wanted him to enter college, 
Init he wanted to be a farmer and secured a place 
with a Robert Harper, who had been befriended 
by his father and been partly reared by him ; 
there he remained a few years, then engaged in 
farming on his own account near Albany. Four 
years later he located near Syracuse and em- 
barked in the dairy business. December 7, 1855, 
he left New York City for Aspinwall, crossed the 
Isthmus, then took passage on the John L. Ste- 
vens for San Francisco. Arriving January i, 
1856, he proceeded direct to Vallejo, soon after 
renting a tract of land and beginning as a Cali- 
fornia rancher. That same year he bought three 
hundred and forty acres, which he added to as 
success came to him. In 1877 he went to Shasta 
county and from J. B. Haggin purchased the 
Redding grant on Cottonwood creek and Sac- 
ramento river, consisting of twenty thousand 
acres, there embarking in the stock business on 
a large scale. He also bought the town sites 
laid out on the grant, continued the sale of lots 
in Anderson and Redding, later made additions 
to both, cut up his land and sold off as he could 
find purchasers, and still is largely interested in 
residence and business properties in Redding and 
Anderson, besides other land in Shasta county. 
He erected the building in Redding for the Bank 
of Northern California, in which he is interested 
and the president. i\lr. Frisbie has refused all 
public offices, though a stanch supporter of Re- 
publican principles, and of all public movements 
for good government, schools, churches and the 
advancement of the resources of the valley. . 
Since 1898 he has spent his summers in Oak- 
land, and in July of 1905 located permanently 
on the corner of Nineteenth avenue and Twenty- 
second street. East Oakland, where he has a 
comfortable and commodious residence. 

In Albany county, N. Y., Mr. Frisbie was 
united in marriage, April 16, 1846, with Phoebe 
Anna Klinck, who was born in New York, a 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



56^ 



daughter of George Klinck, a farmer there; he 
died while on a visit to California at the home 
of Mr. Frisbie. Mrs. Frisbie died in 1886, while 
under treatment in San Francisco. Their eleven 
children are as follows : C)-nthia Julia, widow 
of Ezra King, and a resident of Tien-Tsin, China ; 
Phoebe Anna, deceased, who married E. L. 
Bailey, casliier in the Bank of Northern Califor- 
nia at Redding; Alary J., wife of Alvin Dozier, 
of Anderson ; Caroline Elizabeth, wife of Carl 
Bornecke. of Oakland ; Levi C, a stockman, who 
died in San Francisco ; George Charles, of An- 
derson, a stockman ; Edward G., M. D., gradu- 
ate of Cooper Medical College, and now prac- 
ticing in San Francisco ; Nathaniel B., an attor- 
ney of San Francisco; Adella Louise, widow of 
the late George W'alden, residing at Claremont, 
Cal. ; Jennie K., wife of Arthur Barnes of Saticoy, 
Ventura county, Cal. ; and Henry B., of Rialto, 
San Bernardino county, Cal., a horticulturist. 

Mr. Frisbie's second marriage united him with 
Miss Laura A. Walden, and occurred in Red- 
ding in 1887. She is a native of Napa, Cal., and 
a daughter of Jerome Bonepart Walden, a na- 
tive of New York. He came across the plains to 
California in 1850, served as government in- 
spector of weights and measures in San Fran- 
cisco, then went to Sacramento and engaged in 
business ; thence to Napa. For twenty-five years 
he was engaged in detective work, then went to 
Shasta county and retired on account of ill health, 
dying in Alameda, December 18, 1905, aged sev- 
enty-six years. His father was John Eccleston 
^^'alden, also a native of New York state, and 
there he died. The wife of J. B. Walden, Myra 
A. Harrington, was born in St. Johns, N. Y., 
and died in Saticoy, Cal., in 1891. The four 
children are: George R., deceased; Jerome B., 
engaged in the insurance business in San Fran- 
cisco and residing in Alameda; Laura A., Mrs. 
Frisbie; and Mabel, the wife of R. M. Steele, 
Sunday editor of the San Francisco Clironicle. 
Mrs. Frisbie is a graduate of Napa College and 
was engaged in educational work for several 
years. She is a member of the Eighth Avenue 
Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Fris- 
bie have two children, Edwina Fay and J. Ber- 
nard. 



No greater tribute can be paid a man than that 
connng unsolicited from his friends, and it has 
been said of Mr. Frisbie by those who know him 
best that he is a man of unimpeachable integrity, 
a devoted friend of education, that no appeal for 
assistance in behalf of a worthy cause ever failed 
of his support and co-operation ; that his deeds 
of kindness are performed in as unostentatious 
a manner as possible, and to such men as he 
posterity will always look with feelings of pride 
and satisfaction, and they are entitled to a per- 
manent place in the historical literature of this 
state. 



JAMES O'BRIEN. An honorable place 
among the representative citizens of the Sacra- 
mento valley is accorded James O'Brien, who has 
been identified with the mining interests of Cali- 
fornia for more than a half century. When he 
came to the state in 1853 like the great ma- 
jority of the emigrants of that time he brought 
nothing to presage the successful career which 
was to be his, but with the courage of youth, the 
optimistic nature inherited from his Irish fore- 
fathers, and the ability to grasp and make use 
of the multifold opportunities presented, he has 
overcome all obstacles and compelled fruitful re- 
turns for his efforts. Age has not robbed him 
of the energy which has distinguished his life, 
and although seventy-three years old he still re- 
tains his activity and interest in business affairs 
about him, and is still accounted the leading min- 
ing man and rancher of Yuba county, where he 
has spent the greater part of his life in the west.' 

A native of County Cork. Ireland. Mr. O'Brien 
was born May 2, 1832, and when fourteen years 
of age was brought to the United States by 
his parents. They settled in Westfield, Mass., 
and in that locality he worked out for a farmer 
about five years. Resolving to take a part in 
the stirring scenes being enacted in California, 
he left Alassachusetts in May, 1853. and came to 
the Pacific coast by the Nicaragua route, arriv- 
ing in San Francisco on the 3d of July of the 
same year. He made the trip thence to Marys- 
ville by steamer, after which he went to Bar- 
ton's bar, on the Yuba river, in Yuba county. 
Following he spent the summer in the mines and 



56i 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the winter seasons in prospecting. For four 
vears he remained so occupied and in the mean- 
time had become interested in the irrigation proj- 
ect of tliis section, and had built the Oroville 
ditch by contract. In 1858 he built the Boyer 
ditch, a distance of twenty-five miles, extending 
from Deer creek to Smartville, and the follow- 
ing year built the Excelsior ditch, from the South 
Yuba to Smartville, a distance of about thirty- 
four miles. In the fall of 1859 he contracted 
and built the Knights Landing road to Putah 
creek, extending across Yolo county, and in this 
way was largely identified with the development 
of this section of the state. In the fall of the 
next year he came to Smartville, Yuba county, 
and bought mining property, and shortly after- 
ward was associated with Prof. William Ash- 
burner, Messrs. Walker, Baker and Hage, of San 
Francisco, in the building of the Packtolas tun- 
nel, at a cost of $80,000, Of the ten shares Mr. 
O'Brien was the owner of five, and was accord- 
ingly made superintendent of the mine, which 
interests he operated successfully for some years, 
when they consolidated with the Blue Gravel and 
Excelsior mines. With the added responsibili- 
ties he continued in the position for about four 
years, when the property was sold to eastern 
capitalists. About that time (1882) there was 
considerable litigation over mining operations, 
and the hydraulic process was stopped, thereby 
causing Mr. O'Brien considerable loss. With- 
draw-ing to a large extent from mining opera- 
lions, he turned his attention to farming. Pur- 
chasing a tract of ninety-two hundred acres on 
the Yuba river, in Yuba county, he began ranch- 
ing and stock-raising. He was very success- 
ful in his work and also fortunate in his choice 
of land, as later he sold four hundred and forty- 
two acres to Mr. Hammond for $200 per acre, 
and twelve hundred acres to Mr. Cranston for 
$300 and $350 per acre, the latter being just 
across the river from the other. Mr. Ham- 
mond has put in two large dredgers, taking out 
$3,000 per day, and on that location the town 
of Hammond sprang up in a couple of years. 
Mr. O'Brien has also bonded four thousand 
acres to a Mr. Hanford, while he rents the re- 
mainder of his property for cash on a ten-year 



lease. He still owns over seven thousand acres 
of land, principally devoted to grazing and the 
raising of grain. 

Mr. O'Brien is now interested in the promo- 
tion of an enterprise which promises much to- 
ward the added development of Yuba county 
when carried to a successful issue. This is the 
Nevada and Marysville Water and Power 
Company, which expects to dam the river at 
the Narrows, near Smartville, and there to use 
the water for power, irrigation of the land north 
of Yuba river, and afterward dredge the river 
bed, which is rich in gold. This is a great un- 
dertaking, especially in consideration of the age 
of Mr. O'Brien, but he confidently expects to 
carry it through and when completed will stand 
as one of the best investments in the state. 

In October, i860, Mr. O'Brien was united in 
marriage with Mary Corby, a native of Ireland, 
whom he had met before emigrating to the west, 
and who made the trip to California to become 
his wife. She died October 10, 1898, leaving the 
following children : Mary, wife of J. P. Pierce, 
of Santa Clara, Cal. ; Kittie, wife of Dr. Hol- 
brook, of San Jose, Cal. ; Josie, Helen and Agnes, 
at home ; Isabelle, who took the veil in the con- 
vent at Oakland ; James, a mining man and the 
owner of Bimker Hill mine, in Plumas county; 
and William, an assistant to his father in the 
management of his property. A Democrat in his 
political convictions, Mr. O'Brien has never cared 
personally for the emoluments of public office on 
account of his engrossing business interests. 
With his family he is a communicant of the 
Roman Catholic Church, and takes a strong inter- 
est in its advancement. Through his efiforts the 
fine church of this denomination was located and 
built in this locality in an early day, and toward 
its support since no one man has been more lib- 
eral. He is an enterprising and substantial citi- 
zen and is justly entitled to the position of esteem 
and respect accorded him. 



GEORGE MALAY LOWREY. The trav- 
eler in the mountain district of Tehama county 
west of the Sacramento river views with appre- 
ciable pleasure the Lowrey homestead, wdiich 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



5(15 



occupies a picturesque location on Elder creek 
in llic foothills of the Coast range. By reason 
of being the stage station for the tri-weeklv 
coach from Red Bluff, the ranch welcomes more 
visitors than other places in the mountain com- 
munit}-, and it is safe to say that none ever stops 
here without receiving a cordial, cheery and 
genial word of greeting that makes of the 
stranger a warm and appreciative friend. In- 
deed far and wide Mr. Lowrey is known as a 
companionable, warm-hearted and kindly man, 
whose success is richly merited by the exercise 
of sagacity and high principles of honor. 

A native of Ohio, Mr. Lowrey was born in 
Montgomery county, October 26, 1826, being 
the fifth among eight children (four sons and 
four daughters) comprising the family of James 
and Nancy (Stoker) Lowrey, natives respective- 
ly of Kentucky and Virginia. His father, who 
settled in Ohio during young manhood, followed 
the occupations of miller and distiller, and died 
about 1834; the mother likewise died in Ohio. 
After having received a common-school educa- 
tion George M. Lowrey at the age of seventeen 
years started out in the world for himself and 
for a time was employed at the Mount Savage 
iron works in Maryland, later following the car- 
pentering trade irr'that state for three years. 
Upon his return' to Ohio he continued at his 
trade and also took contracts for building. 

During the rnemorable year of 1849 Mr. Low- 
rey crossecV'the plains with mule teams and after 
an uneventful journey of four months landed 
at Sacramento on the 15th of August. Very 
shortly afterward he went to the American river 
mines five miles above Coloma, but soon pro- 
ceeded to Dry Diggings. In the spring of 1850 
he built a house between Nevada City and Sac- 
ramento and carried on a hotel for the accommo- 
dation of emigrants, giving to his place the name 
of Indian Springs. At the expiration of two 
years he gave up the hotel business and went 
to Sacramento, where he followed the teaming 
business. During the fall of 1863 he returned 
to Ohio via the Nicaragua route and the follow- 
ing year again crossed the plains, this time bring- 
ine with him a band of horses. For some years 



he engaged in hauling freight from Sacramento 
to the mines. Going to San Francisco in the 
fall of 1857, with a partner he bouglit cattle at 
Point Reyes ranch and drove them to Monte- 
zuma hills, Solano county, where he remained 
in the cattle industry for eight years. Mean- 
while he also became interested in raising sheep, 
but sold out in 1870, and with a partner bought 
ten hundred and forty acres at the present post- 
office of Lowrey. To his original purchase he 
added from time to time until he and his partner 
owned four thousand acres, all utilized for the 
care and pasturage of sheep. In 1874, in order 
to purchase his partner's interest, he entailed a 
heavy indebtedness ; about that time prices of 
sheep lowered greatly. By taking his flock to 
Colorado and selling there he saved himself from 
bankruptcy and came out with a small profit. 
Having disposed of these seven thousand head, 
he bought additional flocks and continued in the 
sheep business on his ranch. Eventually, through 
a trade, he disposed of twenty-eight hundred and 
twenty-five acres of his ranch and two thousand 
head of sheep. Since that time he has handled 
cattle and hogs, having at this time one hundred 
and fifty head of cattle and from fifty to one hun- 
dred head of hogs. A large part of the land is 
in pasturage, but he has twenty-two acres in al- 
falfa, which furnishes feed of the best quality 
for his stock. 

In the early days Mr. Lowrey's home was the 
distributing point for the mail in all this section 
of country, and when the postoffice was estab- 
lished at his house about 1890 he was made post- 
master, which ofiice he still holds. Not only did 
he aid in organizing the Lowrey school district, 
but ever since then he has at frequent intervals 
held the office of director of the same and aided 
in the building and supporting the Union Church. 
In politics he is stanchly Republican and has 
served as a member of the county central com- 
mittee of his party. Not a movement has been 
started for the benefit of this community which 
has failed of his encouraging assistance and help- 
ful s\mpathy, and in many ways he has proved 
himself a "father" to the neighlx)rhoo<l that so 
long has continued to be his home. 



)66 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



In Calvary Presbyterian Onurch of San Fran- 
cisco, August 29, 1865, occurred the marriage 
of George M. Lowrey and Sarah Morrow Fos- 
ter, Rev. Dr. Wadsworth officiating at the cere- 
mony. Mrs. Lowrey was born near Belfast, Ire- 
land, March 21, 1836, being the daughter of 
James Foster, a farmer, cattleman and drover, 
and a man of the highest standing in that sec- 
tion of Ireland, where his entire life was passed. 
The family is among the oldest of the Emerald 
Isle and an intense loyalty to their country has 
characterized every generation since the fore- 
fathers accompanied William III to the battle- 
field and fought for Ireland. Among the people 
of Tehama county Mrs. Lowrey shares the high 
esteem and enviable reputation of her husband, 
the two numbering a host of friends among all 
who appreciate culture, the highest courtesy and 
an unfailing hospitality. In their family are 
four daughters and three sons, namely: Nellie, 
wife of J. J. Worthington, of Tehama ; Lizzie, 
Mrs. A. Peake, of Corning; Rosa, who married 
G. B. Champlin, of Vina; Katie, who has charge 
of the postoflice at Tehama ; George, who is en- 
gaged as head machinist in the soda works at 
Owens Lake, Inyo county ; Benjamin and James, 
who yet remain at home with their parents. 



JOHN HUDSON GUILL. Prominent 
among the most skillful and progressive farmers 
of Butte county is John Hudson Guill, who has 
made a thorough study of the business which 
he is so successfully pursuing, and is an acknowl- 
edged authority on all questions connected with 
agriculture and horticulture. His highly im- 
proved homestead and farm, located in Chico, 
is a well-appointed and well-kept estate, his stock 
and machinery being the most desirable, while 
everything about the premises is indicative of the 
thrift, industry and keen judgment of the owner. 
A son of Elijah N. Guill, he was born September 
27, 1831, in Virginia, coming from Scotch an- 
cestry, his paternal grandfather having emi- 
grated from Scotland to Virginia in colonial 
days. 

Elijah N. Guill was born in old Virginia, and 



as a young man was there employed as a tobacco 
planter and grower. In 1837 he moved with his 
family to Missouri, locating in Livingston coun- 
ty as a farmer and stock raiser. Coming to 
California in i860, he settled in Butte, near the 
home of his son, and there resided until his 
death, in 1864, aged fifty-eight years. He mar- 
ried Elizabeth Baldwin, who spent her life in 
Virginia. Her father. Pleasant Baldwin, also 
a native of Virginia, served in the war of 1812. 
She bore her husband six children, John Hud- 
son, with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned, 
being the eldest child and only son. 

When but six years of age his father removed 
to Missouri, and there John Hudson Guill re- 
ceived his first knowledge of books in the dis- 
trict school. A diligent scholar, with a natural 
aptitude for learning, he made rapid progress in 
his studies, and, although he was taken from 
school when but fourteen years of age, he kept 
and conned his text books until his marriage, 
and is yet a close student. In 1849, with eight 
young men, he came across the plains to Cali- 
fornia, leaving Missouri with two wagons on 
May 5, and arriving here on September 27. 
Cholera was then raging, but Mr. Guill, having a 
fine constitution and the care of a skillful physi- 
cian, recovered from the attack which prostrated 
him. With his companions he engaged in min- 
ing at Morris Ravine, where, just above the pres- 
ent site of Oroville, gold of all kinds glistened, 
from minute particles to small nuggets, but not 
in sufficient quantities to pay. The little band 
subsequently traveled through the northern part 
of the state, drifting from place to place in 
search of richer fields, spending all of their earn- 
ings. At the end of three years Mr. Guill left 
the mines, having in his possession a horse and 
saddle and $300 in gold. Locating on his pres- 
ent homestead on October 5, 1852, he purchased 
a grant of one hundred and sixty acres of land, 
lying on what was then called Tim creek, but 
which he renamed Little Chico creek ; subse- 
quently he had to buy the place over. He at 
cince began improvements on his purchase, and 
from that time until the present fortune has 
smiled upon his every move. The small house 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



.-.(•,7 



wliicli was liis first liabitation has been replaced 
by a more modern and conveniently arranged 
structure, and to his original purchase he has 
added one hundred and seventy acres more of 
rich and productive land. For many years he 
devoted himself to the raising of grain especially, 
but, in his home ranch, now containing two hun- 
dred and seventy-six acres, he raises alfalfa prin- 
cipally. 

Mr. Guill also owns five hundred and seventy 
acres of hay land in Modoc county. In i860 he 
introduced into this section of the county the 
first thoroughbred Durham stock, and subse- 
quently received a diploma for sweepstakes on 
the best Durham cattle. He raises fine Berk- 
shire hogs and Brown Leghorn poultry, on both 
of which he has taken first premiums at county 
and state fairs. He has likewise been engaged 
in dairying to some extent, having in 1880 started 
the Locust Grove dairy, stocking it with sixty 
cows, and running milk wagons to town, an in- 
dustry which proved profitable and satisfactory. 

March 18, i860, Mr. Guill married Mary 
Jane Bryan, who was born in Missouri, a daugh- 
ter of John Bryan, a native of Tennessee. Of 
the nine children born of the union of Mr. and 
Mrs. Guill. the following attained maturity : 
Lee Bryan, running an extensive florist's busi- 
ness on the home place ; Leona, Mrs. S. E. Pot- 
ter, residing in Chico; Mrs. Jessie Ames, de- 
ceased ; Ross E. ; Jay Baldwin, residing in Stock- 
ton ; and Walter B. and John Hudson, Jr., the 
last two named running the dairy. Mr. Guill 
is a Republican in politics, and belongs to the 
Methodist Episcopal Church South. 



WARREN CHARLES STEVENS. Note- 
worthy among the brave and courageous pio- 
neers of Butte county was Warren Charles Stev- 
ens, late of Chico, who for many years was a 
prominent member of the agricultural commun- 
ity, and one of its largest landholders. An up- 
right, honest man, of sterling worth, he was 
widely known throughout this section of the 
state, and was everywhere respected. During 
his long residence here he witnessed wonderful 



changes in the face of the country, and in the 
grand transformation took an active part, spend- 
ing many of the best years of his useful life 
;n redeeming from its original wildness a por- 
tion of the rich farming lands of this vicinity. 
A son of Alfred Stevens, he was born, June 23, 
1835, in Pennsylvania. 

Born and reared in the Keystone state, Alfred 
Stevens resided there until after his marriage, 
being employed in agricultural pursuits. Subse- 
quently migrating with his family to Illinois, he 
located on a farm in McHenry county, and for 
a number of years continued in his previous oc- 
cupation. Going to Chicago to visit relatives 
and friends, he was taken ill, and died in that 
city. His wife, whose maiden name was Esther 
Kellogg, was born in one of the eastern states, 
and died in Wisconsin. Nine children, seven 
sons and two daughters, were born of their un- 
ion, Warren Charles being the second child in 
order of birth. 

Having obtained his elementary education in 
the common schools, Warren Charles Stevens 
completed his studies at a college in Chicago, 
111., after which he taught school several terms. 
He subsequently worked for awhile at the cabi- 
net maker's trade in Illinois, but before finishing 
his apprenticeship gave it up, and in 1866 came 
across the plains to California, the Eldorado of 
ambitious young men. Going directly to Forbes- 
town, he began life as a miner, but pushing the 
wheel-barrow so blistered and hurt his hands 
that he was forced to resign his position. Lo- 
cating then near Butte City he entered the em- 
ploy of a Mr. Boggs as sheep shearer, but soon 
afterward engaged in business for himself as a 
drover and cattle buyer. He disposed of his 
cattle in the mining regions, and was very success- 
ful in his undertaking, often clearing $1,000 per 
month. In 1868 he invested his accumulations 
in land, buying his home property of six hundred 
and forty acres, lying five miles south of Qiico, 
on the Dayton road. By dint of perseverance, 
thrift and excellent management and judgment, 
he met with marked success in his undertakings, 
from time to time purchasing more land, until 
in his homestead alone he had twelve hundred 



568 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and sixty acres. He also bought land in differ- 
ent localities, becoming owner of a timber claim 
of one hundred and sixty acres on Doe Mill 
ridge, of a tract equally as large lying twelve 
miles northeast of Chico, and of seven hundred 
and twenty acres of grazing land near Burns, 
Ore., where he formerly was engaged with his 
brother in the raising of horses. Mr. Stevens 
was a practical and skilful agriculturist, and as 
one of the representative citizens of Butte county 
his death, which occurred March 3, 1905, was a 
cause of general regret. 

September 18, 1872, in Butte county. Gal, Mr. 
Stevens married Mary G. McEnespy, who was 
born in Bedford county, Pa., a daughter of Rich- 
ard and Anna Eliza (Creutzberg) McEnespy. 
Richard McEnespy was born on the Atlantic 
ocean, while his parents were en route from Ire- 
land to the United States. He was reared and 
educated in Pennsylvania, living there until 1854, 
when he came by way of Cape Horn to Cali- 
fornia. Going to Forbestown, he worked for 
awhile in the mines, then took up land near 
Chico, and embarked in farming and stock rais- 
ing. Becoming well established, he sent for his 
family in 1867, and they soon joined him, com- 
ing bv way of the Isthmus. Five children were 
born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, 
namely: a son that died in infancy; Richard, of 
Chico; Esther, deceased; Edith, engaged in 
teaching at Nord ; and Warren, living at home. 
Mrs. Stevens, a woman of culture and ability, 
is administrator of the large estate left by her 
husband, and will make her home on the farm, 
ahhough she will rent the land. Politically Mr. 
Stevens supported the principles of the Republi- 
can party, and fraternally he was prominent in 
Masonic circles, belonging to Qiico Lodge No. 
Ill, F. & A. M.; to Cliico Chapter, R. A. M.; to 
Chico Commandery, K. T. ; and to the Chico 
Chapter, O. E. S., of which Mrs. Stevens is a 
member. 



HON. RICHARD M. CLARKEN. As jus- 
tice of the peace of Sacramento township, Sac- 
ramento countv, Hon. Richard M. Clarken is sus- 
taining the reputation for ability and judgment. 



energy and thorough qualification for holding 
public office won by him in the earlier part of 
his career in the county. Upon the death of Jay 
R. Brown in 1904 he was appointed to fill the of- 
fice of justice of the peace thus left vacant. 

Of southern birth and parentage, Richard M. 
Clarken was born in the city of Charleston, S. 
C, August 18, 1839, and is a son of John and 
Agnes Clarken. Although born in South Caro- 
lina he was reared and educated in Kentucky, be- 
ing enrolled among the pupils in the Jesuit col- 
lege in Bardstown, Nelson county, that state. 
The day on which he left Kentucky for Califor- 
nia, November 6, i860, was also memorable in 
history as the day on which Abraham Lincoln 
was first elected president. On reaching the 
state he joined his parents at Folsom City, Sac- 
ramento county, where his father was filling the 
position of postmaster. He had received his ap- 
pointment at the hands of President Pierce, and 
was continued in office under President Buchan- 
an. He was a justice of the peace and a large 
property owner in the county. During his 
father's incumbency as postmaster Richard M. 
Clarken found many an opportunity to assist in 
the various duties connected with the office, and 
it is to this point in his career that he dates his 
first work of a public character. Upon reaching 
this state he was well prepared for teaching, 
though he took up newspaper work in Sacra- 
mento a short time and later taught in San Jose 
in a preparatory school conducted by the Jesuits. 
In 1867-68 he was elected by the assembly en- 
grossing clerk of the seventeenth session of that 
body. Later he went to Napa county and taught 
in the public schools of Yountville one year, after 
which he returned to Sacramento county and 
taught in the public schools for four years. He 
then removed to San Francisco and for two ses- 
sions taught in the grammar department of St. 
Ignatius College. His election to the assembly 
followed in 1875, and during the session of 1875-6 
he figured prominently on several important 
committees. In the meantime he had studied 
law, and upon retiring from state duties he re- 
turned to San Francisco for the practice of his 
profession, continuing there until 1879. While 
in that city he was a candidate for delegate to the 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



569 



constitutional convention which met in Sacra- 
mento in 1879, hut with the rest of his party he 
was defeated, the candidates on the working- 
men's ticket receivin^^ the majority of votes. 

Taking up his permanent residence in Sacra- 
mento in 1880, Judge Clarken entered actively 
into the practice of law in partnership with Judge 
John W. Armstrong, an association which was 
both remunerative and congenial, but owing to 
the election of the latter as judge of the superior 
court a dissolution of partnership was made nec- 
essary. Subsequently Judge Clarken was asso- 
ciated with R. T. Devlin, now United States dis- 
trict attorney, but the latter being appointed by 
Governor Stoneman as state's prison director, 
their partnership was necessarily dissolved. He 
then formed a partnership with H. C. Ross for 
the practice of his profession. He has served as 
a member of the Democratic county central com- 
mittee, as well as the city central committee. In 
various sections he has canvassed the state in the 
interest of his party, both for national and state 
campaigns, and is generally sent by his party as 
delegate to all state conventions. He has been 
mentioned prominently on two or more occa- 
sions for Congress, but refused to allow his name 
to go before the conventions. Once he received 
the nomination for judge of the superior court, 
but was defeated ; twice for district attorney, but 
defeated by a small majority in both cases. Since 
September 14, 1904, he has filled the office of 
justice of the peace to the entire satisfaction of 
all concerned, his office being located at No. 608 
I street. Judge Clarken is identified with two 
fraternal orders, Knights of Columbus and 
Young ATen's Institute. Personally he is a man 
of earnest, positive nature, of absolute fearless- 
ness in matters of right and wrong, and of noble 
characteristics, all of which attributes bind him 
to his manv friends. 



PETER C. CRUMBAUGH. Identified with 
the development of California ever since the 
eventful year of 1849, Mr. Crumbaugh has been 
a resident of Red Bluff for forty-five years and 
more, and during this long period has won and 
retained the friendship of a large circle of ac- 



quaintances, among whom he is honored as a re- 
sourceful pioneer and progressive citizen. Tlie 
family which he represents is of southern lineage 
and was established in America at anv early day. 
His father, John, was a native of Maryland, and 
in childhood accompanied his parents to Ohio, 
settling in Shelby county, where he passed the 
years of youth. There in his early manhood he 
met and married Elizabeth Maderis, who was 
horn in North Carolina. Tlie children born of 
their marriage were named as follows : Solo- 
mon, Willmoth, Peter C, Mary, John, William, 
Daniel, Martin, Thomas. Sarah. Jane and Sam- 
uel, all of whom arc deceased with the exception 
of the third son. The parents died when quite 
aged, the father passing away at the Ohio home- 
stead in 1885, after eighty-five useful years, and 
the mother dying at the same place in 1870. To 
their descendants they left the heritage of hon- 
ored lives and kindly deeds. 

The Ohio home where Peter C. Crumbaugh 
was born, November 5, 1828, is still familiar to 
him by the memories of boyhood and youth. In 
neighboring schools he studies the three R's, 
but in common with many of that day, the school 
of experience has been of greater value to him 
than the log cabin of those days, and the broad 
information of the present has been acquired 
principally by observation and self-culture. 
When news reached his neighborhood concern- 
ing the discovery of gold in the west he de- 
termined to seek his fortune across the moun- 
tains, but money was very scarce, and when he 
landed at Peoria, 111., he spent the winter in such 
work as could be obtained, hoping thereby to 
earn the needed money for the journey. In the 
spring he entered into an agreement with a com- 
pany by which they were to pay his expenses 
and receive in return one-half of his first year's 
salary. Under these conditions he crossed the 
plains and after his arrival at Hangtown, Au- 
gust 26, 1850, tried his luck in the mines. Next 
he bought fifteen nniles at Sacramento and start- 
ed for Gold Gulch, but on reaching Trinidad 
Bay he changed his plans and started out inde- 
pendentlv. Proceeding to Salmon river he es- 
tablished and conducted a trading post. As 



570 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



early as i860 he came to Red Bluff, where he 
has since been interested in agriculture, with a 
specialty of stock-raising. 

Not long after coming to his present location 
Mr. Crumbaugh established domestic ties. His 
marriage, September 3, 1861, united him with 
Miss Nellie Warden, who was born in Massa- 
chusetts July 26, 1841, being a daughter of M. 
Warden, an easterner by birth and descent. In 
the Warden family there were, besides herself, 
the following children : Emily, who married 
R. S. Collins, of Willows, this state; Jerusha A., 
who married James Phillips, and died in Red 
Blufif in 1902 ; Windsor D., whose home is in 
the vicinity of Red Bluff; Martha, the widow of 
J. Lawrence and a resident of Los Angeles ; and 
George, whose home is in Red Bluff. While Mr. 
and Mrs. Crumbaugh have no children of their 
own, they have given a home to Emma A. Rambo 
since her earliest infancy and have cared for her 
with the deepest parental devotion. In fraternal 
relations Mr. Crumbaugh holds membership with 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Red 
Bluff', while in religious matters, though not per- 
sonallv identified with any denomination, he has 
contributed to the maintenance of the iMethodist 
Episcopal Church, in which his wife and adopt- 
ed daughter are earnest workers. As a citizen 
he gives his co-operation to movements for the 
upbuilding of his home city and county, believ- 
ing them to offer superior inducements to pro- 
gressive settlers and proving by his long resi- 
dence his devotion to their interests. Year by 
year the muster roll of the Forty-niners de- 
creases as one by one they start upon that long 
journey from which none returns ; and when his 
name shall have been added to the number of the 
departed pioneers his memory will remain sacred 
to those who honor the founders of our great 
commonwealth. 



JOHN EDWIN REID. A residence in Cali- 
fornia covering more than twenty years has 
brought to Mr. Reid an intimate knowledge of 
the soil, climate and possibilities of the northern 
half of the state, particularly of Yolo and Te- 
hama counties, where successively he has made 



his home since coming from Illinois. It was 
during the year 1897 that he arrived in Tehama 
county as a permanent settler and purchased, in 
conjunction with a brother, W. T., a tract of six 
thousand acres lying near Kirkwood. Since that 
time he has been managing superintendent of the 
property, his brother being absorbed in the du- 
ties of proprietor of the Belmont school in San 
Mateo county, of which institution he was the 
founder. While the large ranch is available for 
cereal-raising and usually from twelve hundred 
to fifteen hundred acres are sown to wheat and 
barley each year, the industry in which the own- 
ers engage most extensively and through which 
they are best known is the manufacture of cheese 
and the sale of dairy products. Excellent facili- 
ties are afforded for the pasturage and care of 
stock, including the dairy herd of one hundred 
and forty cows. Tlie output of cheese, which 
averages three hundred and forty pounds per 
day, is shipped to the coast markets, where its 
recognized superiority brings a ready sale. 

In tracing the history of the Reid family we 
find that George W. Reid, a Kentuckian by birth, 
removed to Illinois at an early period and settled 
among the pioneers of Morgan county, where he 
died in 1848. Throughout all of his active life 
he engaged in tilling the soil. While yet a 
young man he married Martha Williams, a native 
of Lexington, Ky., who is still living and in the 
enjoyment of good health. Of their four chil- 
dren (all of whom were sons), John Edwin was 
second in order of birth, and was born on the 
Morgan county homestead January 14, 1845. 
The death of his father deprived him of the wise 
oversight of that parent and threw him upon his 
own resources at an early age. However, his 
educational facilities were not neglected, for he 
was enabled to supplement attendance at com- 
mon schools by a course of study in the Illinois 
College at Jacksonville. On the completion of 
his studies he remained in Morgan county, being 
engaged in farming and for a time also operating 
as a manufacturer of brick in Jacksonville. 

On closing out his interests in Illinois and re- 
moving to California in 1883, Mr. Reid estab- 
lished his home in Yolo county, where he acquired 
a fruit ranch of one hundred and sixty acres. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



571 



Diirincf tlie eleven years of his residence on that 
place he greatly enhanced its value through his 
systematic improvements and at the same time he 
gained a large circle of friends in his neighbor- 
hood and at Winters, his postoffice and market 
town. During 1896 he went to San Francisco 
and the following year came to Tehama county, 
where he has since made his home on the large 
place near Kirkwood, and with indefatigable en- 
ergy has superintended its responsible duties. So 
closely has his attention been given to the super- 
vision of the property that he has had little leis- 
ure for association with matters of public mo- 
ment or movements for the benefit of the people, 
vet his co-operation may always be relied upon 
to advance worthy measures, and as school trus- 
tee he rendered efficient service in the educational 
interests of Tehama county. Though a believer 
in Republican principles he is not a partisan and 
has no further interest in politics beyond that of 
the public-spirited citizen. Before leaving Illi- 
nois he married I^Iiss Hannah Moody, who was 
born in Massachusetts, but as a girl lived in 
Jacksonville, 111., where her education was 
secured in local schools. Of their union four 
children were born, namely: Roy E., who is 
now a student in the University of California ; 
George S., at home; Frederick M., a student in 
Belmont school of which his uncle is the pro- 
prietor ; and Irene, who remains with her par- 
ents. 



CAPT. ELBRIDGE GERRY REED. A 
Scotch emigrant established the Reed family in 
the New England states, where members of the 
name have become prominent in public affairs. 
From Massachusetts the family became located 
in Maine, where William Reed was born and 
married Hannah Hutchings, a native of that 
state. Of this union were born nine children, 
of whom only one is now living so far as known. 
William Reed followed the sea and was owner 
and captain of the ship, the William Reed, while 
he also had an interest in several other vessels. 
He was a man of strong principles, a Methodist 
in religion, and up to the time of the Civil war 
a Democrat in politics. After that historic strug- 



gle he was an advocate of the principles of the 
Republican party. A son of this family, El- 
bridge Ci. Reed was born in the territory of 
Maine, January 11, 1819, and as a child was 
taken to Maine, where, until attaining the ape of 
fourteen years, he attended the public schools 
in pursuit of an education. He then entered 
upon a sea-faring life, going before the mast on 
his father's ship, and so rapid was his progress 
that a year later he was made mate. He con- 
tinued to attend school during the winters for 
a short time, .^t the age of eighteen years he 
had command of the schooner Diamond, and fol- 
lowing was at various times in charge of dif- 
ferent vessels. At twentv-three he was com- 
mander of the brig Lamertine, in the West India 
trade. He was captain of the schooner Odd Fel- 
low, a packet from Augusta, Me., to Boston, 
and also commanded the brig Arab, from Gard- 
ner, Me., used in the coal trade. 

In the year of the gold excitement in Califor- 
nia Captain Reed came to San Francisco on the 
Rob Roy, after which, in company witli others, 
he built the steamer Kennebec, to ply on the 
Sacramento river between Sacramento and 
Marysville. During this time William Reed, a 
brother of the captain's, was in command while 
Captain Reed acted as mate. They were very 
successful in this enterprise and accumulated 
considerable means, after which the vessel was 
sold. Captain Reed then became mate on the 
San Joaquin for Capt. \\'illiam Moore, with 
whom he remained for a short time, when he 
purchased the United States hotel in Sacramento 
and conducted it successfully for two years. Dis- 
posing of this interest, in the spring of 1852 lie 
came to Red Bluff, building the first frame house 
in the town. Here he established a hotel which 
became famous throughout this section of the 
country, every hunter and miner finding at one 
time or another comfort and hospitality with the 
captain. The early merchants of Red Bluff also 
made their home in his hostelry, while every 
traveler enjoyed the comforts dispensed there. 
It is a well remembered fact that the comforts 
of Captain Reed's home were dispensed as lav- 
ishly to the penniless traveler fes the one who 
could pay his way, for this old pioneer gave lib- 



572 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



erall_v of tlie means which blessed his efforts, 
lending a helping hand to all in need, and send- 
ing many a fellow-being on his way happier and 
better for the help that had been given him. In 
1870 Captain Reed built a comfortable and sub- 
stantial brick house on his ranch, which at that 
time consisted of two hundred acres. He has 
since sold a part of the same for $100 per acre, 
retaining one hundred and twenty acres in the 
home place, which has since been devoted to 
general farming. 

In 1843 Captain Reed married Susan Randall, 
a native of Augusta, Me., and a daughter of 
Capt. Samuel Randall. Born of this union were 
six children, of whom the following are living: 
Ellen M., wife of A. W. Bishop, of Oakland, 
Cal. ; Alvira B.. wife of Charles Adams, of Sac- 
ramento ; and Annie, wife of William Cahoon, 
cashier of the Tehama Bank, at Red Bluff. Mrs. 
Reed died in 1879, ^"^^ ^^ter Captain Reed mar- 
ried ]\Irs. Emily A. Eastman, widow of Harvey 
Eastman. She was born in Northern Vermont 
and crossed the plains in 1864. Captain Reed 
is located on his ranch adjoining Red Bluff on 
Reed's creek, and although advanced in years is 
still hale and hearty, a'ld enjoys recounting the 
events of his long and eventful life. He holds 
a high place in the esteem of all who know him, 
who appreciate him for the qualities of citizen- 
ship displayed for over half a century. 



WILLIAM R. GALLUP. A farmer and 
rancher of Sacramento, Cal., William Randall 
Gallup, a son of Nehemiah Mason Gallup, was 
born in Stonington, Conn., May 19, 1828. The 
latter was also a native of Connecticut, his birtli 
having occurred in New London, February 12, 
1785. Nehemiah Mason Gallup grew to man- 
hood in Connecticut, and there married, on April 
26, 1812, Huldah Wheeler, a native of Stoning- 
ton. She died November 6, 1834, while he lived 
to January 21, 1871. Mr. Gallup's grandfather, 
Nehemiah Gallup, born June 19, 1751, was of 
the sixth generation of the family, and, as a 
soldier in the Revolutionary war, received a 
pension of $8 per month. He married Eliza- 
beth Brown, January 28, 1783. The first Ameri- 



can emigrant of the family, John Gallup, the 
son of another John Gallup, was a native of 
England. He came to Boston, in 1630, from 
Dorsetshire, where he was born. 

The primary education of William R. Gallup 
was received in the district school in the vicinity 
of his home, after which he attended a select 
school taught by Prof. John Avery. Following 
this he taught school for five terms, after which, 
on the 3rd of April, 1853, he started for Cali- 
fornia by way of Panama. Arriving safely in 
this state May 7, he came direct to Sacramento, 
and was employed for a time by Josiah Gallup 
as a teamster, hauling to the various mining dis- 
tricts, and later engaged in teaming for himself. 
From 1858 to 1863 he was engaged in forward- 
ing freight, supplying miners in the outlying 
districts, and furnishing die teamsters with hay 
and grain. About this time he became inter- 
ested in the raising of sheep. 

In 1863 he returned to Connecticut, and was 
married May 3, 1864, after which, with his wife, 
he returned to this state. His sheep business 
became more extensive in the passing years, and 
as his means increased he invested in land, prin- 
cipally in Yolo county, becoming the owner of 
over five thousand acres, having disposed of part 
of his original ranch of seventeen hundred and 
sixty acres. Although he raises some cattle and 
hogs, the greater part of his attention is given 
to the sheep industry, his band now numbering 
about three thousand head. His annual wool 
clip amounts to many thousands of pounds and 
brings him large financial returns. A part of 
his extensive ranch is adapted to agricultural 
purposes and is used as such. 

May 3, 1864, Mr. Gallup was united in mar- 
riage with Eliza A. Morgan, a daughter of John 
and Mary Morgan, of Ledyard, Conn., in which 
place she was born August 14, 1842. They be- 
came the parents of two daughters, Ida May 
and Effa Morgan, the wife of Joseph D. Lord, 
of Sacramento, Cal. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gallup 
are members of the First Baptist Church, Mr. 
Gallup having officiated for a number of years 
as deacon. Their home is located at 1521 I 
street. In all matters pertaining to the general 
upbuilding of the Sacramento valley Mr. Gallup 



isTo:-:rjAL /.nd biographical record. 



573 



has been a liberal supporter. In politics he lias 
.supported the Republican i)arty in national is- 
sues, in local matters supporting men he con- 
sidered best qualified for the office, regardless 
of party lines. He was never an aspirant for 
official honors himself. Mrs. Gallup is a mem- 
ber of the W. C. T. U.. and is one of the direct- 
ors of the Sacramento Foundlings Home. 
Since writing the foregoing Mr. (lallup passed 
away. January 8, 1906. 



WILHELM LUDWIG. Remembered among 
the property owners and respected citizens of 
Shasta county is W'ilhelm Ludwig, who was born 
in Germany October 31, 1829. His early educa- 
tion was received in that country and at the age 
of eighteen years he left his native land and 
came to the United States, locating at Wheeling, 
Pa., where he became engaged in the construc- 
tion of bridges. Later he removed to Belleville, 
111., and followed the cabinet maker's trade until 
the spring of 1853, when he started overland to 
California, with ox-teams, the journey extend- 
ing from April 15 to October 2, 1853. Until 
the next spring he followed the carpenter's trade 
in Shasta, receiving $7 per day, then removed to 
Middletown, thence to Cottonwood, Shasta coun- 
ty. In the spring of 1^55 he purchased the toll 
bridge in that locality, which was unfortunately 
swept away the following year by high water. 
During his residence there he erected a hotel 
and purchased a great deal of land from the rail- 
road, in 1865 also purchasing two hundred and 
fifty-five acres of land from Major Reading, 
which is now know as the Ludwig Fruit Com- 
pany's property. At the time of his death, which 
occurred in 1876, at the age of forty-eight years, 
Mr. Ludwig owned eight hundred and forty 
acres of good land, a portion in Shasta county, 
and the remainder in Tehama county. Frater- 
nally he was a member of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows of Red Blufif, and was also a 
member of the Presbyterian Qiurch. 

In St. Louis, Mo., April 16, 1853, Mr. Lud- 
wig married Wilhelmina Becker, who was born 
in Germany December 29, 1833, the daughter 
of Frederick and Louisa Becker. Some years after 



the death of his wife, in 1870, Mr. Becker left his 
native land and took up his abode in the United 
States. His death occurred in Cottonwood, Cal., 
m 1879. -Mrs. Ludwig accompanied her father 
to this country, and well remembers incidents 
connected with the journey. After reaching the 
continent a part of the trip was made by canal 
boat, the journey from Baltimore to Pittsburg 
occupying ten days. Eight years after the death 
of her husband I\Irs. Ludwig made a trip to Ger- 
many, also visiting in Missouri, where she first 
located upon coming to the United States. After 
her return, in November, 1884, she again took 
up her abode in Cottonwood, remaining there 
until 1899, when she located in Anderson, where 
she still resides. She had resided in Cottonwood 
forty-three years. Four children were born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig, namely: Mary, the wife 
of C. A. Campbell, of Red BlufT; Addie, the 
wife of William Weaver, of Anderson; Luella, 
the wife of Charles Hughes, of Red Bluff; and 
Julia, the wife of A. Weaver, who resides at 
Anderson. 



DANIEL BEATIE. At the ripe age of 
eighty-two years Daniel Beatie is living re- 
tired upon his farm, five miles east of Ander- 
son, Shasta county, the management of which 
is under the care of his second eldest son, John, 
who has always made his home with his father. 
Daniel Beatie was born at Argyle, Washington . 
county, N. Y., April 30, 1823, a son of John and 
Hannah (Lytle) Beatie, both natives of the 
Empire state, where they also died. After re- 
ceiving a common school education in New 
York state Daniel Beatie began to learn the 
tanner's trade, which he followed as a business 
until i860. Thus far thirteen years of his life 
had been spent in Vermont, but in March, 
1861, he went to Illinois, where he took up the 
calling which his father had followed, and for 
twenty years he tilled the soil in Illinois. 
Again prompted by his limitations to seek 
broader fields Mr. Beatie came to California 
in 1881, and the property upon which he tlien 
located has been his home ever since. 

In Vermont, in 1843, ^f""- Beatie married Au- 



574 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



rora Priscilla Baldwin, who was born in Dor- 
set, that state, January 8, 1826, and six children 
were the result of their marriage. John, who 
was born December 19, 1861, in Hampshire. 
Kane county, 111., resides with his father and 
manages the home farm. By his marriage 
with Alice Hawes, a daughter of William 
Hawes, he has a family of twelve children, as 
follows : William H., Daniel W., Helen, 
Blanche, Harry, Jennie, John, Charles, Albert, 
Emma, Ralph and Florence. Besides John, the 
parental family included the following chil- 
dren : Norwell Thomas ; Mary Jane, Ann 
Eliza and Annie, the three last named passing 
away many years ago ; and Charles, who still 
makes his home in Illinois. 

January 3, 1902, Mr. Beatie was called upon 
to mourn the loss of his wife, who was for 
nearly sixty years his faithful helpmate and 
close companion. At the time of her death she 
was in her seventy-sixth year. Eormerly Mr. 
Beatie was prominently identified with the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, but on ac- 
count of advancing years he has withdrawn 
from active participation in the work of that 
body. His political sympathy is in favor of 
Republican principles and candidates. 



DANIEL ERASER. One of the most in- 
fluential and highly respected citizens of Yuba 
county is Daniel Eraser, who resides at Wheat- 
land, retired from the activities which for years 
have engaged his attention. July 19, 1828, he 
was born at Glasgow, Nova Scotia, there spend- 
ing his boyhood. When sixteen years of age 
he became apprenticed to a tanner, remaining 
with him four years, after which he went to 
Boston, Mass., and followed his trade for about 
six months. Going to New York City from 
there, he subsequently went to New Jersey, in 
the meantime learning more and more of his 
trade until he was an expert in his line. Be- 
coming impressed with the stories of the dis- 
covery of gold in California, he determined to 
come to this state. From Panama he walked 
across the Isthmus, then took ship for the Golden 
state, arriving in San Francisco May 2, 1852. 



Going to where Grass Valley now stands, he 
secured employment in a quartz mill there. He 
saved his money until he had laid by $5,000, 
which he loaned to a man who never returned it. 

Seven months after going to Grass Valley, 
Mr. Eraser came down to the vicinity of what 
is now Wheatland, bringing with him about $200 
and located on the Johnson grant, thinking it 
government land, but in 1856 he secured a title 
to one hundred and sixty acres of the land by 
paying $20 per acre for it. Here he began 
■ farming and stock-raising, when this section was 
an unimproved and sparsely settled country. 
Later he added to his landed possessions from 
time to time, until he owned eleven hundred 
and seventy-three acres at the time he sold out 
in 1904. Besides raising cattle, horses and hogs 
and managing his large tract of land he also 
dealt largely in sheep, which he fattened for the 
market. When the railroad was built through 
this section the land near it was a vast wheat 
field, and when the subject was raised as to what 
to call the town to be built on the railroad Mr. 
Eraser suggested Wheatland, and Wheatland it 
has remained. When Mr. Eraser was a lad he 
rode on the first railway engine that was built. 
In 1867 he took a pleasure trip east, traveling 
through that portion of the east in which he 
formerly lived and worked at his trade. 

Mr. Eraser was one of the founders of the 
Farmers' Bank of Wheatland, of which he was 
director for many years. He owes his financial 
independence to his individual efforts and deter- 
mination, and is a self-made man in the truest 
acceptation of the term. Twice married, he 
never had any family of his own, but his 
benevolent spirit prompted him to rear, educate 
and start in life, several children, who, but for 
him, might have had a hard struggle to gain a 
competency. He is the oldest living member of 
Sutter Lodge No. 100, I. O. O. F., who joined 
when he did, and is also identified with the 
Masonic order. He cast a vote for Buchanan, 
but afterward said if the great spirit of the 
Universe would forgive he would never do it 
again. Later he became a stanch Republican, 
though his tastes never inclined him to desire or 
to accept public office. 



II 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



GRANN'ILLE PULLEN. Ever since an an- 
cestor of the Pullen family settled in Wintlirop, 
Me., in 1769, many generations of the family 
have been born in that state. The paternal grand- 
father of our subject, Jonathan Pullen, a native 
of Winthrop and a farmer by occupation, lived 
to reach his seventy-fifth year, dying in .\nson. 
that state. His wife, formerly Sylvia Bonner, 
lived to be ninety-five years of age, while her 
father and mother lived to be ninety-six and 
eightv-t1n-ee _\ears, respectively. A son of Jon- 
athan and Sylvia Pullen, William Pullen was 
horn, at .Anson, spending his life there, and dying 
at the age of seventy-eight years and six months. 
He married Sarah J. Bennett, also born at An- 
son, the daughter of Stephen Bennett, a black- 
smith of that state. Granville Pullen now has 
tongs and shovels which Mr. Bennett made in 
his shop after he was seventy-seven years of age. 
He died at the age of ninety-six years, and his 
daughter at the age of eighty-three. 

Granville Pullen was also born at Anson, Me.. 
October 23. 1838, and is one of eleven children, 
ten of whom grew up. and seven of whom are 
living, four sons and three daughters. His 
brother Harrison was killed at the battle of Get- 
tvsburg, and- another brother, Omar, also served 
in that struggle with the Tenth Maine Regiment, 
and died m 1885. Receiving his education in 
the common schools and in the academy at .^.n- 
son Mr. Pullen remained at home with his par- 
ents until 1859, when he boarded the steamer 
Baltic at New York City for Aspinwall on the 
long journey to the Pacific coast. At Aspinwall 
he shipped on the John L. Stephen for San 
Erancisco. landing in that city in October of the 
same \ear. Going to Tuolumne county, he 
worked in the mines until the spring of i860, 
when he went to San Juan, where he obtained 
employment with the firm of Flint. Bixby & 
Co., working on their ranch for six years. Re- 
turning east via the Isthmus of Panama at the 
end of this time he engaged in the flour mill 
business in Anson until 1869. During that year 
he started west again, and three months after 
the driving of the golden spike at the comple- 
tion of the Central Pacific railroad he came over 
H 



that road on his way to California. Returning 
to San Juan, he again entered tlie employ of 
Flint, Bixby & Co. As the following winter was 
a dry one he was sent with a large drove of sheep 
from Los Angeles to Niles in order to place the 
sheep where they could have plenty of grass and 
water. In 1870 he went to Honey Lake valley, 
in Lassen county, and purchased three hundred 
and twenty acres of land on Susan river, eight 
miles below Susan\ille, where he engaged in 
raising grain, hay and cattle, continuing in this 
Ijusincss seven years or more, then sold out and 
went to San Francisco, where he engaged in 
teaming for Pope & Talbot. Remaining with 
this firm some ten years, he then went to Fruit- 
vale. Alameda county, where he remained five 
years, thence .going to Cloverdale, Sonoma 
county, where he purchased a stock ranch and 
orchard, consisting of twenty-six hundred acres 
of fine land. In 1900 he sold this property and 
took another trip east, but returned to California 
the following spring and located on a ranch he 
had formerly owned in Honey Lake valley, there 
engaging in farming, stock-raising and dairying. 
He has an excellent dairy of thirty cows, and 
uses a separator. 

In Susanville Mr. Pullen married Mary S. 
Talbot, who was born in Maine, and is the 
daughter of Judge ICnoch Stanwood Tallwt, of 
Freeport, Me At one time he served as county 
judge of Lassen county. Only one child has 
been born to Mr. and Mrs. Pullen, Granville Tal- 
bot. Fraternally Mr. Pullen is identified with 
the Masonic order, and v^'as a charter member of 
Golden Gate Commandery No. 16, K. T., of 
San Francisco, also of Commandery No. 13, K. 
T.. of Susanville, and is now a member of Lodge 
No. 232, F. & -A. M.. at Janesville, and both he 
and bis wife belong to the Eastern Star Chapter 
and the Honey Lake Court of the Amaranths. 
Mr. Pullen was ajipointed delegate to the grand 
lodge of the latter order, held in San Francisco, 
March 13 and 14. 1906. and while there was 
elected associate grand royal patron. Mrs. Pul- 
len is a member of the Baptist church of Susan- 
ville. In politics Mr. Pullen supports the Re- 
publican platform. 



578 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



CHRISTIE BROTHERS. Two young native 
sons of the state of California who have made 
a success of merchandising are the Christie 
Ijrothers, John Burton and James I., who arc 
proprietors of a general merchandise store in 
Janesville and own seven hundred acres of land 
adjoining the town. The pioneer of the family 
was James Oiristie. their father, who was born 
in New York state, whence he was taken by his 
parents to Jackson county, Mich., where his 
father followed farming until his death. James 
Christie attained manhood in his adopted state, 
where he remained until 1863, when he came to 
California by means of ox-teams. Upon his ar- 
rival he located in Surprise valley, Alodoc count\ , 
and engaged in farming and stock-raising, hav- 
ing taken up and improved a ranch near Eagle- 
ville. He remained in that location until 1876, 
when he returned to Michigan and farmed in 
Jackson county for the ensuing two years. De- 
ciding to locate permanently in the west, he dis- 
posed of his interests in Michigan and returned 
to California in 1878, and in ■\Iilford, Honey 
Lake valley, bought a small orchard and here 
spent the remainder of his days, his death oc- 
curring in 1885, at the age of forty-nine years. 
He had lived a Christian life and was a con- 
sistent member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. He was survived b\' his wife, formerly 
Elizabeth Jane Deceous, who was born in Ohio, 
a daughter of John Deceous. Her father brought 
the family as far west as Anamosa, Iowa, where 
they remained until 1862, when they crossed the 
plains to California, settling in Honey Lake val- 
ley, where her father died. Mrs. Qiristie sur- 
vives her husband and makes her home with 
her eldest son, John Burton Christie, two other 
children surviving, Mary, the wife of J. E. Doyle, 
of Janesville, and James I. 

John Burton Christie was born in Eagleville, 
Modoc countv, March 31, 1868, and after receiv- 
ing a preliminary education in the public schools 
attended Heald's Business College of San Fran- 
cisco, from which institution he was graduated 
in 1889. Following this he secured a position in 
a store in Milford as clerk and in the spring of 
1890 was appointed postmaster. Resigning the 
office to attend the Midwinter Fair at San Fran- 



cisco, he was reappointed upon his return, and 
purchasing the Phillips store in Alilford, op- 
erated the same in connection. Julv 16, 1903, he 
suf¥ered a loss of his interests by fire. Following 
this disaster he clerked for Emerson for a time 
and the following year purchased the Aleylert 
interest in a store and ranch in Janesville, where 
he has since resided. He was married in San 
Francisco to Alberta Gainesworth, a native of 
the state of Iowa, and they have one daughter, 
Erma. Mr. Christie is identified fraternally with 
Honey Lake Parlor No. 198, Native Sons of the 
(jolden West, of which he is secretary, and po- 
litically is a true blue Republican. 

The younger of the brothers, James I. Christie, 
was born in Modoc comity, Octoljer 26, 1872. 
He married Grace Dill in Honey Lake valley, 
and they have two children. Fay and Merle. For 
some time prior to 1904, when he went into part- 
nership with his brother in the ranch and stock 
business, Mr. Oiristie was engaged in the mer- 
cantile business with Spoon Brothers, the stvle 
of the firm name being Spoon Bros. & Oiristie. 
of Spoonville, where Mr. Christie was also post- 
master. He disposed of his interests in 1904 
in order to join his brother at Janesville, and 
tliev now have large landed interests, consisting 
of seven hundred acres (half of which is in mead- 
ow ) , upon which they conduct an extensive stock 
and dairy business. Fraternally Mr. Christie is 
a member of Janesville Lodge No. 232, F. & 
A. M., of which he is master, and is also past 
president of the Janesville Parlor, Native Sons 
of the Golden West. Both brothers are en- 
ergetic yet quiet in their manner, warm in their 
friendships, considerate of the comfort of others, 
and furnishing by their lives an instance of the 
cle\'ating power of honorable citizenship. 



JAMES WYLIE. It is indicative of the 
varied talents of Mr. Wylie that he has engaged 
in widely dififerent occupations with uniform suc- 
cess. For years a skilled blacksmith working at 
his forge with patient industry, he is still the 
owner of a shop at Cedarville, but employs help 
for the practical operation of the plant, while 





^.^ii^^Si^S-^^'s^^'^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



581 



he devotes himself with intelligence and energy 
to the practice of law and to the management of 
his real estate business. As a }onng man he had 
few educational advantages and from an early 
age he followed the blacksmith's trade, but al- 
ways he was ambitious to gain a higher educa- 
tion, and, during his leisure hours in the shop, 
he was accustomed to study history, law and 
the classics. The time that many might have 
wasted he utilized for the broadening of his field 
of knowledge, and the result was that eventually 
he gained an education more complete than man\- 
a college or law school graduate possesses. 

In the province of Ontario, Canada, where he 
was born February 17, ^849. James Wylie learned 
the blacksmith's trade in early life and at the 
age of twenty years went to New York, where 
he worked at his trade for twelve months in Belle- 
ville, Jefi'erson county. Returning from there to 
Canada, he opened and carried on a shop of his 
own, but after three 3ears sold out and again 
moved to the States, this time settling in Michi- 
gan, where for three years he was proprietor of 
a shop at Vernon. On selling out that shop he 
came west as far as Nevada, settling at Reno, 
where he conducted a blacksmith's business for 
a little less than two years. On selling his in- 
terests in Reno he came to California. On the 
20th of September, 1878, he arrived at Cedar- 
ville, JModoc county. Here for a year he rented 
a shop, but at the expiration of that time he built 
the brick building which he still utilizes for the 
blacksmith's business. 

Prominent in the local affairs of the Demo- 
cratic party, Mr. Wylie long has been a leader in 
this locality. For three years he held office as 
land receiver at .Susanville, and for fourteen years 
filled the position of county supervisor of Modoc 
county. These positions he filled with credit to 
himself and to the satisfaction of those most in- 
terested. In 1 901 he was admitted to practice 
law at the bar of California and since then has 
given a large share of his time and thought to 
professional work. 

While living in Nevada Mr. Wylie established 
a home of his own. September 7, 1877, at Reno, 
he was united in marriage with Miss Martha 
]\Ic\'ev. a native of Minnesota. Thev are the 



parents of four children, namely : Andrew Kes- 
ner, who at this writing holds a position as dep- 
uty auditor and recorder of Modoc county ; Nora 
Jane, who married Solomon Street of Cedarville : 
Edna Estella and Thomas James. In fraternal 
relations Mr. Wylie is identified with the Masonic 
blue lodge at Cedarville, of which he is past mas- 
ter, is a member of the Eastern Star, and is past 
district deputy grand master of Cedarville Lodge 
of Odd Fellows for this district. Movements 
for the benefit of the community receive his 
stanch support, and he maintains an especial in- 
terest in enterprises bearing upon irrigation, 
which he believes to be the most important factor 
in the development of the west. When the irri- 
gation congress convened at Portland, Ore., in 
1905, he attended as one of the five delegates 
from Modoc county, and participated in the pro- 
ceedings of that memorable gathering. Nor has 
his interest been less manifest in other projects 
for the public good. Indeed, he may be counted 
upon to assist in all worthy and progressive move- 
ments calculated to promote the progress of his 
town and countv. 



GEORGE BATTERSON. Worthy of men- 
tion among the native-born sons of California is 
(Jeorge Batterson, a skilful and successful ag- 
riculturist, who is activelv engaged in the prose- 
cution of his independent calling in Honey Lake 
valley, his ranch lying about nine miles south- 
east of Milford. He was born November 10, 
1866, in Milford, Lassen county, a son of the 
late Giarles Batterson. 

A native of Pennsylvania, Charles Batterson 
was born and reared in Susquehanna county. 
After learning the blacksmith's trade he followed 
it for a few years in his native state, and then 
migrated westward to Iowa, where he lived for a 
time. Coming from there to California, he 
opened a smithy in Milford, and here worked at 
his trade until his death, which was accidental, 
being caused by a kick from a mule. His wife, 
whose maiden name was Elizabeth Washburn, 
was born in Susquehanna county. Pa., and there 
brought up. She survived him. and married for 



582 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



her second husband J. E. Fitch, of Milford, 
Gal. 

Having completed his early education in the 
district schools of Milford, George Batterson be- 
gan life as a wage-earner at the age of sixteen 
years, working principally as a farm hand. In 
i8g8 he went to Nevada, where he rented land, 
which he carried on successfully for three or 
more years, making some money in the opera- 
tion. Returning to Lassen county, he pur- 
chased his present ranch of one thousand acres 
in 1902, and has since been engaged in general 
farming. His land is all tillable, and although 
not at present irrigated is well fitted for raising 
grain and hay. In addition to raising crops, he 
is employed to some extent in dairying, keeping 
about twenty-five cows, which are of a good 
breed, being three-fourths Durham. 

In December, 1896, Mr. Batterson married 
Anna Downing, who was born in California, a 
daughter of S. U. Downing. Politically Mr. 
Batterson is a staunch adherent of the Republi- 
can party, and though not an aspirant for offi- 
cial favors, takes an intelligent interest in local 
and national affairs. 



MILTON WATSON. Coming to Big Val- 
ley at an early period of its settlement, Mil- 
ton Watson is numbered among those brave and 
hardy pioneers whose shrewd foresight and un- 
bounded energy opened the way for the develop- 
ment of northern California, and it has been his 
privilege as well as pleasure to watch its grow- 
ing prosperity from the start. He takes an es- 
pecial interest in everything connected with its 
agricultural resources, and as an intelligent and 
able farmer and stock-raiser is meeting with good 
success. A son of the late James C. Watson, he 
was born, December 4, 1852, in Pike county. 111. 
A native of Ohio, James C. Watson became an 
early settler of Illinois, living first in Pike county, 
then in Montgomery county, from there moving 
with his family to Chetopa, Kan. He married 
Serena Thomas, who was also born and reared 
in Ohio, their marriage being celebrated in Illi- 
nois. 



Accompanying his parents to Montgomery 
county. 111., when a child, Milton Watson was 
there reared and educated. At the age of eight- 
een he began life for himself as a wage-worker, 
but subsequently went with the family to Kansas, 
where he remained a few years. Returning, how- 
ever, to Illinois, he continued work as a laborer 
until 1875, when he came to California, locating 
at San Jose, where he secured work on a dairy 
farm. Five months later he went to Portland, 
Ore., and after spending the winter and spring 
in that part of the country returned tO' this state, 
and for five months was employed on a farm 
near Butte City. In the fall of 1876 he made 
his advent into Lassen county, locating at Big 
Valley, near Bieber. He pre-empted one hundred 
and sixty acres of land, which he afterwards 
homesteaded, and put upon it some improve- 
mepts, although he lived there only long enough 
to comply with the homestead laws. During the 
time he was engaged in riding after cattle for 
four years, when he sold out his property, and 
for three years ran a stock ranch for himself. 
Renting then the Kellogg ranch, he operated it 
for a number of years, carrying on a remuner- 
ative Iiusiness as a stock-raiser. About 1896 he 
bought his present estate of four hundred and 
eiglity acres, then known as the Steele ranch. 
Each year he handles a number of horses and cat- 
tle, and is to some extent engaged in raising 
grain an<l hay, having one hundred and thirty 
acres of his farm under cultivation. 

In 1879, in Big \'a!ley, Mr. Watson married 
Ella I. Bassett, who was born in Nevada, a 
daughter of the late Isaac W. Bassett. A native 
of Indiana, Mr. Bassett moved to Illinois when 
\-oung, and was there engaged in tilling the soil 
for many years, first in Hancock county, and 
then in Adams county. Moving to Nevada in 
1863, he lived for a }'ear on the Truckee Mead- 
ows, near Reno. Coming with his family across 
the mountains to California in 1864, he located 
first in Solano county, where for seven years he 
continued in his independent calling. Locating 
in Colusa county, near Colusa, in 1871, he re- 
sided there six years. Deciding then to make a 
change,, he settled in Lassen county, about one 
and one-half miles northeast of Bieber, where he 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



5S5 



bought three htiiidicd and twenty acres of land, 
on which the Hot Springs were located. Im- 
proving a good ranch, he lived there until his 
death, in June, 1905. Mr. Bassett married first, 
in Illinois, Sarah B. Armsbee, who died in Co- 
lusa county. She bore him eight children, 
namely : Clara, wife of Dewitt Brownell, and a 
resident of Oregon; Ella I., wife of Mr. Wat- 
son; Mrs. Minnie Kenned}-, of Washington; a 
child that died in infancy; Edith, wife of M. 
Mott, of W'oodland, Cal. ; Bernard, living near 
Bieber; Eugene, a resident of Elmira, Cal.; and 
Mark, of Woodland. Cal. Mr. Bassett married 
for his second wife Miss Martha Stainbrook; 
she resides on the ranch near Bieber. He was 
a farmer during his entire life, and was a Demo- 
crat in politics. 

Into the pleasant home of Mr. and Mrs. Wat- 
son ten children have been born, namely: Isaac, 
who lives near the home ranch and who married 
Ruth Dunbar, by whom he has tw'o children, 
Laura and Grace ; Charles, living near home ; a 
child that died in infancy; Rachel, a teacher in 
Lassen county; Jay; Handy; Sarah; Julia; Mar- 
garet; and John. Politically Mr. Watson has 
always been a stanch advocate 6f the principles 
promulgated by the Republican party, but has 
never cared to hold otifice. He is a director and 
one of the charter members of the Co-operative 
-Association of Big \'alley, and was also the or- 
ganizer of the Hayden Hill & Willow Creek 
Telephone Compan_\'. 



JOHN MONTGOMERY W^-\LKER. An 
active representative of the pioneer element of 
Big \'alley, Lassen county, John Alontgomery 
Walker has been engaged in agricultural pursuits 
during his entire life, and in the prosecution of 
his independent calling finds his greatest pleas- 
ure. When he came to the valley the settlers 
were few and far between, an occasional cabin 
being the only places of residence. Vast changes 
have since taken place in the face of the country 
roundabout. The present flourishing condition of 
this part of the county, with its well-improved 
ranches, many comfortable dwellings and suli- 



stantial school buildings, is a monument to the 
persevering labors of the brave men who, like 
Mr. Walker, endured the trials of a pioneer life 
that they might develop the resources of this re- 
gion, and make for themselves and their families 
a pleasant home in this seemingly unfruitful re- 
gion. A son of William Bailey Walker, he was 
Ixjrn in September, 1842, in McDonough county, 
111., where he lived until eleven years of age. 

A native of Virginia, William B. Walker be- 
came a farmer from choice, and for a number of 
years w-as employed as a tiller of the soil in Illi- 
nois. He subsequently came with his family 
across the plains to Siskiyou county, Cal., locat- 
ing in Scott Valley, where he spent the remain- 
der of his life. He married Margaret Elizabeth 
Head, who was born in Kentucky eighty-three 
years ago ; came with the family to the Pacific 
Coast, and is still living, a bright and active wo- 
man, bearing with ease her burden of years. 

The second child in a family of twelve chil- 
dren, John M. Walker accompanied the family 
to DeKalb county. Mo., in 1853, and there com- 
pleted his early education in the district schools. 
Leaving 2klissouri on May 14, 1863, he crossed 
the plains to California, after a tedious journey 
of nearly four months arriving at Honey Lake 
valley, which was then but sparsely settled, the 
following September. Continuing the journey to 
Siskivou county, he spent a number of years in 
Scott \'alley, being eni])loyed in agricultural 
pursuits. Coming to Big Valley in 1872, he first 
pre-emjiied one hundred and sixty acres of land, 
after which he bought a claim, and also home- 
steaded one, acquiring title to five hundred and 
sixty acres of land w-hich was in its original 
wildness. Beginning work immediately, he la- 
bored with a determined will, and by means of 
industry, resolution and perseverance succeeded 
in placing a large part of it under cultivation. He 
has now about sixty acres of natural meadow 
land, sixty acres of land devoted to the growing 
of grain, and is now turning his attention to the 
raising of alfalfa. He i.^^ an extensive stock man, 
raising large nuiubers of cattle and horses, to 
this adding in the last few years a goodly num- 
ber of mules, in the breeding of which he is 
meeting with success. .As a general farmer and 



586 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



stock raiser and dealer he has been prosperous, 
acquiring a place of prominence among the lead- 
ing ranchmen of the county. 

Mr. Walker has been twice married. He mar- 
ried first L. Marie Godfrey, by whom he had 
four children, namely: Herbert, deceased ; Anna, 
wife of P. J. Smelcer of Adin ; a child that died 
in infancy; and Joseph F., of AUuras. Mr. 
Walker's second marriage united him with Alice 
Stone, who bore him seven children, four of 
whom are living, namely : George, of Adin ; Ma- 
bel, wife of Dr. Charles M. Tinsman, of Adin ; 
Nella, living at home ; and Floyd, at home. Mrs. 
Alice Walker died in early womanhood, and 
since her death the home has been presided over 
by Miss Nella Walker, a bright, capable young 
lady, well versed in domestic arts. Politically 
Mr. Walker is a true Republican, but has never 
cared to hold public office. Fraternally he is a 
member and past Noble Grand of Adin Lodge 
No. 272, I. O. O. F. He is a charter member of 
the Big Valley Co-operative Association, which 
he served as a director for several years, and is 
also a stockholder in the Providence Telephone 
Company. 



LEWIS KENYON. Perhaps the most vivid 
of the recollections clustering around the child- 
hood of Mr. Kenyon are those associated with 
the removal of the family from Missouri, where 
he was born September 20, 1846. It was in the 
spring- of-1852 that his parents, Charles and Hes- 
ter Kenvon, left their old home with wagon and 
ox-team and started across the plains for the far 
west, in the hope of bettering their fortunes in 
the new and unknown country beyond the moun- 
tains and the desert. After a tedious journey of 
six months they landed on Canyon creek, in what 
is now Nevada, and in the spring moved to Old 
Ragtown, but in the same year they proceeded 
to California, settling near Georgetown, Eldo- 
rado countv, where the father engaged in min- 
ing. After twelve years at that place the family 
returned to iMissouri with wagon and horse-team, 
and for three months they visited amid the scenes 
of their youth, after which they settled eighty 
miles east of St. Louis, in Illinois. In the spring 



of the following year they proceeded to Arkansas 
and rented a farm, but after one season they 
again crossed the plains with ox-teams, this time 
traveling via Denver and Salt Lake. After six 
months they landed in Eldorado county, where 
they remained two years, and then removed to 
Shasta county, settling on land near ]\Iillville. 
On that ranch the parents spent practically the 
remaining years of their lives. Both are now 
deceased. 

When about twenty years of age Lewis Ken- 
yon left the parental roof and started out in the 
world to earn his own livelihood. About 1868 
he began to engage in mining in Shasta county 
and from there in 1871 he came to Big valley, 
Lassen county, arriving in August of that year, 
and shortly afterward pre-empting one hundred 
and sixty acres of government land. Later he 
homesteaded another claim, and now owns a 
tract of three hundred and twenty acres, all of 
which is as fine land as the valley can boast. 
The improvements on the property were made 
under his personal supervision, and to him be- 
longs the credit of having transformed a wild 
stretch of unproductive land into a fertile ranch. 
While raising grain to some extent, he makes a 
specialty of the stock business and utilizes much 
of his farm for pasture or for hay. 

The marriage of Lewis Kenyon took place 
May 21, 1876, and united him with Miss Mary 
Ann Lindt, who was born in Missouri, being a 
daughter of Samuel and Eliza Jane (Johnson) 
Lindt. When only one year old she was or- 
phaned by the death of her father. Later her 
mother became the wife of Nathan Payne, and 
with him crossed the plains, settling in Nevada, 
where the family spent five years in Austin. 
From there they came to California and for five 
years resided in Stockton. While there Mr. 
Payne died. At this writing Mrs. Payne makes 
her home in Shasta county, and though now 
sixty-seven years of age she is hearty and robust, 
retaining full possession of her physical and men- 
tal faculties. Fourteen children comprised the 
family of ^Ir. and Mrs. Kenyon. and nine of 
these arc still living. The eldest, Alice Jane, 
married Godfrey Walker, of Lassen county, and 
they have four children living, namely : William 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



587 



Waldcn, Marion Frances, James Augustus and 
Lillie Josephine. Tlie eiglit other sons and 
daughters remain with their parents, namely: 
WilHani Lewis, Albert, Arthur, Cliarlcs Francis, 
Martha Florence, Orvie, Daisy May and Walter. 
In politics Mr. Kenyon maintains an independ- 
ence of views, voting for the men whom he con- 
siders best qualified for official resix>nsibilities, 
irrespective of their partisan affiliations. The 
only office which he has consented to hold, that 
of school trustee, he has filled a number of times, 
giving satisfaction to the patrons of the school 
by his close attention to its management and his 
careful oversight of its interests. 



HENRY G. DORSCH. The commercial en- 
terprise of which Mr. Dorsch is the sole pro- 
prietor ranks among the most important in 
Quincy. Plumas county, and is the only one 
which is devoted to hardware exclusively. With 
the progressiveness of the up-to-date merchant 
he keeps on hand a complete stock of light and 
heavy hardware, and is able to supply any de- 
mand in his line, whether it arises in the home 
or on the farm. In addition to his store in 
Quincy he owns a small interest in the Ophir 
Hardware Company in Oroville, where for eight 
years he followed the tinsmith's trade jjrior to 
locating in this city. 

A native of Indiana, Henry G. Dorsch was 
born in Logansport June 29, 1852, and is a son of 
Andrew and Katherine (Eberline) Dorsch, 
both natives of Germany. I'orn in 1827, the 
father grew to young manhood in his native 
land, and before he had arrived at mature years 
had mastered the mason's trade. In 1848, 
when he had reached his majority, he came to 
the United States and at once located in Logans- 
port, Ind., where he found ample opportunity 
to prosecute another calling of which he had 
considerable knowledge, contracting and build- 
ing. To such an extent had he been prospered 
in his undertakings that in 1880 he was enabled 
to retire from active life and for twenty-five 
years lived on the efforts and accumulations of 
former years. He passed away in Logansport 



ni January, 1905, when in his scventy-nintli 
year. Mrs. Katherine Dorsch came to the United 
States in 1850, and is still living, at the age of 
seventy-six years. The organization of the first 
Lutheran church in Ljgansport was due to the 
eflforts of Mr. and Mrs. Dorsch, to the sup- 
port of which Mr. Dorsch contributed through- 
out the remainder of his life, and of which or- 
ganization Mrs. Dorsch is still a member. Of 
the four sons and two daughters born of their 
union Henry G. was the second child in order of 
birth. 

The boyhood years of llenr\- G. Dorsch were 
spent in the vicinity of his birthplace, Logans- 
port. Ind., where he attended public school until 
he was eighteen years old. Selecting the tin- 
smith's trade as the most agreeable to his taste, 
he then began a three-years apprenticeship, and 
at its completion took up work at his trade in 
Oroville, Cal., with the Ophir Hardware Com- 
pany, as has been previously mentioned. Upon 
severing his connection with this company he 
became superintendent of the gas works in that 
town, a position which he held for two years, or 
until coming to Quincy in 18S3. That year wit- 
nessed the establishment of his present business, 
which has grown steadily from year to year, 
until it is now classed among the thriving and 
up-to-date enterprises which form the backbone 
of Quincy. 

In 1880. Mr. Dorsch was united in marriage 
with Miss Abbie Nason, who was born in Maine, 
and who came to California while still a young 
child. Four children have been born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Dorsch, named in order of birth as 
follows : Ida, who, as the wife of Miles Pren- 
dergast, makes her home in New York City ; 
Katherine, who is the wife of Murry Ines, and 
resides in San Francisco; Jennie, Mrs. Charles 
Harlowe, Jr.. Berkeley, Cal.; and Winnifred, at 
home. Appreciating the advantages to be de- 
rived from a good education, Mr. Dorsch spared 
no pains in the education of his daughters, the 
three eldest having attended the Chico Normal, 
while the youngest was a student in the Alameda 
high school, graduating from the four-year course. 
Mr. Dorsch's political views are in accord with 
the principles of the Republican party, and fra- 



58S 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ternally he affiliates with the Odd Fellows, 
holding membership in both the lodge and 
encampment in Oroville. In movements looking 
toward the development of interests in his home 
community he has proved to be enterprising and 
liberal, enthusiastically co-operating with ])ub- 
lic-spirited projects and progressive plans orig- 
inated for the benefit of the town and countv. 



DAVID DERR NEWMAN. To the men 
who in the early days of California's develop- 
ment contributed their share toward laying the 
foundation of the present condition of progress 
the present generation owes a debt of gratitude, 
and among these pioneers mention belongs to 
"Dave" Newman, of Sierraville, who was well 
known to all the early settlers of the Sierra val- 
ley. As a prospector he traveled through the 
mountains of northern California, visiting all O'f 
the noted mines and gleaning at times not a little 
of the earth's hidden gold. In the early davs 
more than once he lent a helping hand in the 
capture of horse thieves and desperadoes ; his 
help was always ready where law and order were 
to be presen'ed and where justice must be meted 
out to evildoers, and his work in this direction 
aided in the establishment of an era of peace 
and law throughout the commonwealth. 

The Newman family was founded in America 
by Abraham Newman, a native of Holland, who 
settled in New York state in early days, and dur- 
ing the Revolutionary war enlisted in the colonial 
army as a drummer boy, serving until he was 
wounded in the battle of Germantown. Spared 
to great age, he lacked but one day of having 
rounded out a full century when death terminated 
his career. Among his children was a son who 
bore the same name as himself and who spent 
his entire life in his native county of Mont- 
gomery in Pennsylvania, working as a hotel pro^ 
prictor and owner of a stage line. At the time 
of his death he was eighty-twO' years of age. 
In early manhood he had married Rebecca Derr, 
who was born in Montgomery county. Pa., being 
a daughter of Henry Derr, of Holland birth 
and ancestry. Her death occurred when she was 
seventy-nine years of age. 



At the home of Abraham and Rebecca (Derr) 
Newman in Montgomery county, Pa., their son, 
David Derr, was born May 29, 1833. As a boy 
he attended common schools and later was a 
student in the College Hill College of Mont- 
gomery county. When eighteen years of age he 
began to clerk in a store at Norristown and re- 
mained there about eighteen months, after which 
he remained at home for a short time. In 1853 
he left home and set sail for California, follow- 
ing the ocean route to the Istlimus of Panama, 
thence walking, across the land and taking a ship 
up the Pacific ocean. When he landed at San 
Francisco, June 19, 1853, he found it a city of 
tents, with only a few buildings erected as per- 
manent structures. It had been his intention to 
engage as stage-driver, but the mud was dee[) 
and the work looked uninviting, so he changed 
his plans and proceeded by steamer to Marys- 
ville, thence via stage to Downieville, Sierra 
county, where he engaged in prospecting and 
mining. In 1855 he started a dairy business and 
meat market at Forest City, but in the spring of 
1858 disposed of his property there and came to 
the Sierra valley, bringing with him a number 
of milch cows and settling six miles north oi 
Sierraville. Dairying became his special indus- 
try on that ranch, but he also carried other stock. 
From Alarysville he hauled some oat seed and 
in this way raised the first crop of oats in the 
valley. After 1880 he ceased to devote his en- 
ergies to dairying, but became interested espe- 
cially in the raising of fine trotting horses. 
Among his best animals was Robert L., with a 
record of 12:30^/4 in a five-mile race, which re- 
mains to this day unexcelled. This splendid 
racer was bred and raised on his ranch, and 
other fine animals came from his place. At one 
time he owned the celebrated "Pat," with a rec- 
ord of I 144, I 44 14 and i :44-54. on the Oakland 
tracks in an early day, these being the three fast- 
est heats in the state at that time. Misfortune, 
however, came to him in the horse business, and 
after losing one stallion that cost him $2,200 
and another worth $1,200, he became discour- 
aged and disposed of his remaining animals. He 
then engaged in the liver}- business at Sierra- 
ville, also owned a one-half interest in a meat 



i 




/ ^ Jc^ 




HISTORICAL AND BIOCRAPIIICAT. RECORD. 



591 



market, besides owninsj one hundred and twenty 
acres lying- in the valley near his home town. 
Here it was that his earth life came to a close 
December 19, 1905. 

The first marriajje of Mr. Xewman took place 
June 27, 1857, and united him with Miss Roxia 
Anne Lockhart, of Pennsylvania, who came to 
California about 1855 and died in 1883, at the 
age of forty-three years. Six children were born 
of their union, namely : I'^mma, who is now 
Mrs. Harry Mondor. of Loyalton ; .\ibert, who 
is engaged in the logging business at Qairville, 
Plumas county ; William David, a contractor and 
builder, living at Sierraville ; Charles Frederick, 
of Reno, Nev. ; Bradford N., who has been en- 
gaged as a teacher in the Polytechnical College 
at Oakland and the San Francisco College, and 
later held a position as cashier of the San Fran- 
cisco Electric Light Company ; and Ferdinand, 
a rancher in the Sierra valley. After the death 
of his first wife Mr. Newman was united in mar- 
riage with Margaret A. Fletcher, who was bom 
in Maine and came to California at the age of 
six years. Two daughters bless their union, Min- 
nie Yuba and Lena May, both at home. For- 
merly a Republican, when the silver question 
began to lie agitated during the presidential cam- 
paign of 1896, Mr. Newman changed his al- 
legiance to the Democratic party on account of 
its currency platform. From 1903 until his 
death he held office as justice of the peace, and 
in addition served many years as a director. of 
the State Agricultural .Society. During the early 
days he was initiated into the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows. Having a ready command of 
language and a wide range of information, he 
wrote fre(|uently for local papers, and also en- 
gaged in religious discussions that have inter- 
ested thousands of people throughout this state 
and Nevada. 



JOHN S. TOOMY. Before the government 
surveys had been made of the lands in the Sierra 
valley Mr. Toom_\- became one of the early set- 
tlers of this part of California, the fall of 1862 
being the date of his location upon the ranch 
which be vet owns and occupies. Two years 



later, when the surveys were made, he pur- 
chased the land from the government and en- 
tered upon its permanent improvement, since 
which time he has engagctl in raising cattle, 
hauling freight, and for a few years also con- 
ducted a dairy. The ranch lies one and one- 
fourth miles from Sattley, Sierra county, and 
consists of three hundred and sixty acres of 
patented land, the ranch-house and feed yards 
being located in the pine timber, while the mead- 
ows and tillable land lie in the valley. 

Prior to the independence of the colonies the 
Toomy family became established in America 
and the founder of the American branch, who 
was a native of Ireland, served throughout the 
Revolutionary war, while his son, a native of 
Pennsylvania, rendered faithful service in the 
war of 1812. Next in line of descent was Elijah, 
who was born and reared in York county, Pa., 
and followed the occupation of a farmer, to- 
gether with the butcher's trade. With the ex- 
ception of two years .spent in California with his 
son he remained a resident of Pennsylvania un- 
til his death, which occurred at the age of eighty- 
six years. His wife, who lived to be eighty-two, 
bore the maiden name of Sarah Schriver, and 
was born in York county. Pa., descended from 
an old (ierman family. .Among their children 
was a son, John S.. who was born in York 
county. Pa., .April 4, 1836, and who passed tlie 
years of boyhood on the home farm. Leaving 
home at eighteen years of age, he went to York 
and learned the carpenter's trade. On attaining 
his majority he removed to Illinois, and for two 
years v^orked at his trade in ^lacon county. 

Leaving the Mississippi valley in 1859 with 
ox-team and wagon, Mr. Toomy started across 
the plains, ])roceeding via St. Joseph, Mo., and 
the Platte river. Indians were hostile, and it 
was necessary to have guards every night in or- 
der to protect the little company from depreda- 
tions ; on the Humboldt an engagement was 
fought with the savages, but no one was killed. 
After a journey of four months and eighteen 
days the expedition arrived in California, and 
Mr. Toomy came at once to the Sierra valley, 
where he spent the winter. In the spring of 
i860 he went to Marysville. from which point 



592 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



he freighted to the mountains for two years. 
In the fall of 1862 he returned to the Sierra val- 
ley, selected a location in Sierra county, and 
when the land was surveyed, in 1864, secured 
the patent from the government, since which 
time he has followed agricultural pursuits. 
Since attaining his majority he has always sup- 
ported the Republican party. Since becoming a 
member of Sierra Valley Lodge No. 184, F. & 
A. M., about 1870, he has maintained a constant 
interest in its working, and has contributed to its 
charities. 

It was not until man)- years after he came to 
California that Mr. Toomy established domestic 
ties. At Downieville, October 15, 1876, he was 
united with Miss Fannie A. Jamison, who was 
born at York, Pa., October 6, 1850, of Pennsyl- 
vania parentage and German ancestry. Reared 
in York county, she came to California in 1874 
and settled at Wadsworth, but immediately after 
her marriage removed to the ranch owned by 
her husband. Two children bless their union. 
The daughter, Virginia Olive, married Fleming 
McQain, and resides in Nevada, while the son, 
Charles William, assists in operating the home 
ranch, and also engages in teaming. 



STEPHEN ROBERT EDE. An enterpris- 
ing, practical and skilful agriculturist, Stephen 
Robert Ede is the proprietor of the fine farming 
estate pleasantly located about four miles east 
of Beck with, Plumas county. The descendant 
of an honored pioneer family of this section, he 
is in truth to the manner born, his birth having 
occurred October 22, 1872, on the parental home- 
stead, a part of which is now included in his own 
farm. He is a son of Abraham Ede, in whose 
sketch, on another page of this volume, a more 
extended account of his parents and ancestors 
may be found. 

Growing to manhood on the home ranch, 
Stephen Robert Ede attended first the public 
schools, subsequently completing his education 
in the San Francisco Business College. Re- 
turing home, he assisted in the management of 
the home farm in partnership with the remaining 



heirs of his father until 1904. Purchasing and 
homesteading four hundred and eighty acres of 
adjoining land, he carried on general farming 
with substantial results until disposing of his 
holdings. May 7, igo6. He had much of his 
land in cultivation, his ranch being a credit to 
his industry and wise management. 

December 3, 1904, ^Ir. Ede married Clara 
Belle Dedmon, who was born in Missouri, the 
daughter of Joseph A. Dedmon, a ranchman in 
the Sierra valley. Mrs. Ede died April 9, 1906. 
In national politics Mr. Ede is a stanch Repub- 
lican, but in local afifairs he votes with the cour- 
age of his convictions, regardless of party re- 
strictions. Fraternally he is a member of Hope 
Lodge No. 234, F. & A. M., of Beckwith. 



ELI S. TROWBRIDGE. Prominent among 
the leading merchants of Modoc county is Eli 
S. Trowbridge, who is actively associated with 
the highest and best interests of Lookout, and 
holds a commanding position in the ranks of its 
most solid and substantial business men. He is 
a man of integrity and worth, and in both busi- 
ness circles and in private life is honored and 
esteemed for his upright character. A native of 
New York, he was born August 10, 1854, in Jef- 
ferson county, where he received a good common 
school education. 

After working for some time at the carpenter's 
trade, Mr. Trowbridge began the battle of life 
for himself, leaving home at the age of eighteen 
years. He subsequently followed his trade in 
various western states, in the meantime seeing 
many parts of the country. Not content to settle 
permanently in any place which he had seen, he 
came to the Pacific coast in search of a favorable 
location, and during two summers was manager 
of the Silver Lake hotel, in lone valley, Amador 
county. Going from there to Plymouth, in the 
same county, he worked at his trade for a while, 
and then went to Sacramento, where he carried 
on a good business as a carpenter for two years. 
Coming from that city to Lookout, Modoc county, 
he purchased the store and stock of Brownell 
Brothers in 1884, and has since conducted an ex- 





oc. ^r^ '^^-^/^^^-.v^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAT, RECORD. 



69." 



icnsivc and rciiuinerativc business as a general 
merchant, liavint;- estalilislied a large mercantile 
trade in tliis vicinity. .V wide-awake, brainy 
man, he has accumulated considerable wealth, a 
part of which he has wisely invested in land, 
owning several ranches in Big Valley, from their 
rental receiving a good annual income. 

Mr. Trowbridge married .Sarah ii. Levcnton, 
a native of California, and they have one child. 
Orrin A. Trowbridge, who is prosperously en- 
gaged in mercantile pursuits at Bandon, Coos 
county, Ore. Politically I\Ir. Trowbridge is a 
sound Democrat, and for a number of years after 
settling in Lookout served as postmaster. He is 
a member and past noble grand of Adin Lodge 
No. 273, I. O. O. F., of Adin, Cal., and a mem- 
ber of Lookout Lodge No. 211, A. O. U. W., of 
which he is past master workman. He is prom- 
inent in public affairs, and is a member of the 
Democratic countv central committee. 



JAMES L. ]\IcDERMOTT. At the base of 
the large range of mountains and surrounded by 
the broad and fertile acres of Honey Lake val- 
ley, stands the homestead of James L. McDer- 
mott, one and one-half miles distant from Mil- 
ford, Lassen county. A grove of poplar trees 
adds to th.e attractions of the ranch and an or- 
chard with all kinds of fruit enhances its value 
as well as its desirability. On the ranch mav 
be seen herds of cattle and horses marked with 
the hat brand, which is original with the owner 
of tiic stock and constitutes a brand well-known 
through all this region. Embraced in the ranch 
are twelve hundred acres, all under a substantial 
system of fencing, and utilized for crops, pas- 
ture and meadow. Each season about three 
hundred tons of hay are cut, some of which 
furnishes feed for the stock, while the remain- 
der is sold in the markets. A mountain stream 
that runs through the ranch provides irrigation 
for two hundred acres and adds to the value 
of the propcrt)-, which is further enhanced by 
desirable improvements made by the present 
owner. 

The McDermott familv w^as established In 



America by the grandfather of this ranchman. 
I'orn, reared and married in Ireland, he came 
to America accompanied by his family, which 
included a son, James, and settled in Ohio, but 
later removed to Missouri, where he died in Clark 
county at the great age of one hundred and 
seven years. James was born in Ireland, reared 
m Ohio and Missouri, and in Clark county mar- 
ried Ann Doyle, a native of Ohio. From that 
time until their death they remained on a farm 
in Clark county. Among their children was 
James L., now of Lassen county, who was born 
in Clark county. Mo., June 11. 1841, and re- 
ceived a common school education, after which 
he became interested in farm pursuits. In 1859 
he left home with ox-teams and followed the 
Platte river route across the plains, arriving in 
Eldorado county, Cal., in August, after a journey 
of only four months. For a year he followed 
teaming in the Sacramento valley and from there 
went to Washoe, Nev., where for three years he 
teamed, during the last year using three teams 
of four yoke to each team. 

On coming from Nevada into Lassen county 
Mr. McDermott became interested in raising 
grain, hay and stock, and for twenty-two years 
made his home in Long valley near Doyle's Sta- 
tion, where he took up three, hundred and twenty 
acres of wild land and converted it into a hay 
and stock ranch, improved with house, barns and 
fences. Lpon selling that property he moved to 
the larger ranch which he now owns and op- 
erates. In Lassen county in 1865 he married 
Miss Catherine Gardner, who was born in On- 
tario. Canada, and accompanied her family to 
Iowa at six years of age. thence removing to 
California a short time prior to her marriage. 
Of their union six children were born, of whom 
five are living, namely : Emma, who married 
Charles Clark and lives on Willow ranch in 
Lassen county : Edward, residing with his par- 
ents ; William, wOio is married and engages in 
farming in this county ; Maude, Mrs. William 
Ihunson, who resides at the old homestead : and 
May, ]\Irs. Lyman Stiles, of Constantia. Cal. 

At the time of the organization of the Lassen 
County Bank at Susanville, Mr. McDermott be- 
came one of the stockholders and at this writ- 



596 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ing officiates in the capacity of director. Since 
casting his first ballot for Abraham Lincoln he 
has been a steadfast supporter of Republican 
principles, but at no time has he consented to 
occupy positions of a political nature. In fra- 
ternal relations he is a Alason, connected with 
Janesville Lodge No. 232, F. & A. M., and his 
wife is identified with the Eastern Star at Janes- 
ville, both occupying a high position in the local 
work of the fraternity as well as in the social 
affairs of their neighborhood. 



LORD HOUSMAN. One of the oldest res- 
idents of Nevada City is Lord Housman, for 
many years an esteemed and worthy citizen of 
this community, where he first located during 
the gold excitement of 1849. He is a native of 
Pennsylvania, his birth having occurred in Le- 
high county, June 13, 1829, the youngest in a 
family of se\'en children, four of whom are now 
living, he being the only one in California. His 
parents, Jacob, a native of England, and Eliz- 
abeth (Ripple) Housman, a native of Germany, 
lx)th died in Pennsylvania when their son was 
only seven years of age. Orphaned in child- 
hood he was thus thrown u])on his own resources 
at an early age, and when thirteen years old be- 
came tow bov on the Lehigh canal. After two 
years he was given employment in the hotel 
owned by his uncle, Isaac Ripple, and until 1848 
he remained in his employ; just about that time 
the discovery of gold in California turned all 
eyes toward that remote country, and with oth- 
ers Mr. Housman, then a youth of nineteen 
years, caught the spirit of adventure and for- 
tune seeking. 

With nothing to interfere with his desire to 
go west, Mr. Housman left Philadelphia in the 
fall of the year and immediately took passage on 
the sailer Allogoman bound for San Erancisco 
via the Horn. The voyage continued for two 
hundred and thirteen days, but finally ended on 
the 14th of November, 1849, in the beautiful bay 
of San Francisco, whence its passengers thronged 
to the various mining localities of the state. Mr. 
Housman went to Auburn first and there en- 



gaged in mining, in the spring of the following 
year finding his way to Nevada City, where his 
home has ever since remained. Mining has 
proved the greatest attraction for him in the pass- 
ing years, engaging with the rocker, in 185 1 
with the sluice boxes, and in 1858 devoting his 
time and attention to quartz mining, and contin- 
uing so occupied for many years. In 1888 he 
purchased the old Sneath and Clay mine, which 
he sold four years later at considerable profit, 
and which is now known as the Phoenix. He 
has taken a strong interest in the development of 
Nevada City and has proven a potent factor in 
its upbuilding. He was one of the organizers 
of the Citizens" Bank and for over twenty-four 
years has served on the directorate, while at the 
present writing he acts as vice-president. 

The residence of Mr. Housman is located at 
Gold Flat, about one mile south of Nevada City, 
and has been in this location for the past thirty- 
four years. He was first married in Nevada 
Cit}' in 1857 fo Miss Isadora Snow, a native of 
Missouri, who crossed the plains to California 
in an early day. She became the mother of 
two sons, Frank and Charles, both of whom are 
deceased, while her death occurred here in 1862. 
In 1874 he was united in marriage with Mrs. 
Lizzie (Albert) Dailey, who was born in 
Dauphin county. Pa. Her father, Daniel Albert, 
engaged as a farmer in Pennsylvania and later 
removed to Illinois and located in Putnam coun- 
ty, where his death eventually occurred. His 
wife, formerly Catherine Boyer, was also born 
in Pennsylvania and died in Illinois. They be- 
came the parents of ten children, seven of whom 
are now living, Mrs. Housman being the second 
in order of birth and the only one in California. 
From the age of four years she was reared in 
Illinois, in which state she married Joseph Dailey, 
also of Pennsylvania. In 1873 they started to 
California and at Mt. Pleasant, lo-^^a, at the 
home of his mother, Mr. Dailey was taken seri- 
ously ill and died in a few days. His widow 
continued her journey westward and located in 
Nevada City. By her first marriage she had 
four children, two of whom are living: Daniel A., 
proprietor of the New York Racket Store of 
this city, and Captain of Company C, Second 







1 




^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



599 



Infantry N. G. C. : and William E.. of San Fran- 
cisco. By her second marriage she has one 
daughter. Myrtle Edna, wife of E. Wilson Sim- 
mons, of San Francisco. She is a member of 
the Congregational Chinch, while her husband 
belonged to the Baptist Church. She was former- 
ly connected with the AXOman's Relief Corps, as 
her family was largely represented in the war of 
the Rebellion, seven brothers-in-law and one 
brother participating in the conflict, and but one 
of the number coming to his death. Air. Hous- 
man is a stanch Republican in his political con- 
victions, but is above all a loyal citizen and help- 
ful in the maintenance of good government. 



LOYAL WOODSTOCK. During the prog- 
ress of the Revolutionary war William Wood- 
stock shipped from his native England on a mer- 
chant marine, but during the voyage the vessel 
was captured and he was made a prisoner. At the 
time of exchange he remained in hiding and then 
settled down to farm pursuits in Connecticut. 
where his son, Willard, was born and reared. 
The latter became a pioneer farmer of Ohio and 
later gave up agriculture in order to follow the 
trade of a tobacconist in Springfield, that state. 
Upon identifying himself with the then unde- 
veloped state of Illinois he took up a tract of 
land in Hancock county, and from there re- 
moved to Wisconsin, where he made bis home at 
Johnstown, Rock county. At the age of about 
seventy-nine years he died in Jancsvillc, that 
county. His wife, who died in the same city, 
bore the maiden name of Samantha Hasbrook, 
and was born in A'ermont, being a daughter of 
Daniel Hasbrook, member of an old family of 
Xew England. 

Among twelve children comprising the family 
of Willard and Samantha Woodstock there are 
four now living, Loyal being the eldest of the 
number and the only one in California. One of 
his brothers, Daniel, was a soldier in the Civil 
war. Loyal Woodstock was bom in Benson, \'t., 
April 28, 1823, and was only a babe in arms 
when the family moved to Springfield. Ohio. 
When he was about fourteen tbev went to Han- 



cock county. III., later returned to Ohio, from 
there going hack to Illinois the next year. Still 
later they went to Rock county, Wis., where he 
was a pupil in a subscription school held in a 
log building destitute of conveniences. For 
many years he engaged in driving stage fro^n 
Oregon, 111., successively to Dixon, Rockford and 
Freeport. but in 1859 he gave up that occupation 
in order to remove to the far west. During April 
he left home with oxen and horses and followed 
the usual route acro.ss the plains. After a tedious 
journey of more than si.K months he arrived in 
Honey Lake valle\ and rented the Nixon and 
Linigir ranch six miles south of Susanville. In 
the spring of i860 he put in a crop of grain. 
When the harvest came on he cradled the wheat, 
oats and barley, then threshed the grain by the 
aid of horses and flails. At a later date he pur- 
chased a reaper, and threshing machines also 
came into general use, so that the work of caring 
for the grain was greatly lightened. In 1861 
he bought a squatter's right to one hundred and 
sixty acres one mile south of Susanville. where 
he raised alfalfa by irrigation, being a pioneer 
in introducing that produce. For his first seed 
he paid fifteen cents per pound, securing enough 
to sow three acres. The venture proved success- 
ful and graduallx- he placed eighty acres under 
alfalfa. Besides raising hay he made a specialtv 
of the stock business and found that industry a 
source of a neat income. In February of 1904 
he sold the ranch and settled at his present home- 
stead, in Hall's addition to Susanville. Polit- 
ically he has always been a stanch Republican 
since the organization of the party, but takes 
little part in politics and has never accepted any 
office except that of county road overseer, which 
he filled for one term. 

The marriage of Mr. Woodstock occurred at 
Susanville, March 22, 1874, and united him with 
Mrs. Elizabeth (Mc Williams) McKissick. a na- 
tive of Delaware, Ohio. The Mc\\'illiams family 
is of Scotch-Irish extraction. Andrew McWill- 
iams was born in New York and became a 
farmer in Ohio, but at an early age removed to 
Alamakee county, Iowa, where he died on a 
farm at thirty-nine years of age. \\'hile living 
in the east he married Sarah .'\nn Carpenter. 



600 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



who was born in New York, of English and 
Welsh ancesrry, and accompanied her father, 
Gilbert Carpenter, to Ohio, later removing with 
her husband to Iowa, where her death occurred. 
Of their twelve children one son and five daugh- 
ters are now living. Four of the sons served in 
the Civil war, namely: James, who died in Cali- 
fornia : Isaiah-, now living in Iowa ; Washington, 
deceased; and Reuben, who was wounded in 
service and later died in California. Mrs. Wood- 
stock was seventh among the twelve children. 
As a girl she was a pupil in a subscription school 
m Iowa, and shortly after leaving school she 
became the wife of Fay Madison, a lumberman 
who died in Dakota. Three children were born 
of that union, as follows : Addie. wife of W. W. 
Williams, of Fallon, Nev. : Frederick M., a resi- 
dent of Standish, Lassen county, Cal. ; and Mary 
A., who died in Nevada. During the year 1870 
Mrs. Madison came to the west with her mother 
and settled at Susanville, where she married John 
AlcKissick. One child was born to that union, 
a son, Augustus, now a farmer near Quincy, Cal. 
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Woodstock consists 
of six children, named as follows : George, now 
engaged in farming near Standish ; Willard, 
whose home is in Standish; Sarah, who married 
Stephen Carman and resides in Churchill county. 
Nev.; Emily, who married John Wright and 
lives at Clinton, Cal. ; Frank, living in Quincy, 
Plumas count\ : and Gertrude, who remains with 
h.er parents in the home at Susanville. 



JOSEPH DYSON. To people interested in 
thoroughbred stock throughout the state of Cal- 
ifornia and the neighboring state of Nevada 
Joseph Dyson of Plumas county is known as a 
breeder of fine stock, a true sportsman and an 
all-around jolly good fellow. His love for 
horses has been a part of his life, and to own 
good horses has been his ambition throughout 
life. To see the sleek, smooth-bodied, clean- 
limbed, handsome creatures in action is the most 
beautiful sight his imagination can conceive. 
The love of a good man for a good horse en- 
nobles both the man and the animal. Mr. Dyson's 



admiration for horses is a characteristic of 
the race from which he sprung. An English- 
man is a sportsman and has the keenest sort of 
an appreciation for healthful sports and games of 
all kinds. His father, also named Joseph Dyson, 
was a native of England, a commissioned officer 
in the British army. After his marriage he re- 
signed his commission in the army and came to 
Canada with a position in the provincial commis- 
sary department. He made his home in Toronto 
until he died, at about seventy years of age. His 
wife, who was also a native of England, died 
at about sixty-five years of age, surviving her 
husband onl}- one year. 

Joseph Dyson was born in Toronto, Canada, 
October 12, 1843. He lived at home with his 
parents until he was twelve years of age. when 
he came to California with a married sister and 
made his home with her on a ranch on the Sac- 
ramento river in Yolo county. After a couple of 
years he went to work as a vaquero, and as he 
was light of weight and very fond of horses was 
soon riding as jockey on race courses. In 
1862-3 h^ had saved up $1,500 and bought a 
four-horse team ; with this he carried on freight- 
ing from the Sacramento river to \'irginia City 
and neighboring f)oints until 1864, when he 
located land in Plumas county, going into part- 
nership with Rcsen Bell, who also took up a 
piece of land. They teamed and ranched to- 
gether for about ten years, after which they 
divided up their property, Mr. Dyson coming to 
the ranch upon which he has made his home. He 
has been engaged principally in raising thorough- 
bred horses — all good ones, and winners in long- 
distance races. Among them are Snuff Box, 
Lige Clark, Ottawa, Collonwood and Joe D. 
His horses are well known on the race courses 
of northern California, and he has bred some of 
the best running horses in the state. He has 
disposed of most of his stock, but still owns Joe 
D., a stable horse, a very speedy animal, but he 
unfortunately received an injury a couple of 
years ago which incapacitated him for the track. 

A sketch of Mr. Dyson would be incomplete 
if it did not include special mention of his daugh- 
ter. Miss Mattie Dyson. She has won peculiar 
distinction as a lady jockey, and is probably the 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD. 



601 



best lady rider in the United States. She has 
ridden as jockey for her father and won for him 
many a closely contested race on some of the 
largest and best race tracks in California and 
Nevada. On such occasions she wears the dress 
of an ordinary bov jockey. 

Mr. Dyson married Miss Mattie Branson, a 
native of Penns\ Ivania, but a resident of Plumas 
county. Cal., since she was five years of a,ge. 
They have a family of five children : Xellie. the 
oldest, is the wife of Alvera Ball, a rancher of 
Sierra county ; Joliet Isadore is the wife of Will- 
iam Wiltse, a rancher of Plumas county; Ber- 
nice is the wife of Morice Foreman of Reno, 
Nev. ; and Mattie and Joseph Leroy are living at 
home with their parents. 

The home place of Mr. Dyson consists of 
about six hundred and forty acres of land, be- 
sides which he has another ranch of three hun- 
dred and twenty acres, and his daughter Mattie 
owns a one hundred and sixty acre ranch half 
a mile from the home place. He has at present 
about fifty or sixty head of horses and is mak- 
ing a business of raising both draft and thor- 
oughbred stock, and also has some cattle. He 
has about three hundred and fifty acres of land 
under cultivation to grain, the remainder being 
pasture land. Mr. Dyson's long residence in the 
county has made him well known in the neigh- 
borhood and he is deservedly popular. 



HIRAM EUPHRASTUS McCLELLAN. To 
an tmusual degree the reverses and hardships 
common to those who in an earlier period at- 
tempted to develop the resources of northern Cal- 
ifornia have fallen to the lot of Mr. McClellan ; 
yet, in spite of losses from causes beyond his 
control, he has attained a gratifying proportion 
of success and now ranks among the progressive 
farmers of Lassen county. When he came to the 
locality where he still resides he took up a desert 
claim of one inmdrcd and sixty acres. The land 
was in its primeval condition and displayed to 
the observer onlv an undesirable sage brush cov- 
ering the entire tract. The first work was the 
grubbing of the brush. When he had cleared a 



space he built a small house and then proceeded 
with the work of clearing the farm acre after 
acre. When ready for cultivation he put the land 
in grain, but later made a specialty of alfalfa, 
having one hundred and twenty acres of this 
product irrigated by a ditch from Lake Leavitt. 
Cattle-raising was his main occupation while liv- 
ing on that farm, and his brand, C. H., became 
one of the best known for miles around. Barns 
were built to accommodate his stock and crops, 
while a neat residence in time gave testimony 
to his increasing jirospcrity. In the spring of 
1905 he rented this farm and Iwught an adjoin- 
ing tract of one hundred and sixty acres, known 
as the H. M. Wood farm, situated one mile south 
of Standish. Since removing to the present 
property and homestead he has given his atten- 
tion to its improvement and has one hundred and 
five acres under alfalfa. One of his projected 
improvements is the securing of water, for which 
he has tunneled more than two hundred feet in 
the hill Ijack of his residence. c-"nd the finding of 
which will add greatly to the value of the land. 

Of eastern birth and parentage, Mr. McClellan 
was lx)rn in Brookville, Jefferson county, Pa- 
February 2. 1848, and is a son of Rev. I. C. 
McClellan .and a brother of W. M. McClellan, 
in whose sketch the family history appears. His 
father being a preacher in the Methodist Episco- 
pal denomination, he experienced the changes 
of location necessitated thereby and as a boy 
became familiar with N'enango. Crawford, Mer- 
cer, Armstrong and Butler counties, in Pennsyl- 
vania. When fourteen years of age he was 
taken from school and apprenticed in a country 
mill in Venango county, afterward going with 
the same employer to Mercer county. In 1868 
he went to Illinois and completed the trade of 
miller at IMacomb, after which in 1870 he took 
charge of a mill at Bardolph, McDonough 
county. The year 1873 founil him crossing the 
continent to California, where he settled in Las- 
sen count}' and secured employment as a station- 
ary engineer at Milford. In the fall of 1874 he 
went to Colusa county and worked on a farm 
owned by his uncle. Hunt Byers, returning to 
Lassen county in the spring of 1875 and entering 
into the meat business, later taking charge of the 



602 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



old Stewart house. During the summer of 1876 
he visited the Centennial at Philadelphia and 
enjoyed a short sojourn with old friends in the 
east, returning to California in the fall and pre- 
empting one hundred and sixty acres with a 
brother, Charles P., who joined him in his stock 
operations. From 1879 to 1882 he engaged in 
the milling business at Milford, after which with 
H. II. Dakin and an uncle, J. D. Byers, he built 
a mill at Janesville, where he remained as head 
miller until he disposed of his interest in the fall 
of 1885. The following year found him in Indian 
valley as proprietor of the Greenville hotel, but 
in 1891 he returned to Honey Lake valley and 
in 1893 became proprietor of the McMillen house 
at Susanville, where he remained until the fire 
of 1895 inflicted upon him a total loss. After 
that catastrophe he started out anew and rented 
the Belfast farm, going from there two years 
later to the farm he still owns and until re- 
cently occupied, since which time he has made 
farming and stock-raising his specialties and has 
shown energy and capability in the management 
of his affairs. 

The marriage of Mr. McClellan, at Mayfield, 
Santa Clara county, July 10, 1881, united him 
with Miss Gertrude B. Winslow, a native of 
Woodstock, Windsor county, Vt., and a descend- 
ant of one of three brothers who crossed the 
ocean in the Mayflower in 1620 to Massachusetts. 
Her father, Warren, was born in Windsor county, 
where he engaged in farm pursuits and also 
bought and sold lands. Her mother, Arosina, 
daughter of Cushman Wood, was bom in 
Quechee, Windsor county, Vt, daughter of a 
farmer, and died in Lassen county, Cal., whither 
she had come to make her home with her daugh- 
ter. The Winslow family consisted of five sons 
and five daughters, eight of whom are living and 
seven in California. All of the sons are men of 
splendid physical proportions, in stature averag- 
ing over six feet, with a stalwart physique that 
comes to them from a long line of sturdy an- 
cestors. Mrs. McClellan, who was fourth in the 
family circle, came to California in 1878, and re- 
mained in Santa Clara county until the occasion 
of her marriage, since which she has resided in 
the northern part of the state. Of her union 



there are two children, Fred Hiram, aged twenty- 
two, and Lucile Gertrude, aged three. Politically 
Mr. McClellan votes with the Democratic party, 
takes an active interest in local politics and at one 
time served on the county central committee. 
As school trustee he has been of assistance in 
promoting the welfare of the public schools. Dur- 
ing his residence in Janesville he became con- 
nected with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows in 1880 and while there served two tenns 
as noble grand. With his wife he takes a warm 
interest in the Order of Rebekahs at Susanville 
and Mrs. McClellan was honored with the office 
of noble grand. Both have many friends in Las- 
sen county where for so many years they have 
made their home. 



SULLIVAN LOTHROP. As one of those 
brave pioneers that followed the march of civ- 
ilization westward, becoming one of the early 
settlers of Plumas county, prominent in its agri- 
cultural development and as a man of sterling in- 
tegrity and worth, we take pleasure in giving to 
our readers a brief biographical sketch of the 
late Sullivan Lothrop. For upwards of thirty 
years he was engaged in farming in the Sierra 
valley, his ranch being located about nine miles 
southeast of Beckwith. Although past the prime 
of life when he came to California, he labored 
with the persistency and energy characteristic 
of the man, and through his skill, good manage- 
ment and excellent business Judgment, im- 
proved a valuable ranch, which is now owned 
and occupied l)y his widow, Mrs. Caroline M. 
Lothrop, and their youngest son, Lynn Lothrop. 
He was of good old New England stock and was 
born October 4, 1824, in the Green Mountain 
state, which has given to the Union so many 
citizens of prominence and influence. 

l\Ioving with the family to Canada when he 
was a small lad, Sullivan Lothrop was there 
brought up on a farm, and when a young man 
engaged in the stock business, buying cattle for 
his brother-in-law. In 1851 he moved to Cleve- 
land, Ohio, where he kept a grocery for about 
three years. Going from there to Whitewater, 




^ _^;^y>-t.'ir,y^H^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



605 



Wis., he established himself as a farmer, and for 
a number of years was successfully employed in 
tilling the soil. Again starting westward in 1869, 
he came directly to Plumas county, settling on a 
part of the land now included in the home ranch. 
He took up government land, homesteading and 
pre-empting claims, as did his sons in the years 
that followed. Continuing in his chosen occupa- 
tion, he toiled with diligence, and as a general 
farmer and stock raiser carried on a substantial 
business, accumulating a conipetencv. and Ije- 
coming owner in course of time of a finely im- 
proved ranch containing eight hundred acres of 
land. Here he lived, iionorcd and respected by 
all in the community until his death. .-Xngnst 11, 
1903, in his seventy-ninth year. 

In 1851 Mr. Lothrop married Caroline M. 
P>arnett, who was born in Compton, Lower Can- 
ada, September 12. 1820. She was reared and 
educated in her native town, but subsequently 
sjient a few years in Massachusetts, working in 
the factories of Lowell and Lancaster. Into the 
liome of Mr. and Mrs. Lothrop three children 
were born, namely : Lee N., who was born in 
Ohio and died in October, 1902 ; Kidd, residing 
in Ellensburg, Wash. ; and Lynn, who is in part- 
nership with his mother, managing the home 
ranch. Although her hair is whitened by the 
frosts of time, Mrs. Lothrop is bright and active, 
liotb physically and mentally, and is enjoying 
her eighty-five years of life, working, reading 
and writing as readily as many a woman twenty 
years younger. Politically .Mr. Lothrop was 
identified with the Republican party, but was 
never an aspirant for public office. 



BURWELL JOT 1 XSOX. Forty years of con- 
tinuous identification with one locality and the 
same homestead have given Mr. Johnson a place 
among the pioneers of Plumas county, where he 
has lived in Big Meadows since the spring of 
i860, and during that long period lie has con- 
tributed to the permanent development of this 
l>art of the count)-. Immediately after coming 
here he bought two hundred and forty acres of 
vallev land, whose sole improvement consisted of 
IS 



a small iiuuse. Since then he has placed the land 
under cultivation, has erected needed farm build- 
ings and made other changes in line with modern 
agriculture. A small building which he erected 
on the land in 1880 has since been utilized as a 
grocery store, and in addition he keeps a small 
hotel. No one accomplished more than he in 
securing the establishment of a jxistoffice at Ches- 
ter, and when the government opened the new 
.station he was appointed postmaster, a position 
that he still fills, the office being in his store. 

The history of the Johnson family is traced 
back to colonial Virginia. Burwell, Sr., was the 
son of a Virginian and was liimself a native of 
Wheeling, where he learned the brick-mason's 
trade. During youth he migrated to Missouri 
prior to 1 81 8 and there followed his trade, also 
owned a farm and six slaves. There he remained 
until his death at about sixty-four years, .\fter 
going to Missouri he married Elizabeth Brown, 
a native of Ste. Genevieve county, Mo., and a 
lifelong resident of that section, dying there when 
about forty-five. Her father, James, was a Ken- 
tuckian by birth, but made Missouri his home 
from an early day and followed the occupation of 
a ])lanter. Though of southern birth and train- 
ing, he disliked the institution of slavery and re- 
fused to own a slave. Cnder General Washing- 
ton he served in the Revolutionary war and years 
afterward (for he lived to the great age of ninety- 
three) he was wont to recount for his descend- 
ants tales of the prowess of that illustrious gen- 
eral and acts of heroism connected with that 
blood}- struggle. 

On the home farm in Ste. Genevieve county. 
Mo., Burwell Johnson, Jr., was born October 22. 
1831, and there he remained until attaining his 
majority. During March of 1852 he came across 
the plains with a party of emigrants, in whose 
outfit and four yoke of oxen he owned one-fourth 
interest. Passing along the Carson route lie 
landed at Ilangtown, where he secured work by 
the day in the mines. During the winter he pros- 
])ccted and mined at Diamond Springs, but illness 
necessitated considerable extra expense and his 
net profits were small. In the spring of 1853 he 
came up to Poor Man's creek, Plumas county, 
and bought a claim, which he worked with fair 



606 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



success for two years. Unfortunately, the gold 
thus secured was lost in prospecting. On remov- 
ing to Twelve-Mile Bar. Plumas county, he 
bought a claim and mined for two years with 
some success. His next location was at Indian 
Bar, this county, where he was paid fair wages 
one fall and winter, but then abandoned mining 
and took up business pursuits. Somewhat later 
he bought one-half interest in the Hamilton ranch 
of five hundred acres, and with John T. Hamilton 
as a partner he engaged in stock-raising and 
dairying from January, i860, to January, 1865, 
when he disposed of his interest in the property. 
After a few months in Oregon he returned to 
Plumas count^• in the fall of 1865 and bought the 
ranch which he now owns at Chester. In politics 
he always votes with the Democrats, while tra- 
ternally he is connected with Greenville Lodge 
No. 252. I. O. O. F. August 17, 1870, he mar- 
ried Miss Sarah E. Noble, who was born in Wis- 
consin, but came to California at an early age. 
They became the parents of four children, 
namely : May, deceased ; Jessie, wife of L. N. 
Peters, district attorney, whose sketch appears on 
another page; Gladys and Burwell J., both of 
whom are on the home ranch. 



JAMES EDWIN EDWARDS. The late 
James Edwin Edwards, known all through Plu- 
mas county as "Uncle Jim,'" was born at Card- 
ington near Bridge, North Shropshire, England, 
October 31, 1831, and at wenty years of age 
crossed the ocean to the United States, settling 
in Cleveland, Ohio, where for a short time he 
clerked in a grocery store and meat market. 
Coming to California in October, 1854. he en- 
gaged in the manufacture of English mustard 
near San Jose and planted the first yellow Dur- 
ham mustard in the state. During the year 1855 
he became a pioneer of Plumas county, where 
for one season he had charge of the New Eng- 
land ranch. Next he followed mining at Nelson 
creek and Poplar Bar, on the middle fork of the 
Feather river, where he built a house, store and 
butcher shop. Later he purchased a building 
site at Ouincy and erected the Plumas house, 



which with its grounds occupies two acres. The 
hotel was from the first said to be one of the 
most complete in northern California. In the 
house there were upwards of seventy-five rooms, 
single and en suite. The lawn was made beau- 
tiful with plants and flowers, while in the gar- 
den were raised all the vegetables used on the 
hotel table. 

One of the features of the Plumas house is a 
special room containing several cabinets in 
which are arranged in classified order over two 
thousand specimens and subjects of the two 
great realms of nature, animal and mineral. The 
collection of minerals represents all parts of the 
globe, many of the contributions being made by 
friends of j\Ir. Edwards. The value of the col- 
lections cannot be estimated, for they represent 
years of careful selection as well as an accurate 
knowledge of the subjects. Fraternally Mr. Ed- 
wards was connected with Plumas Lodge No. 
60, F. & A. M., at Quincy : Lassen Conmiand- 
ery, K. T., at Susanville ; and Plumas Lodge No. 
80, I. O. O. F., in Ouincy. Liberal to the point 
of self-sacrifice, he was ever ready to assist 
worthy enterprises. His charities were many 
but were unostentatiously bestowed. No poor 
and destitute wanderer ever appealed in vain to 
him for shelter and food, and after his death his 
widow and son showed the same kindly spirit 
toward those in need. 

In the carrying on of his work James Edwin 
Edwards had the constant co-operation and sym- 
pathetic encouragement of a faithful and efficient 
wife. Mrs. Jane Edwards was born in Notting- 
hamshire, England, November 23, 1828, and 
came to the United States in girlhood. She be- 
came the wife of Mr. Edwards in Geveland, 
Ohio, November 25, 1852, and three years later 
settled in American valley, Plumas county, Cal., 
afterward making her home in Ouincy until 
shortly before her death. After the demise of 
her husband she took his place in superintend- 
ing the hotel, but finally health failed and a 
change of climate was advised. For this reason 
she went to Butte county, but the benefit derived 
from the change was only temporary. Her 
death occurred at Deadwood, November 16, 
1890, at the age of sixty-one years, eleven 




£). M^ tS 




<Hn^i. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



609 



months and twenty-three days. The hody was 
!)roiight back to Qiiincy and the funeral was 
held at the Plumas house in the presence of one 
of the largest gatherings of people ever assem- 
bled in Quincy, representing every section of 
I'kimas county. After the casket had been low- 
ered to its place in Quincy cemetery. Hon. W. 
VV. Kellogg, himself a pioneer and for years a 
friend of the family, delivered an address which 
was an eloquent tribute to her gentle and lov- 
alile disposition. In the course of his address 
he said : "This was her home, her home adopted 
by choice ; a home, as she has ofttimes declared 
after lu-r return from visiting in other parts oi 
this and other states, that she would not be will- 
ing to exchange for any other place she ever 
saw. She loved Quincy and the people, and as 
she loved, so she was loved in return. Kind and 
sympathetic, she was always anxious and willing 
to aid and assist those in trouble and adverfltv. 
Many, many hours has she sat bv the bedsi'le of 
the sick in our village. Many, verv man\', are 
lying in their narrow homes in this consecrated 
ground, who, could they arise and speak, would 
utter the words, Tilessings be with vou, Mrs. 
Edwards.' Her acts of charity and her assist- 
ance to the needy were of almost daily occur- 
rence and many among the living well know 
from experience, of her kind and charitable ac- 
tions, rendered without ostentatious display, but 
nevertheless real and heartfelt. They will miss 
her. Intt they will not, they cannot forget her. 
Her deeds and words of sympathy have ofttimes 
served to comfort the afflicted, to soothe the suf- 
fering, to give new life and hope to the de- 
pressed and despondent. She was ever a wel- 
come visitor to the home where sorrow and sad- 
ness had entered. 

"She has gone — gone, never to return. We 
will miss her, miss her sadly, but partings and 
farewells cast their shadows all along the path- 
way of life ; they all serve to remind us there is a 
future, a sunn\-, cloudless land that is fairer than 
day: a place where farewell tears are never shed, 
where adieus are never spoken, where the eye 
never speaks tlie gentle gocKlbye : where heart- 
aches and lieart-burnings of sadness and sorrow 
are unknown, and where all of the ties on earth 



riven shall be united once again. We know, we 
cannot fail to realize on occasions like this, that 
we are born for a higher destiny than that of 
earth : that there is, there must be a realm where 
the rainbow never fades, where the stars will 
spread out like the islands that slumber on the 
bosom of the ocean, and where the beautiful, 
which begins here and passes before us like the 
shadows, will stay in our ])resence forever." 



DUXALU R. M.\LAVS(J.\. .\mong Plu- 
mas county's substantial farmers who came here 
at an early day and have since seen the country 
grow and develop into its present fruitful state, 
themselves taking a share in the work of reclama- 
tion, special mention should he made of D. R. 
l-'inlayson. Since 1866 he has resided upon his 
present ranch, admirably located in the Amer- 
ican valley, and comprising two hundred and 
sixty-six acres. With the exception of about six 
acres, which is timberland. the tract is given over 
entirely to the raising of timothy, of which he 
harvests about five hundred tons a year. He also 
carries on a dairy of forty cows, for which pur- 
]30se he rents an adjoining ranch, and in the work 
of which he has the assistance and co-operation 
of his son John. The latter is interested to a 
considerable extent in the raising of fine trotting 
horses and cattle. .Mthough both father and son 
are mutuall\ interested in the various depart- 
ments of agriculture conducted upon the ranch, 
the greater part of the manual labor has now 
fallen upon the younger shoulders, owing to the 
advancing years of Mr. Finlayson. who is now 
Hearing the seventy-sixth anniversarv of his 
birth. 

r>orn December 9. 1830. in Xova Scotia. Don- 
ald R. Finlayson is a son of John and .-Kmelia 
(Robertson) Finlayson, both of whom lived to 
achanced ages. due. no doubt, to the simple living 
followed by a long line of Scotch ancestors. The 
maternal grandparents were lx)rn in Scotland, 
but finally located in Xova Scotia, where their 
daughter Amelia was born and spent her entire 
life, passing away when about eighty-three years 
of age. L'ntil grown to voung manhood John" 



610 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Plnlayson remained in his native surroundings 
in Scotland, but when about twenty years of age 
lie came to America, locating in Nova Scotia. 
During his earlier life he was a merchant, but 
later became interested in farming, a calling 
which he followed the remainder of his life, 
which was brought to a close in Nova Scotia 
when he was in his ninety-sixth year. Until 
about sixteen years of age Donald R. Finlayson 
remained on the home farm with his parents, 
having obtained a good education in the public 
schools in the meantime. About 1846 he began 
a three years" apprenticeship at the miller's trade, 
which he mastered in the prescribed time, and 
thereafter followed it for nine years. It was 
about this time in his career that he became in- 
terested in the bright prospects, in the west, held 
out to enterprising and ambitious young men. 
and on May 4, 1856, he boarded the steamer 
Illinois in New York harbor, bound for Cali- 
fornia by w'ay of the Panama route. In less than 
a month, June i, he debarked at San Francisco, 
and at once started for the mines of Campton- 
ville, Yuba county. For about two months he 
worked at mining by the day, later going to Sac- 
ramento county, where he was engaged in chop- 
ping wood for about eight months. His first 
identification with Plumas county dates from the 
year 1857, ^t which time he settled at Spanish 
Ranch and again became interested in mining, 
an undertaking which netted him fair returns for 
about twelve years. During two j'ears of this 
time he mined at Rich Gulch also. After dis- 
posing of his mining interests Mr. Finlayson 
came down the river by boat to his present ranch, 
which lies two miles east of Quincy, in the Amer- 
ican valley, and is admirably located for the pur- 
poses to which it is devoted, and is considered 
one of the most productive, and therefore one of 
the most valuable, ranches in the county. 

February 26, 1872, D. R. Finlayson was united 
in marriage with Mrs. Jane (Murrish) Richards, 
the widow of William K. Richards, an account 
of whose life will be found in the sketch of his 
son, William M. Richards, which is given else- 
where in this volume. Mrs. Finlayson is a na- 
tive of Cornwall, England, and was born January 
19, 1831. When she was still a young child she 



was deprived of the love and care of both parents, 
and when about eleven years of age, in 1842, 
came to the United States with her elder brother 
and sisters. They settled at Mineral Point, Wis., 
and it was there that her marriage with Mr. 
Richards occurred. In 1855 she came to Califor- 
nia by the Panama route, her husband having 
preceded her to the state, and in 1856 came to 
this county. By her marriage with Mr. Rich- 
ards she became the mother of four children, as 
follows : Sarah, the widow of Robert Smith, 
and a resident of Reno, Nev. ; Frank, who met 
his death in the mines at the age of thirty-six ; 
Evaline, the wife of William D. R. Graham, of 
Reno, Nev. ; and William M., recorder of Plu- 
mas county. To Mr. and Mrs. Finlayson two 
children have been born, John, who is now man- 
aging the home ranch for his father, and Donald 
R., Jr., who has graduated from the LTniversity 
of Nevada as a mining engineer, a calling for 
which he has a special aptitude, and without 
doubt he has a bright future before him in the 
business world. While Mr. Finlayson has de- 
voted himself assiduously to whatever line of 
endeavor he has undertaken since locating in Plu- 
mas county, he has at the same time been alive 
to interests for the common good and has done 
his part towards the advancement of the county's 
welfare. For one term, from 1886 to 1890, he 
served as county supervisor, being elected to the 
office on the Republican ticket. He belongs to 
but one fraternal order, the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, holding membership in Plumas 
Lodge No. 88 of Quincy. Mr. and Mrs. Finlay- 
son bear the distinction of being the only couple 
now living in this section who were here when 
they came to their present location. 



DAMD THOMAS JONES. Closely identi- 
fied with the agricultural and industrial prosper- 
ity of Plumas county is David Thomas Jones, 
an extensive landholder, a successful ranchman 
and stock raiser and proprietor of the Willow 
Glen hotel, which is located two and one-fourth 
miles west of Beckwith. A native of Pennsyl- 
vania, he was born in Schuylkill county, August 




nAVIl) RUSSELL 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



fil3 



15, 1857, a son of the late Noah Jones, and a 
brother of Benjamin L. Jones, in whose sketch, 
which appears elsewhere in this work, ma\ be 
found a brief biography of his parents. 

When but a year old David Thomas Jones was 
brought by his parents to Sierra couiUy. Ca!., 
where the earlier years of his life were spent. 
I Icing left fatherless when scarcely si.x years old, 
he remained with his widowed mother until 
about fourteen years of age, acquiring a practi- 
cal common school education. Then, in Julv, 
1870, with his brother, Benjamin L. Jones, he 
came to Plumas county, locating in the valley 
near Bcckwith, and here bought a small squat- 
ter's claim for $125. When the government sur- 
veyed the land, both brothers being then of age, 
they located here, and their mother lived with 
them. For twenty years the brothers carried 
on general farming in partnership, as they ac- 
cumulated money investing it in adjoining land, 
and were also interested in mining to a consid- 
erable extent. Subsequently Mr. Jones bought 
his brother's interest in the ranch, paying $4.cx» 
for it, and has since been successfully engaged in 
stock raising and mining, having nine hundred 
and sixty acres in his ranch, which lies partly on 
Grizzly creek. He was one of the founders of 
the Sunnyside mine, in which he is one of the 
heaviest shareholders, his stock being valued at 
$5,000. He is a man of great energy and enter- 
prise, and a self-made man in the truest sense of 
the word. 

Mr. Jones married Almeda A. Burnliam, who 
was born in Canada, and came to California in 
the spring of 1888. Of this union three children 
have been born, namely : Nellie, William D. and 
Harry. Politically Mr. Jones supports the prin- 
ciples of the Republican party in national affairs, 
hut in local matters is independent, voting with 
the courage of his convictions, regardless of par- 
ty restrictions. 



DAMD RUSSELL. The identification of 
Mr. Russell with the agricultural development 
of the Sierra valley covers a period of many 
years, and dates back to 1869. the year of his ar- 
rival in the locality where he now makes his 



home. During the greater portion of the time 
elapsing between that year and the present, he 
has given his attention to stock-raising and gen- 
eral ranch pursuits near Loyalton, but for a com- 
paratively brief period he was a resident of Ne- 
vada, and conducted ranching in the vicinity of 
Reno. Upon selling his Reno ranch in 1883, he 
located upon the ranch of three hundred and 
twenty acres near Loyalton, where now he makes 
his home, and in addition he has become the 
Dwner of one iumdred and sixty acres of timber 
land situated two miles south of Loyalton. His 
possessions represent his unaided exertions, for 
he had no means with which to embark in the 
active duties of life, nor has he had the encour- 
aging co-operation of a wife, for he has never 
formed domestic ties. With no other help than 
that of his own willing hands, energetic dispo- 
sition and resourceful mind, he has gained a 
position among the prominent land-owners of 
his country. 

A native of county Antrim, Ireland, David 
Russell was born May 12, 1832, and there he re- 
ce'ived meager educational advantages, and be- 
gan the task of earning his livelihood. April 11, 
1849, 1^*^ landed in New York City, and on the 
same day proceeded to Groveland, Livingston 
county, N. Y., where for seven years he worked 
on farms, having but two employers during all of 
the time. In the fall of 1856 he proceeded to 
Illinois and settled in Boone county, where he 
worked as a farm laborer. In 1859 he started 
for California as a member of a party of twelve 
emigrants. When the little company had 
reached the Missouri river they became scatter- 
ed. Buying two horses and a wagon, Mr. Rus- 
sell crossed the plains with two companions. On 
his arrival at Reno, Nev., he secured work at 
hauling hay, but in a short time removed to Ne- 
vada county, Cal., near Boca, where he rented a 
house and some land and engaged in cutting hay 
for sale to teamsters. For years the s|x>t where 
he lived was known as Russell's valley to the 
people of Eastern California. 

After having made his home in that valley 
from 1 86 1 to 1869. Mr. Russell removed to 
Sierra county and bought a tract of land, also 
pre-empted a claim in the vicinity of Loyalton. 



6U 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



For seven years he conducted a ranch here with 
a partner, but at the expiration of that time he 
sold his interest to the partner and removed to 
Nevada, where he bought a tract of one liundred 
and sixty acres of railroad land two miles below 
Reno, and for six years remained on that prop- 
erty engaged in agricultural pursuits. ]\Iean- 
while he had acquired the title to the half sec- 
tion he now occupies, and hither he removed in 
1883 upon selling his Reno estate. Ever since 
coming here he has engaged in stock-raising and 
farming, and has met with fair success in the 
management of his property. His tastes do not 
incline toward public affairs, and, aside from 
voting the Republican ticket he has taken no 
part whatever in local politics, yet he has ever 
been ready to discharge such duties as are in- 
cumbent upon him as a public-spirited citizen, 
devoted to the welfare of his adopted country. 



LEWIS KNUDSON. Among the upbuilders 
of Willow Creek, Cal., prominent mention be- 
longs to Lewis Knudson, who is today recog- 
nized as one of the leading citizens of this sec- 
tion of the state. He is the descendant of an old 
Norwegian family, his father, Tollof Medgaar- 
den, being the owner of the place of that name. 
The family immigrated to America and the fath- 
er's last days were spent in Iowa. The mother, 
Turi Medgaarden, died during the voyage to 
the United States. They were the parents of 
two sons, of whom Tollof was accidentally killed 
in Iowa, and Lewis is the subject of this re- 
view. 

Born June 3, 1829, in Hallingdol, Norway, 
Lewis Knudson spent the years of his boyhood 
in his native place, receiving a preliminary edu- 
cation in the pubfic schools. In 1849 1^^ came 
alone to America and in i860 his parents and 
brother followed to America. Settling in Monroe, 
Wis., he took up a new life among the more 
abundant opportunities of the western w'orld. 
Learning the shoemaker's trade he followed this 
until 1853, when he outfitted with horse and 
mule teams and set out upon that perilous under- 
taking to reach the Pacific coast overland. He 



crossed the Mississippi river at Dubuque and 
the ^Missouri at Council Bluft's; thence via Salt 
Lake and the Humboldt river, along the Carson 
route to Hangtown, arriving at his destination 
after five months of continuous travel. The trip 
was attended with all the perils and hardships 
incident to the times, and the little party felt 
themselves fortunate to reach their journey's end 
in safety. 

Mr. Knudson (who, on taking out naturaliza- 
tion papers had taken this name rather than that 
of Medgaarden, which was much more difficult 
to spell and pronounce) engaged in placer min- 
ing in Placer and Amador counties and during 
the three years thus spent acquired considerable 
means. Returning east in 1857 by way of the 
Isthmus of Panama, he was there married to 
Miss Emma Bancroft, on the 21st of February, 
1858, and later he engaged in business in Mon- 
roe as a boot and shoe merchant. He was suc- 
cessful in his enterprise, but so strong was his 
desire to locate permanently in California that he 
sold out in 1863 and once more made the trip 
overland to the Pacific coast. The second jour- 
ney was made by way of Honey Lake valley. Lo- 
cating in Susanville, Lassen county, he removed 
in the spring of 1864 to the ranch in Willow 
Creek valley, where he has ever since been lo- 
cated. He was the first settler in the valley and is 
honored today as the pioneer citizen of this sec- 
tion. His first improvements were necessarily 
primitive, consisting only of a log house and 
barn and the most limited conveniences for car- 
rying on his ranch pursuits. In 1866 he made a 
trip back to Wisconsin again via the Isthmus of 
Panama and a year later brought his wife to Cal- 
ifornia across the plains. He again located upon 
his ranch and continued the improvements which 
he had begun, engaging extensively in the rais- 
ing of cattle and horses and the management of 
a dairy, this last named enterprise bringing him 
large financial returns, as butter brought from 
fifty to seventy-five cents per pound. L^pon his 
trip east in 1866 he took a ton of butter to Vir- 
ginia City, Nev., and received in payment $1,000. 
From time to time he added to his property by 
purchase until he now owns one thousand acres, 
all beinsr rich bottom land, devoted to grain and 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



C15 



hay. lie ilevotcd considcrahk- time lo ihc raising 
of cattle, large herds hearing his hrancl (a cap- 
ital H and L connected ) until 1903, when he re- 
tired from active life and turned the extensive 
farming interests over to his daughter and her 
husband. 

On the Jijtii of .\ugust, 1902. occurred tlie 
death of Mr. Knudson's wife, who was then six- 
ty-three years old. She was a native of Weth- 
ersfield, Wyoming county, N. Y.. and a daugh- 
ter of Harvey Uancrofi. an early settler of Wis- 
consin. She was a woman of rare worth of char- 
acter — a faithful wife, mother and friend, in her 
religious views affiliating with the Christian 
church. She became the mother of three chil- 
dren, namely: Lewis Harvey, who was accident- 
ally killed h.\' the falling of a windmill. May 5, 
1903, at the age of twenty-eight years; .Mary 
Edna, wife of James M. Streshly, who operates 
the farm ; and Albert Cleveland, who died No- 
vember 20. 1897, at the age of seventeen years. 
Mr. Knudson has two grandchildren, Lutie and 
Todd, the children of Mr. and Mrs. Streshly. 

Mr. Knudson lias always taken a prominent 
part in local affairs and given his influence and 
strongest efforts toward the advancement of the 
general welfare. As a Republican in politics he 
has always been strong on national issues and 
has sought to promote the principles he endorses. 
He has frequently served as delegate to state 
conventions and has also acted as a member of 
the county Republican central committee. For 
four years he served as supervisor of the fifth 
district, and for many years was postmaster of 
Merrillville, receiving his appointment during 
(Grant's administration, .\bove all party affilia- 
tions, however. Mr. Knudson has proven himself 
a loyal and jiatriotic citizen of his adopted coun- 
try, his name always associated with tiie most 
])rominent movements for the advancement of 
the general welfare. He has been a stanch 
friend of educatimi in his district, serving as 
school trustee for many years, and was an im- 
portant factor in the organization of the Willow 
Creek district, where he assisted materially in 
the erection of the first building, a jirimitive lug 
house, and later in the frame building which re- 
placed it. In the construction of the mountain 



road between Susanville and Willow Creek he 
was also active, and was as well identified with 
many other important movements in the devel- 
opment of the country. Fraternally Mr. Knud- 
son is identified with the Masonic organization, 
being a member of Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. 
& A. M., and socially is regarded as one of 
the honored citizens of the coniniunitv. 



CHARLES JAMES COOO^, SR. Among 
tbe pioneer settlers of California no one is more 
worthy of notice in a work of this kind than 
Cliarles J. Gooch, Sr.. one of the most extensive 
land owners of Modoc county, iiis large sheep 
and cattle ranch lying just southwest of the vil- 
lage of Lookout. Coming to this country with 
scarce a dollar in his pockets, not having even 
money enough to purchase a much needed blank- 
et, he bought one in partnership with a voung 
man ecpially destitute, aiul when he and his com- 
panion separated they cut the blanket in two, 
each one taking one-half of it. Mr. Gooch's half 
nuist have ])roved a mascot, for from that time 
prosperity smiled upon his every venture, and he 
has since arisen from a state of penury to one of 
w-ealth and distinction. He comes of honored 
New England ancestry, his birth occurring March 
30, 1836, in Concord, Mass. .At the age of three 
years he was taken to Boston, where he received 
an excellent common-school education. 

Leaving Boston when eighteen years old, Mr. 
Gooch came by w'ay of the Isthmus to California, 
landing in San Francisco April 13, 1854. Going 
from there to Hangtown, he followed placer min- 
ing in that vicinity for a time, and while thus en- 
gaged had many wild experiences. Passing 
down tht main street one morning he was horri- 
fied to see three men hanging from the hotel 
porch, on the back of each man Iieing boldly in- 
scribed the word "thief." Returning to Mas.sa- 
chusetts in i8C)i, he remained there a year, and 
in 1862 again came to the Pacific coast, this time 
c-ossing the plains. Locating in Salinas county, 
he was there engaged in sheep raising for three 
vears, when, taking his shee]) to Tehama county, 
he bought a ranch near Red Bluff, and there fol- 



616 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



lowed his chosen calling for ten years. For sev- 
eral years after that he was successfully engaged 
in the brokerage Inisiness and mining at Red 
Bluff. Locating in Modoc county in 1S85, he 
bought land near Lookout, stocked it with sheep 
and cattle, in the raising of which he met with 
very satisfactory results. At different times, as 
favorable opportunity • occurred, he has bought 
additional land, now having a clear title to fort\ - 
three hundred and tvv'enty acres, his estate being 
one of the largest and most valuable in northern 
California. He has a finely improved ranch, con- 
taining about twenty-five miles of fencing, and 
he owns all of the outside water within a radius 
of twenty-four miles. Besides the propertv in 
Alodoc county he also owns thirty-five hundred 
acres of land in Tehama countv south of Red 
Bluff. 

Mr. Gooch is very successful as a shee]3 and 
cattle raiser, making a specialty of breeding and 
raising Merino, Shropshire and Lincoln sheep, 
the best breeds to be found in the United States. 
He is very enterprising, owning the controlling 
interest in the dam at Lookout, also in the irriga- 
tion ditches, and is a third owner of the Bieber 
and Lookout Telephone Line. As a stockman 
and general farmer he is capable and progressive, 
on his stock ranch raising not onlv enough hav 
for his cattle and sheep, but each season selling 
many tons. 

Mr. Gooch married .-Mmira Brown, and thev 
are the parents of two children, namelv: Charles 
J. Gooch, Jr., a sheep breeder and raiser at Red 
Bluff; and Ida E. Gooch, who married Andrew 
H. Mclnnes, of Red Bluff. Politically Mr. 
Gooch is identified with the Republican party. 



WILLIAM CROMWELL BRINGHAM. 
Born in Lafayette, Ind., April 15, 1826, William 
Cromwell Bringham was a son of Jesse Bring- 
ham, whO' was of German and French descent 
and a settler in 1818 of Indiana, where he en- 
gaged as a blacksmith and farmer until his death. 
He received his education in the subscription 
schools of Indiana and in earl}- manhood learned 
the trade of millwright, having followed farm- 



mg up to that time, the two interests remaining 
his life-work. In 1840 he went to Bonaparte, , 
Iowa, and it was in that location he learned his f I 
trade, after having attended school for a brief 
time. 

In 1849, '11 Boiiaparte, Mr. Bringham married 
Katherine Mitchler, one of his schoolmates, 
whose birth occurred in Iowa, October 29, 1825. 
They made their home in Iowa until 1854, when 
Mr. Bringham outfitted with ox-teams and 
crossed the plams to California. Opportunities 
for a livelihood were abundant in this state at 
that time, as now, and those who did not care to 
try their fortunes in the mines found occupation 
in trades and business, JMr. Bringham finding 
employment in erecting mills in various parts of 
the cotmtry, especially in Plumas county. He 
finally returned to Iowa via the Isthmus of Pan- 
ama, and in 1856 once more made the trip to 
California, this time accompanied by his fam- 
ily : on account of the Indian troubles about this 
time they stopped for a time at Nebraska City, 
where Mr. Bringham engaged at the trade of 
carpenter. Upon the resumption of their journey 
they spent four months in travel to Plumas coun- 
ty, where they arrived August 19. During the 
winter of 1859-60 and the following summer he 
worked in the mines of Eureka, and in 1861, 
nioving to the vicinity of Vinton, pre-empted the 
land now owned by E. Ramelli. With B. F. 
Bobo' he engaged in farming this property until 
1865, when he purchased the ranch owned by P. 
Parish, whose residence occupied the present site 
of the Beckwith hotel. He engaged in general 
farming and dairying for two years, when he 
purchased a blacksmith shop at Summit and for 
the ensuing two years operated this in connection 
with a wagon shop, while his wife and son man- 
aged the ranch interests. 

In 1874 Mr. Bringham built the Beckwitli 
hotel, which he conducted for six years, when he 
sold out to his son and passed the remainder of 
his life on his ranch, engaged in general farm- 
ing and in the prosecution of his trade up to 
within ten years of his death, when he retired 
from active labors. His death occurred March 
25, 1906, removing from the community one of 
the foremost men in the upbuilding and develop- 




V^>^vV^3Jiv.i.^orv«>rvivju. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPIIirAT. RECORD. 



619 



merit of this section of I'lunias county. His life 
was indelibly associated with the growtli of 
Beckwith, the west half o( which he laid nut. 
while he also deeded the land now occupied bv 
the Masonic hall, he being- a charter member of 
Hope Lodge No. 234. V. & A. M. He was a 
Democrat in his political' convictions and, al- 
though a stanch worker in tlic interests of his 
party, never cared for official recognition. For 
fourteen years he served as postmaster of Beck- 
with and in this time was prominent in the pro- 
motion of various enterprises for the general 
welfare of the community, assisting materiallv in 
the building of the schoolhouse in the Beckwith 
district, a mile and a quarter east of the town, 
putting in his time and asking no remuneration 
and also donating considerable money to the 
work. He was held in Mie highest esteem and 
consideration Ijy all who knew him, appreciated 
for the sturdy qualities of citizenship which dis- 
tinguished his entire career. He lost his wife 
May 21, 1902, her death occurring in the old 
home. They were the parents of six children, of 
whom two died in infancy, the others being Leu- 
titia. who was born and died in Iowa ; Marion 
C, born in Nebraska City, October 22, 1857; 
Man,' Ann, wife of James L. Ross, of Beckwith : 
and Ellen, who was drowned in Beckwith at the 
age of two years and three months. 

Marion Castor Bringham was a child of two 
years when he was brought by his ])arenls to 
California, and here in Plumas county he passed 
from childhood's years to manhood's estate. His 
educational training was received in the common 
schools of the county, after which he assisted his 
father in the management of the home farm, be- 
ing particularly active in the dairy line. For 
some years he was occupied in driving teams to 
the mines, which proved a very profitable under- 
taking. July 4, 1877, 'le married Hattie Ellen 
Trimble, who was born in Wheatland, Yuba 
county, Cal., October 14, 1859, and they became 
the ])arents of the following children : Mabel, 
wife of Thomas Cram, of Beckwith: Grace, who 
died in childhood ; Katherine, wife of Earl 
Brig^fs, of Sheridan, Cal. : Williani A., a clerk in 
Beckwith : and Robert Amedee, the first white 
child Ix)rn in Amedee, Lassen county. The death 



of Mrs. I'.ringhani occurred in Reno, October 20, 
1893. Mr. Bringham was married again, .\iigust 
7. 1895, to Miss Rosa W'eigand. who was Ix^rn 
in Gibsonville, Cal., and died December 26. 1895. 
On the 27th of November, 1902, he was united in 
marriage with Miss Vivian C. (irose, a native of 
San Luis Obispo, Cal., and they have one son, 
Jesse Grose Bringham. Mr. Bringham has taken 
an active part in the public affairs of I'lumas 
county and is always to be found where duty 
calls. For eight yeju's he serA-cd as deputy sher- 
iff under J. Bransford, and was al.s<i in the as- 
sessor's department for one year. He is well 
known in Beckwith, where he conducted the 
hotel built by his father up to 1894, and was also 
interested in other business ventures. Frater- 
nally he is a Mason, being a member of Hope 
Lodge No. 234. F. & A. M., in which he served 
as master for three years. Both himself and wife 
are members of the Eastern Star Chapter, in 
which she is an oflRcer. 



CHARLES H. LAWRENCE. Perhaps no 
name is more closely associated with the business 
history and material development of Greenville 
than that of Charles H. Lawrence, who, as miller, 
hotel proprietor, liveryman and merchant has 
been inseparably connected with the conunercial 
growth of the town and has contributed of means 
and time to the promotion of any enterprise pro- 
jected for the permanent progress of the localitv. 
In the annals of Plumas county his name is 
worthy of perpetuation. The energy which he 
possesses enables him to endure reverses witii 
fortitude, and his dauntless courage was never 
more in evidence than when, in i8<j5, he lost his 
right arm above the elbow, through an accident 
at his sawmill. Though at the time he was sixty- 
two years of age, he refused to allow the misfor- 
tune to terminate his business activities, but 
learned to drive horses with his left hand, and 
even trained that hand to the difficult task of 
letter-writing and the other uses to which the 
right hand had been put during all of his life. 

The county of Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, 
is the nativr bninc of >rr. Lawrence, and Sep- 



(520 



HISTORICAL AND BIOC7RAPHICAL RECORD. 



tember 21, 1832, the date of his birth. His father, 
WiUiam, was born in Providence, R. I., and at 
an early age went to" Pennsylvania, where he en- 
gaged in farming and also worked on the Erie 
canal. .A.s early as 1837 he became a pioneer of 
Wisconsin, settling in Rock county, where he 
made farming his occupation through the re- 
mainder of his active years. In that county he 
passed away at about eighty years of age. Wlien 
the family moved to Wisconsin Charles H. Law- 
rence was a child of five years, hence his early 
recollections are of the frontier. When twenty- 
one years of age he began to break prairie land 
with oxen, and this difficult work he continued 
for a year or more, after which he became inter- 
ested in buying hides and furs in Iowa and Min- 
nesota, and selling the same in the city markets. 

On crossing the plains in 1859 with his four- 
mule team, Mr. Lawrence arrived in the Indian 
valley. Plumas county, in September and at once 
rented a tract of land, where he engaged in gen- 
eral ranch pursuits, making a specialty of hogs. 
After eighteen months he went to Round valley 
and built a sawmill, which he operated some three 
years or more. Meanwhile he also started what 
is now known as the Round valley reservoir. On 
selling out all of his interests in the valley he 
moved to Greenville and erected a flour mill, also 
started the first foundry and the first tinshop in 
the town. The foundry he conducted in partner- 
ship with Mr. Latlu-op. who acted as manager. 
For years he owned a number of sawmills in 
Plumas county, also owned at one time a sawmill 
and sash and door factory at Susanville, Lassen 
county. At this writing he owns and operates a 
sawmill three miles from Greenville, and owns 
another on Big Meadow. Init the latter he does 
not operate. As early as 1870 he built the hotel 
at Greenville, which he subsequently enlarged 
and then conckicted for a short time, but eventu- 
ally sold to another party. For a year he con- 
ducted a hotel in Ouincy. During 1876 he ac- 
quired 1)) purchase the Hann ranch in .\merican 
valley, but later disposed of the property. The 
Greenville flour mill, erected at a cost of $8,000, 
is now his property, but is operated only a part 
of the year. Among the first structures in Green- 
ville was the livery barn which he erected and 



almost continuously since then he has engaged 
in the livery business, besides which at this writ- 
ing he owns the harness shop in Greenville and 
also owns about one thousand acres of timber 
and farming land in this vicinity. 

After coming to Plumas county Mr. Lawrence 
remained a bachelor for a considerable period, 
but September 14, 1876, he established domestic 
ties in his marriage to Miss Linda Johnston, who 
was born in Ohio and came about 1871 to Cali- 
fornia. They are the parents of nine children, 
namely : Linda, who married Frank Standart of 
Greenville ; Laura, a teacher ; William and Jack, 
who are engaged in business at Beckwith, Plu- 
mas county ; Dan, at home ; Ollie, now in San 
Francisco ; Frank, who is employed as a clerk at 
Prattville : Charles and George Marion, at home. 
Though never willing to accept office, Mr. Law- 
rence takes a warm interest in local politics and 
supports the candidates of the Republican party. 



JOSEPH A. BERGERET. Among the 
prosperous and enterprising agriculturists of the 
Sierra valley, Joseph A. Bergeret holds a note- 
worthy position. He is actively employed in 
farming, dairying and stock-raising,' skilfully 
devoting his energies to the management of his 
well-kept ranch, and in his independent occupa- 
tion is meeting with eminent success. He was 
born January 8, 1858, in France, and there 
reared on a farm, and educated in the common 
schools. 

Soon after his marriage Mr. Bergeret came 
with his bride to the United States, disembark- 
ing in New York on June 15, 1884. Crossing 
the continent to Plumas county, he began work- 
ing by the month at farming, being thus em- 
ployed for six years. Bliying then his present 
home farm, he has since labored unceasingly to 
add to the improvements previously inaugurated, 
and has now a large part of his four hundred 
and eighty acres of land in a productive condi- 
tion. In addition to general ranching he raises 
considerable stock, • which he finds profitable, 
and keeps a good dairy of about forty cows. 

November 6, 1883, in France, Mr. Bergeret 




II. H. MrMURrilY 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



«->3 



married Leone Selticr, who was born in that 
countr)-, and was there reared and educated. She 
died on the home farm, near Vinton, August 26, 
1897, leaving two cliililrcn, I.ucien and Leah, 
both of whom are hving at home. In pohtics 
Mr. Bergeret is a loyal Republican, and takes 
much interest in local and national affairs. Fra- 
ternally he is a member of Hope Lodge No. 234, 
F. & A. M., at Beckwith. 



HYMAN HARPER McMURPHV. The eld- 
est of a family of two sons and four daughters, 
the late Hyman Harper McMurphy, of Janes- 
ville, was born July 24, 1828. in New York state. 
His father, Ahncr MclMurpby was a native of 
\'erniont, hut finalh- settled in New York state, 
where he was married, going from there to San- 
gamon county. 111. In the fall of 1852 he went 
as far west as Iowa, living for a time in Keokuk, 
and later at Mt. Pleasant, Henry county. In 
1864 he came overland with teams across moun- 
tain and plain to California and settled at Janes- 
ville, where he died. His wife, formerlv Eunice 
Hastings, was a native of Connecticut, and she. 
too, died at Janesville. 

In Illinois, June 3, 1853. Hyman H. McMur- 
phy was married to Dolly Ann Bailey, who was 
born in New York, December 2, 1836. and is the 
daughter of Moody Bailey, a native of Xewbur\-, 
\ t., great-grandfather Bailey settling in that 
state at the time lie came to this country from 
England. Moody Bailey was an aide-de-camp 
to Col. Moody Beedle in the war of 18 F2. In 
1849 he removed to Sangamon county. 111., where 
he followed agricultural pursuits until his death, 
aged seventy-four years. His wife, in maiden- 
hood Frances Burroughs, was also a native of 
Vermont and the daughter of David Burroughs. 
She died in Illinois when seventy-five years of 
age. Her first marriage was to Calvin Day, and 
of this uniun three flaughters were born, none 
of whom are living. C )f the second marriage 
four chil(h-en were horn, all of whom are living, 
and of wliiim Mrs. McMurphy is the third. Her 
brother, lake, resides at Buntingville : Joseph, at 



Redding; and .Mrs. Duncan, at Jordan \-allcy, 
( )re. 

After receiving a public school education in 
Illinois Mr. McMurphy moved to Henry counlv. 
Iowa, in 1852. buying new land, which be cleared 
and fmproved. In 1864, disposing of his eight 
hundred-acre farm, lie <Irovc ox-teams overland 
to this state, tiie journey requiring five months 
and two weeks. W.th his wife and four chil- 
dren he settled in Honey Lake valley, there pur- 
chasing land, upon wliich he successfully en- 
gaged in farming and stock-raising. The cattle 
l>nind I XL. and the horse brand M were u.sed 
"u his ranch. The ranch consists of four hun- 
dred and forty-seven acres, the greater portion 
of which is in meadow and grain, and a part of 
which is iinw devoted to dairying purposes. 

let! childrin were born to Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
Murphy. viz.: Harry Fulton, who resides at 
Janesville; I'rances E.. wife of Thomas Barham. 
of Johnstonville; Laura P., who married John 
I'isher and lives near Milford; MoJIie G., who 
married T. McPherson, of Seattle, Wash; X'iola, 
who died here; Mattie E., who married James 
Wood, of Standish, George Bailey, who is at Del 
Monte; Lola Belle, wife of Joseph Spiller, of 
berndale; Jennie Pearl, who died at tiie old 
liiMiie when a little past twenty years of age; 
and ina Luella. who is at home; she is a member 
of the Rebekahs and the Order of the Eastern 
Star. Mr. McMurphy died Februarv 23, 1894. 
and in bis death his community lost one of its 
must highly esteemed and honored citizens. 
After his deatli .Mrs. .McMurphy continued to 
reside on the home farm until 1902. when she 
removed to Janesville, where she owns a com- 
fortable home and where she and her daughter 
Ina reside. 



JOHN TICKER. One noting the thrifty 
appearance of the ranch which Mr. Tucker owns 
and occupies, and which is delightfully located 
in a quiet and secluded spot among the moun- 
tains, would assert without hesitation that he 
must have followed farming his entire life, but 
on the contrary it is a latter-day accomplishment. 



624 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



His ranch is located near what is locally known 
as Tuckerville, a hamlet which lies about ten 
miles west of Ouincy, Plumas county, and his 
postoffice is Meadow Valley. Clear and Siher 
creeks both contribute to supply the land with 
water, which is one of the most important factors 
in the successful raising of fruit and vegetables, 
of which ^h-. Tucker now makes a specialty. 

May 14, 1831, Mr. Tucker was born in Lubec 
tbwnship, Washington county, Me., a son of 
Davenport Tucker, a native of Kennebunk. Me. 
Removing from the place of his birth the father 
went to Eastport, Washington county, that state, 
where he was fairly successful as a miller and 
shipper, and in addition to his private business 
also held a government position, being a custom 
house officer. He was a member of a military 
company at Portland during the war of 1812. In 
his political affiliations he was a Democrat. His 
death occurred at Lubec, when he had attained 
the venerable age of eighty-five years. The witc 
of Davenport Tucker, in maidenhood Susan 
Taylor, was also a native of Eastport, Me., where 
she spent her entire life, passing away when in 
her eighty-fourth year. Her father left his na- 
tive land, England, when a young man and set- 
tled in the United States. 

As one of a family of nine children John 
Tucker contributed his share toward the sup- 
port of the family by assisting his father in 
the store and mill. When he was nineteen years 
old he went to Collis, Me., to learn the cabinet- 
maker's trade of his brother, but before his ap- 
prenticeship was completed the gold fever over- 
came him and the year 1851 found him on his 
way to California. After a six-month trip 
around the Horn he landed in San Francisco 
in July of the following year and at once made 
his way to the mines at Foster's bar, on the 
Yuba river, where until November he prospected 
with a fair degree of success. He was next 
interested in mining in Oak Valley, same coun- 
ty, until the spring of 1853, when he went to 
Forest, Sierra county, and mined for two sum- 
mers, the winters being spent at Galena Hill, 
Yuba county. During this time he had made 
his home at Galena Hill, but in 1856 he sold his 
possessions there and came to Plumas county. 



In July of that year he began mining on 
Shores Hill, near Quincy, having bought an in- 
terest in a claim, but in 1858 he left it to try 
his luck on Fraser river, which at that time 
was attracting so much attention. He met with 
no success in this venture, however, and after 
his return to Plumas county sold his Shores 
Hill claim and in 1839 began prospecting and 
mining on Rich Gulch, in this county. A few 
months later he bought an interest in a claim 
on Rock creek, but it proved to be unproduc- 
tive, and two years later he purchased the Scad 
Point diggings, which he operated until selling 
out in 1866. Thereafter he bought a claim on 
Indian Hill, near Rich bar, but after mining 
there until 1870 he was obliged to pronounce it 
a failure. It was in the year just mentioned 
that he first became identified with his present 
property, which he had located as a mine, and 
as he owned the water privilege mined with 
considerable success for tliree years. Although 
still making his home here he followed mining 
on Grub Flat for about twenty years, but dur- 
ing this time he had taken up one hundred and 
sixtv acres of government land and established 
the ranch upon which he now makes his home. 
He erected a pleasant and commodious house, 
and cleared and improved a part of the land, 
upon which he is raising hay, vegetables and 
fruit. Several years ago he gave up his min- 
ing interests entirely and now devotes his en- 
tire attention to the management of his ranch. 
October 3, 1869, Mr. Tucker was united in 
marriage with Miss Mary L. Robinson, who 
was born in Ohio and came to California when 
a young girl. Her brother, Eugene Robinson, 
was a policeman in San Francisco at the time 
of his death. Mrs. Tucker died November 9, 
1891, having become the mother of six chil- 
dren. Mary Alice became the wife of Henry 
A. Hallsted, and they reside in Silver Creek, 
Plumas county ; Susan A. is the wife of Harry 
G. Mori, and they are also residents of this 
county; John A. is interested with his father in 
the care and management of the home ranch; 
William F. was a soldier in the Spanish-Ameri- 
can war and died of typhoid fever while in the 
Philippines, when only twenty-one years of 




^. /tj/^. 



HISTORICAL AXn BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



627 



age; Ricliaid \). is an electrical engineer in 
San Francisco: and Olive Blanche, who is now 
sixteen years of age, is still at home with lier 
father. Although Mr. Tucker was reared a 
Democrat, at the linic of the Civil war he 
changed his views and has ever since given his 
allegiance to the Republican party. The fact 
that he has always refused to hold public office 
is no indication that he is lacking in interest in 
matters that aflfect the general welfare, but is 
due rather to his retiring disposition, preferring 
the (|uiet of home life to a public career. 



JOHN WILLIAM STARK. Lying in the 
Indian valley not far from Taylorsville, Plumas 
county, is the stock and dairy ranch owned and 
operated by John William Stark, one of Cali- 
fornia's pioneers and a resident of the state 
from ])oyhood. Of the entire tract of two Inm- 
dred and ninety acres there are one hundred and 
thirt\- acres in the valley on which grain and 
hay are raised, while the balance of the prop- 
erty furnishes pasturage for the horses, cattle 
and the twenty-five Durham cows comprising the 
dairy herd. Since coming to this place he has 
set out a family orchard and made many other 
improvements, among the most important being 
the building of a small reservoir froin which 
seventeen hundred feet of pipes carry the water 
to the orchard, garden, dairy and other parts 
of the ranch. 

The Stark family is of southern extraction. 
Lewis Stark, who was born and reared in Ten- 
nessee, there married Nancy Lawrence, a native 
of the same state. Though a carpenter and shoe- 
maker by trade, after moving to the then unde- 
veloped state of Missouri he turned his atten- 
tion to transforming a tract of raw land into a 
profit.ible farm, making a specialty of the stock 
business. During 1852 he fitted out for the trip 
across the plains with oxen and, accompanied by 
his family, started on the long journey, which 
was made sad b\ the death of the wife and 
mother on the plains. After his arrival in Cal- 
ifornia he settled in American valley two miles 
from the present site of Quincy and there en- 



gaged in mining. During bis explorations 
through the country he discovered a mine whidi 
proved to be very rich and in its development he 
made a stnall fortune, some of which he in- 
vested in mines, and the balance in lands and 
a hotel. For a long period he served as justice 
of the peace. 

.\fter his removal to Honey Lake vallcv in 
the fall of 1859 Lewis .Stark engaeed in raisintr 
grain and stock until about i8('>7. when he moved 
to Santa Barbara county and purchased a tract 
of ranch land. Nine years later he sold out 
and returned to northern California, where he 
made his home with his .son. John William, 
until he died at eighty-two years of age. A 
man of high principles and exemplary character, 
he was an active worker in the Baptist Church 
and endeavored in his actions to live up to the 
hiudi standard of Christian living which he made 
his ideal. In politics he was reared in the Demo- 
cratic faith and always upheld its principles. 
When his wife was suddenh- taken from him 
bv cholera durine their westward journev he was 
left with six rhildren, none yet grown. The 
family remained together for a time, but one 
by one the daughters left to enter homes of their 
own, while the two sons also in Ave time en- 
tered upon life's activities as ranchers. The 
children are as follows: Elvira, wife of William 
Kinsey, of Otiincv : Charles Thomas, a rancher 
at Deer Lodge. Mont. : Qiaritv. Mrs. Peter M. 
Day, deceased: Celia E.. widow of W. A. 
Blakeslec. and a resident of Quincv : John Will- 
iam, of Plumas countv : and Mollie. Mrs. Jo- 
se|)li Braflen. a widow living at Quincv. 

Born in Callawav coimty. Mo.. Julv 10. 1841, 
John William Stark was eleven years of age 
when the family crossed the plains and when he 
lost his mother bv death. AHor four vears in 
the new home be secured employment in a print- 
ing office at Ouincy. where he remained for 
two and one-half \'ears. Next he was engaeed 
with a packing trnin in hauling from Marvsvillc 
and Oroville to different nn'ning camps, in which 
occimation he continued for others or alone alxnit 
fifteen years. For two years he had charge of 
a iiack train from Tavlorsville. Plmnas countv, 
to Walla Walla. Wash., and l^matilla. Ore., also 



028 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



to Boise Basin in Idaho. Returning to Plumas 
county in 1865 he spent the winter here and in 
the spring took a train to Silver City, spending 
two months in the trip. In the fall of 1866 he 
married Miss Mary E. Cottingham and began 
housekeeping on a farm in the Indian valley, 
but after one year he entered the employ of 
the gentleman who then owned his present ranch, 
in the lower end of the valley. After a year or 
more he bought a ranch in the same localit>- 
and for five years operated the place, but then 
sold and purchased his present homestead. His 
wife was born in Coles county. Ill, and crossed 
the plains to Plumas county with her parents in 
1864, since which time she has been a resident 
of the same vicinity. The record of her family 
appears in the sketch of her brother, James W. 
Cottingham, elsewhere in this volume. Of her 
marriage there are four sons, namely : William 
T. and James L., who are ranchers in this neigh- 
borhood ; John Warren : and Guy Leroy, wdio is 
living on a ranch near the home place. In 
national affairs Mr. Stark favors Democratic 
principles, but takes no part in politics, and only 
once became a candidate for office ; at that time 
he was his party's nominee for supervisor, but 
the district and county being strongly Republi- 
can he sufifered defeat with the remainder of 
the Democratic ticket. Physically he is well- 
preserved and although his life has been one of 
strenuous activity, hard work has left few traces 
on his stalwart frame and robust constitution. 



JACOB WILLIA^I BROADWELL. Own- 
ing and operating one of the best ranches in the 
vicinity of Janesville, J. W. Broadwell is a very 
successful farmer and dairyman residing two 
miles west of this village. His father, William 
King Broadwell, was born in Illinois, in which 
state he passed his life, dying when his son Jacob 
W. was only two years of age. By trade he was 
a tanner, and carried on a very lucrative busi- 
ness. He was married to Cynthia McMurphy, a 
native of New York State, and the daughter of 
Abner McMurphy, who was also a native of the 
Empire state. Removing to Illinois, Mr. McMur- 



phy resided in that state until 1864, when he 
came across the plains to California and settled 
in Elysian valley. There he owned and oper- 
ated a farm, in addition to which he bought and 
sold stock, continuing in this business until his 
death in 1873, when eighty-two vears of age. 

Jacob William Broadwell was born near 
Springfield, Sangamon county. 111., October 13, 
1848, and was the second of a family of two sons 
and one daughter, all of whom have died ex- 
cept himeslf. When he was three years of age 
his family removed to Iowa, where he received 
his early education and worked on a farm in 
Henry county for about thirteen years. When 
about sixteen years of age he cariie across the 
plains with ox, horse and mule teams to Cali- 
fornia, consuming nearly six months in the jour- 
ney from Iowa to this state. Throughout this 
journey west he drove an ox team every other 
day, and upon reaching California with his 
mother and grandfather, settled in the Honey 
Lake valley, and for a time enjoyed the tran- 
quility so welcome after the long and dangerous 
journey across mountain and plain, made the 
more dangerous on account of the prowling bands 
of Indians, w-ho gave them some trouble on their 
trip. 

When only a young man of about nineteen 
years, Mr. Broadwell engaged in stock raising 
for himself, starting with only a few cows, and 
later he and his brother Isaac entered land in 
Honey Lake valley, and operated it as a stock 
farm for a few years, then sold out. Isaac died 
and Mr. Broadwell continued in the cattle busi- 
ness alone for a time, then located upon his pres- 
ent ranch, which he purchased from Mike DU- 
lon. This ranch consisted originally of thref- 
hundred and twenty acres, but later one hundred 
and twenty acres more were added to it. This 
land lies on Baxter creek, from which irrigation 
water is obtained for the ranch, upon which al- 
falfa and grain are produced, and aside from his 
farming, Mr. Broadwell runs a dairy in which 
he has some tw-enty-three cows of Durham and 
Jersey breed, and in wdiich he uses the modern 
dairy appliances. He was married near Janes- 
ville to Julia Coombs, who was born in Indiana, 
and who was the daughter of Fielding Coombs. 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



i>-2'.t 



Slu' tlic-d in Lassen counlx' at the home ranch, 
leaving one ehild. Leda. Air. Broadwell's sec- 
ond marriage was with Kate L. Rnnvoii, who 
was a native of IncHana. He is a member of the 
Methodist Episcojial C'lnnch at Janesville, of 
which he is steward and trustee, and in poHtics 
he supports the Democratic platform. 



S.AMUEL ALEXANDER. A descendant of 
a ])rominent old Kentucky family, but a native 
of this state, having been born in the .\ntelope 
valley. Samuel .Alexander is a successful ranch- 
er and stiTck raiser of Lassen county. His pater- 
nal grandfather was a native of the Blue Grass 
state, later removing to Missouri, where his 
death occurred. The grandmother, formerly 
.Sarah Goodwin, died at the old home in Ken- 
tucky. His father, Samuel Goodwin .\lexander, 
w-as born in Trigg county, Ky., May 29, 1832, 
the youngest of a large family of children. 
Reared and educated in Kentucky until fifteen 
years of age, he then accompanied his father to 
Missouri, where he remained until 1859, that 
year marking his advent into this state. Locat- 
ing in Butte county he engaged in placer mining. 
March 23, 1864, he was imited in marriage with 
Catherine -Stone, wdio was born in Rockville, 
Ind., in 1841, the youngest of five children. Her 
parents, William and Sarah J. (Henry) Stone, 
were farmers near Rockville ; they died in 1843 
and 1845 respectively. Left an orphan at an ear- 
ly age, she made her home with various families 
for about five years, when she began working for 
her board and clothes, and when fourteen years 
of age received wages. Her school advantages 
were limited to about three months in the dis- 
trict school, when she was eighteen years old. 
In 1862 she accompanied her uncle, Lewis Stone, 
across the plains to California, traveling by 
means of ox teams, five months and ten days be- 
ing consumed in the journey. In 1865, the year 
following her marriage, her health became so 
impaired that the family physician advised a sea 
voyage, and acting upon his advice, Mr. Alexan- 
der took her to Valparaiso, South America. 
The trip proved of much benefit to her health, 



and returning to California they locate.i at Xapa. 
After si)cn(ling two years there, they removed to 
Antelope valle\ . in F.assen county, where Mr. 
Alexander purchased a ranch, improved it by 
erecting a house upon it and engaged in farming 
and stock raising. There are nearly five hundred 
acres in this farm, about three hundred of which 
consist of bottom land, which is very fertile. Mr. 
•Alexander died October 10, 1904. 

Samuel .Alexander was born November 9, 
1875, and was brought up on the home farm, re- 
ceiving his education in the public schools of Su- 
sanville. From a l)o\ he showed a taste for 
farming and stock raising, and in 1895 took 
charge of the place and operated it until 1900, 
when he became his father's i)artner in both farm 
and stock, and two years later purchased one 
hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining the 
home place. He raises grain, hay, cattle and 
horses. His brother, Frank O., resides at Stand- 
ish; a sister, Mrs. Van Etten, died in Grass 
\'aney: Ida married Lee Green of Red Bluff; 
Dolphus resides at Susanville; and Sarah mar- 
ried Fred Burnett, and resides at Modesto. 

In 1899 ^Ir. Alexander was married in .An- 
telope valley to Miss Emma Murphy, who was 
born in Buffalo, Nev., and is the daughter of F, 
B. Mur])hy, an extensive farmer and stock man 
of Paradise valley. She died in 1901, leaving 
one child, Florence. In politics Mr. .Alexander 
is a stanch Democrat, though his tastes have 
never inclined him to desire public office. He is 
enterprising and energetic, and takes an active 
interest in any movement tending to advance tlie 
welfare and upbuilding of his communitv. 



GEORGE W. GREENO. Distinguished as a 
native-born son of Lassen county, and as the de- 
scendant of a pioneer of Honey Lake vallev, 
George W. Greeno is especially worthy of repre- 
sentation in this volume. Reared to agricultural 
pursuits, he has been an important factor in the 
development of this part of the county, and in the 
advancement of its welfare, and is well known 
throughout this section as one of the enterpris- 
ing proprietors of Willow Ranch, in Long val- 



630 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



le)-. A son of George W. Greeno, Sr., he was 
born September 23, 1872, in Long Valley, which 
has always been his home. 

Selecting for his life work the free and inde- 
pendent occupation to which he was reared, Mr. 
Greeno, with his mother and stepbrother, Charles 
B. Clark, is successfully engaged in general farm- 
ing, stock-raising and dairying, carrying on an 
extensive business, each year adding to the wealth 
which he has already accumulated. He has as- 
sisted in adding many of the improvements on 
the home place, and has erected for himself and 
family a fine residence. Having spent his entire 
life in Long Valley Mr. Greeno has watched 
with great pride its gradual evolution from a 
sage-covered desert to a superb agricultural re- 
gion, whose well cultivated and well stocked 
farms indicate its general prosperity, and bear 
visible evidence of the industry, intelligence and 
wisdom of its inhabitants. 

August 30, 1899, Mr. Greeno married Cath- 
erine Robb, who was born in Maine, but was 
reared and educated in Reno, Nev., where her 
parents located when she was a child. Mr. and 
Mrs. Greeno have one child, Frances Maxine, 
born April 24, 1901. Politically Mr. Greeno is 
a Democrat, and fraternally he is a member of 
Janesville Parlor No. 198, 'n. S. G. \\'. Mrs. 
Greeno is a member of the Catholic church, which 
she joined in Reno, Nev. 



JAY C. WEMPLE. Noteworthy among 
those industrious, energetic and prosperous 
voung agriculturists of Lassen county who have 
spent their entire lives w'thin its limits, being to 
the manner born and bred, is Jay C. Wemple, a 
son of Joseph Crawford and Eliza J. (Christie) 
Wemple, pioneers of this part of the state. Fur- 
ther parental and ancestral history may be found 
in a sketch of his father, on another page of this 
volume. 

A native of Milford. J. C. Wemple was born 
on the home farm, March 31. 1873, and in com- 
mon with his brothers and sister was educated, 
principally, in the district school. As soon as 
old enough to be of use he began working on 
the ranch, and has since been actively engaged 



in agricultural labor. In his chosen vocation he 
has been exceedingly successful, his practical 
and systematic methods, excellent judgment, and 
skill in his operations gaining for him satisfac- 
tory results. His farm, lying northeast of Mil- 
ford, is under a fine state of cultivation, bearing 
visible evidence of the skill and wisdom with 
which it is managed. 

Febniary 17, 1894, Mr. Wemple married Eliz- 
abeth Decious, a daughter of Irvin Decious. of 
Modoc county, and into their pleasant home five 
children have been born, namely : Claudfe, Olga, 
Hazel, Irvin, and Margel. In politics Mr. Wem- 
ple is a sound Democrat, uniformly casting his 
vote in support of the principles of that party, 
and is a member of Honey Lake Parlor No. 198, 
N. S. G. W., of Janesville, Cal. Mrs. Wemple 
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. 



DANIEL E. HILL. Conspicuous among the 
early pioneers of California was the late Daniel 
E. Hill, who cast his lot with the original set- 
tlers of Modoc county, taking up land that was 
in its primeval wildness, and by steady, sturdy 
toil improving a good homestead, which is no- 
ticealile on account of the air of thrift and com- 
fort surrounding it, and the many visible evi- 
dences of its owner's enterprise, good judginent 
and skill. A native of Ohio, he was born, July 
2, 1845, in Morgan county, and died at his home, 
near Cedarville, Modoc county, Cal, November 
8, 1904. 

Accompanving his parents to Iowa when a 
small lad. Daniel E. Hill was there reared to 
man's estate, obtaining a practical education in 
the district schools. In 1872 he came to Cali- 
fornia on a prospecting tour, coming direct to 
the Surprise valley. He subsequently rented his 
father-in-law's ranch, which he operated for a 
year or two, and then went to Oregon, where he 
was engaged in stock-raising for five or six 
vears. Returning then to Modoc county, Mr. 
Hill pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of 
land, which is opposite the present site of the 
Washington school building, and there began his 
career once more as a general farmer. He sub- 




RICIIAKI) D. BASS 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



fi33 



sequeiitly owned other land, and as an agricult- 
urist met with Gfood success, becoming owner of 
a valuable ranch, in the management of which he 
was exceedingly prosperous. 

At Lake City, Cal., in 1877. Mr. Hill married 
Susan T. Dodson, a daughter of William and 
F.meline (Hash) Dodson. Ten children were 
born of their union, nine of whom survive. Berta 
May married Wylie Jones, of Modoc county, and 
they have four children, Norman, Florence, Er- 
nestine aild Preston ; Frederick C. is a resident 
of Nevada; Daniel Elmer, of Surprise valley, 
married Beulah York ; Edmund, engaged in 
teaching, lives at home ; Raymond has charge 
of the home ranch ; while Hattie, Marion, Ever- 
ett and Myrtle are still at home. Politicallv Mr. 
Hill was a loyal Republican, but would nevei 
accept office. Fraternally he was an active mem- 
ber, and past noble grand, of Cedarville Lodge, 
I. O. O. F., under whose auspices he was buried, 
the lodge having charge of the funeral services, 
which were most impressive. 



RICHARD D. BASS. The third child in a 
family of twelve, eleven of whonii reached years 
of maturity, Richard D. Bass was born in Green 
county, Ky., May 30, 182 1. His father, Thomas 
Bass, was also a native of the Blue Grass state, 
and during the greater part of his life was an 
agriculturist. When his son R. D. was a lad of 
one year he removed with his family to Wash- 
ington county, Mo. Reared upon the Mis.souri 
farm, Richard D. Bass olitained his education 
in school houses that were built of logs, the 
benches made of slabs, and the floors of punch- 
eon. The writing desk was a slab around the 
wall, and while doing their writing exercises the 
children sat with their backs to the room and 
their faces to the wall. Upon reaching man- 
hood's estate he followed in his father's footsteps 
and became an agriculturist, purchasing one hun- 
dred and sixty acres in Washington county. The 
troubles growing out of the annexation of Texas 
to the United States in 1845 hegan to be a men- 
ace to the peace of the community, and Mr. Bass 
was one of the participants in the struggle which 
followed. In the spring of 1847 he enlisted in 
16 



the Missouri \olunteer Mounted Infantry, be- 
coming a member of Company D, Third Regular 
Army, serving under General I'rice from that 
time until the declaration of peace. He was 
honorably discharged from the service at Jef- 
ferson Barracks, Mo., in 1848, after which he 
returned to his Missouri home. It was not long 
after this that the discovery of gold in Cali- 
fornia made this state the center of attraction 
from all quarters of the Union, and in 1853 .Mr. 
Bass was among those who made the weari- 
some journey across the plains. Leaving .Mis- 
souri March 21, he came by wa.\- of Beck with 
pass and four months and twelve days later ar- 
rived in Plumas county. Not unlike the ma- 
jority who came here at this time he turned his 
attention to mining, following this until 1837. 
when he came to Elysian valley. Lassen county, 
and purchased a squatter's right to land upon 
which he carried on farming and stock-raising. 
His cattle brand was a heart on the right side. 
So successful was he in his eflForts that he became 
known as one of the largest cattle dealers in the 
valley. As his needs demanded and his means 
pennitted he increased his property holdings in 
the valley until his ranch comprised four hun- 
dred and eighty acres, besides which he ownetl 
a ranch of three hundred and five acres near 
Janesville. and a large stock range in Last 
Chance valley, in Plumas countv. 

May 13, 1851, Mr. Bass was united in mar- 
riage with Mary .\nn Carlyon. who was born in 
Cornwall, England, near Land's End. Her 
father, Philip Carlyon, also a native of Cornwall, 
followed mining for a livelihood. He came to the 
United States in 1839, becoming a pioneer set- 
tler of Washington county. Mo., where he died. 
His wife, fonnerly Mary Ralph, was also a na- 
tive of Cornwall, the daughter of William Ralph, 
a fanner of that country. Of the two children 
born to Mr. and Mrs. Carlyon Mrs. Bass was the 
eldest. She was reared on the homestead in ^^is- 
souri and attended the common schools near bv. 
The following children were bom to Mr. and 
Mrs. Bass: Julia, who married George Bovd, 
and died in Janesville: Stei)hen, who is located 
on the Janesville ranch: John Edward, residing 
in Susanville; William B. and Richard L., both 



634: 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



of whom are deceased ; Minnie and Charles R., 
both at home; and Roland, who hves at Janes- 
ville.' Mr. Bass was made a Mason at Janes- 
ville, and pohtically he was a supporter of Dem- 
ocratic principles. At his death, November ii, 
1904, he left a widow and five children to mourn 
his loss, all of whom hold his memory in tender 
reverence. Since his death the family have con- 
tinued to reside on the old homestead, the sons 
managing the various ranches and the business 
connected therewith. Mrs. Bass is an estimable 
woman and stands high in the community which 
has been her home for so many years. 



BENJAMIN HAMILTON. A capable and 
progressive farmer, and one of the best known 
men of Honey Lake valley, is well deserving of 
special mention in this volume, being honored not 
only for his own sterling qualities of heart and 
mind, but for the distinguished ancestry from 
which he traces his descent. He was born Sep- 
tember 22, 1833, in Oneida county, N. Y., a son 
of Elijah Hamilton, and a grand-nephew of 
Alexander Hamilton, the noted statesman and 
orator, who was killed by Aaron Burr in a duel. 
He comes of patriotic New England stock, his 
grandfather. Gen. John Hamilton, having served 
under Washington in the Revolutionary war, 
being an officer in the army. A handsome chain, 
and a pin, in the shape of an eagle's claw, which 
the general wore, are now in the possession of 
Mr. Hamilton's wife. 

A son of Gen. John and Electa Hamilton, Eli- 
jah Hamilton was born and reared in Connecti- 
cut, and was subsequently engaged in the lum- 
ber business in New York state. In 1842 he re- 
moved with his family to Wisconsin, locating 
first at ^Mineral Point, and then on the Wisconsin 
river, where both he and his wife, whose maiden 
name was Eliza Worden, spent the remainder of 
their lives. 

On leaving school, Benjamin Hamilton began 
working as a lumberman with his father, re- 
maining at home until nineteen years old. He 
was an ambitious young man, full of push and 
energy, and determined in his efforts to succeed 



in the battle of life. Following in the footsteps 
of his father, who left his New England home m 
search of a fortune, he joined the tide of emigra- 
tion surging westward in 1852, and came over- 
land to the Pacific coast. The first two weeks 
after his arrival he remained in Sacramento, and 
then, in company with his uncle, Alexander 
Hamilton, he purchased a placer mine on the 
present site of Placerville. Three or four months 
later he sold out his interest and went tO' Wicken- 
burg, Ariz., where he followed teaming for nine 
and one-half months, buying for $9,000 three 
ten-mule teams. Returning to California, Mr. 
Hamilton continued business as a teamster for 
fourteen years, for four years being in Los An- 
geles, and the last ten years in Oakland. Com- 
ing to Susanville in 1878, he opened a barber's 
shop in the village, and was also interested in 
mining to some extent. Having accumulated 
money in his undertakings, in 1892 he bought a 
homestead claim to the eighty acres of land on 
which he now lives. The land was then covered 
with sage brush, and there was only one house in 
sight. He at once began its improvement, and 
has continually increased its value, having built 
fences and erected a house and a small barn. He 
has thirty-five acres in alfalfa, and all under ir- 
rigation, rendering the land fertile and pro- 
ductive. 

February 28, 1880, Mr. Hamilton married 
Elizabeth Otto, who was born in New York City 
in 1852, a daughter of Anthony Otto. A native 
of Stuttgart, Germany, Anthony Otto lived there 
until seventeen years old. Immigrating then to 
America he located in New York City, where he 
subsequently married Madeline Myers, who was 
born in Paris, and came to this country when 
eigiiteen \ears of age. In 1856 Mr. Otto came 
b>' way of Panama to California, and for awhile 
worked in the placer mines. Going then to \'ir- 
ginia City, he opened a blacksmith's shop, which 
he operated a number of years. In 1859 he was 
there joined by his wife and three children, who 
came by way of the Isthmus, and were passen- 
gers on the steamer Golden City when she made 
her first trip from Panama to San Francisco. In 
1865 he and his family located in Janesville, 
where he ran a smithv for a number of seasons. 




lACUIJ KXLTHSON 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



C37 



He suhsetiuciitly removed to Susanville, where 
lie carried on a substantial business as a black- 
smith until about 1900, when he retired from 
active pursuits. He and his wife are still living 
in that city, hale and hearty, he being seventy- 
seven years old, and she three years j'ounger. 
Of tlie union of i\Ir. and Mrs. Hamilton three 
children have been born, namely: Ivliza (wife 
of David Elledge, of Lassen county, and the 
mother of one child, Albert Douglas), John and 
\'iola V. Politically Mr. Hamilton is a firm ad- 
herent of the Democratic party. Fraternally he 
is a charter member and past grand master work- 
man of Susanville Lodge, A. O. U. W. 



JACOB KNUTHSON. In the <|uiet per- 
formance of such duties as fall to the lot of a 
dairyman and agriculturist, Mr. Knuthson 
passed many of the active years of his life and 
eventually, having accumulated a competency 
sufficient for his declining years, and having 
reached an age that rendered advisable the dis- 
continuance of arduous ranching labors, he sold 
his dairy and other interests to a son, then re- 
tired from agricultural work and came to Sier- 
raville, where he and his w^ife own and occupy 
a comfortable residence. The infirmities of ad- 
vancing years prevent him from taking any part 
in public afifairs, yet he remains deejily inter- 
ested in the welfare of his adopted country, and 
especially in the development of the beautiful 
valley of the Sierra. 

On a farm in Holstein, Germany, where he 
was born, September 9, 1827. Jacob Knuthson 
passed the uneventful years of youth, meanwhile 
receiving such advantages as the neighboring 
schools aflforded. At the age of fifteen \ears 
he began to serve an apprenticeship to the trade home for the western mountains. Afterward two 



cided to come to the United States, and soon 
took leave of friends and relatives and .set sail 
for the new world, landing in New York City 
during May of 1851. Soon afterward he became 
proprietor of a store on the corner of Twentieth 
street and Eighth avenue, where he engaged 
in the selling of groceries until 1859, and 
then disposed of the business, having deter- 
mined to seek a home in the far and then un- 
known west. 

Accompanied by his wife and two children 
Mr. Knuthson came via Panama to San Fran- 
cisco, and thence to Downieville. where he ar- 
rived during the latter part of the year 1859. 
For a time he engaged in river mining, but later 
became interested in hydraulic mining twelve 
miles from Downieville, meeting with a fair de- 
gree of success. On selling out his mining in- 
terests in 1874 he purchased a ranch of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres twelve miles west of Sier- 
raville. also took up a homestead and a pre- 
emption claim, and later purchased large tracts 
from neighboring ranchers, until eventually he 
became the owner of twelve hundred acres in 
one body. Ujion this large estate he engaged in 
general ranching, and also kept a dairy of about 
forty cows. After many successful years as a 
ranchman he disposed of his interests to his son 
and came to Sierraville, where he lives retired 
from business responsibilities. 

While living in New York City .Mr. Knuthson 
established a home of his own. choosing as his 
wife Miss Legenia flyers, who was born in Ba- 
varia, Germany, December 25, 1832, and 
crossed the ocean to the United States in voung 
womanhood, landing at Xew York harbor in 
October of 1852. Their marriage was solem- 
nized January 20, 1853. and they were the 
parents of two children when they left their city 



of printer and dyer, and at the expiration of his 
term of four years he took up the work of a 
journeyman, traveling for three years in the in- 
terests of the trade. On his return home he 
was drafted in the militia, and for two years 
served in the German army, meanwhile par- 
ticipating in one battle. After having received 
an honorable discharge from the army he de- 



other children were born to them, and all of the 
four are now living. John Henry, who was born 
March 17, 1856, is now engaged in mining, with 
headquarters at Reno, \ev. Margaret, who 
was born September i. 1857. married .\mbrose 
Hazleton, and died November 10. 1887. George 
Washington, who was born .April 5, i860, is en- 
gaged in ranching in Sierra county, having pur- 



i 



638 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



chased his father's interests on the latter's retire- 
ment from ranch work. Henrietta, who was 
born October 9, 1870, is the wife of Frank 
Church, and resides at Susanville, this state. 
The family are identified with the Congrega- 
tional Church, in the work of which' Mr. and 
Mrs. Knuthson maintain a deep interest. 
Since becoming a citizen of the United States he 
has never held office nor participated in public 
affairs, but has voted the Republican ticket at 
all elections, and has maintained a quiet in- 
terest in politics. When any movement is pro- 
jected calculated to benefit his town and county 
he has always been one of the first to support the 
plan and promote its success. 



DAVID BATY. Identified with the history 
of Modoc county from a very early day, Mr. 
Baty has experienced all the hardships and pri- 
vations incident to life upon the frontier, and 
during a very long period of residence in the 
same locality has become familiar with the soil, 
climate and possibilities of this section of the 
country. Years ago, when white settlers were 
few and Indians hostile, he frequently offered 
his services as a private citizen and a volunteer 
to assist in quelling the savages, whose depre- 
dations brought heavy losses upon the ranchers. 
Several times he lost his stock through the In- 
dians and in other ways he was made to suffer 
inconvenience and heavy financial loss through 
the hostility of the red men, yet in spite of this 
trouble and many other adverse circumstances 
he has accumulated a valuable property. 

The son of John L. and Mary (Moore) Baty, 
natives of Ohio, David Baty was born in Brown 
county, that state, February 4, 1843. While he 
was yet a very small child he was taken to Illi- 
nois by his parents, who settled in Effingham 
county, and there he grew to manhood. Dur- 
ing the summer months he aided his father on 
the home farm, while in the winter he was per- 
mitted to attend the neighboring school. In the 
spring of 1864 he went to New York City, where 
he took passage on a vessel bound for the Isth- 
mus of Panama. From there he came up the 



Pacific ocean to San Francisco and then traveled 
across the country to Modoc county, arriving in 
Surprise valley during the fall of 1864. South- 
west of where he now resides and near the mili- 
tary post of Fort Bidwell he pre-empted a tract 
of one hundred and sixty acres from the gov- 
ernment. On this place he made his home for 
a number of years, but later brought one hundred 
and twenty acres, known as the Ross ranch. 
The new tract was partly under fence, and later 
he made further improvements, erecting a house 
and barns, building fences, and making other 
improvements that add to the value of the ranch. 
At this writing he has thirty acres in alfalfa and 
the balance in timothy and wild hay. In the 
early days he raised grain extensively, but of 
recent years he has devoted his attention to the 
stock business exclusively. In addition to his 
home place he has filed a claim to a tract of tim- 
ber land. The property which he owns repre- 
sents his unaided exertions and possesses an in- 
creasing value. 

After a number of years as a bachelor on his 
ranch, in 1873 Mr. Baty returned to Illinois and 
in Effingham county married Miss Sarah Strief, 
whose father, John B. Strief, now makes his 
home near Lake City, Modoc county. Eight 
children were born of their union, six of whom 
are living, namely : Mary, who married Charles 
Peterson, now of Oregon, and has four children, 
Edna, Nettie, David Peter and Powell ; Nettie, 
who first married Harry H. Peterson, by whom 
she had two children (Hazel being now the only 
one living) , and after obtaining a legal separation 
from him married Robert Tarance, of Reno, Nev. ; 
Albert L., who married Eunice Reeds, has three 
children, Roy Raymond, ]\Iarie and Ruth, and 
resides on a farm adjoining his father's home- 
stead : Samuel, who married Grace Chapman, 
and lives near Alturas ; Carrie, who married Lu- 
man Foskett, they with their two children, Jennie 
and Florence, making their home in Warner 
valley ; and David, Jr., who remains with his 
father. Mrs. Sarah Baty died in 1896, and was 
buried in the Bidwell cemetery. A few years 
afterward Mr. Baty was united in marriage with 
Mrs. Mary (Walls) Reeds, who was born, 
reared and educated in Illinois, being a daughter 




^ Lth^ C-^^ 




HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



041 



of Thomas and Sarah (Brown) Walls, natives of 
Ohio, who died in Illinois. In her young girl- 
hood Miss Walls became the wife of Thomas 
Reeds, now deceased. Four children were born 
of the union, but all of the sons, John, Frank 
and Roy, have passed away. The only daughter, 
Eunice, is now the wife of Albert L. llatv, and 
lives near her mother's home. The family are 
consistent members of the Qiristian Church and 
contribute to religious and charitable movements. 
Politically Mr. Baty has always voted the Re- 
publican ticket and has taken a warm interest in 
local affairs. For one term of four years he was 
a member of the board of supervisors of Modoc 
county and during that time he was foremost in 
favoring plans for the development of the 
county. 



STOEL CADY. While America was still in the 
colonial period of its development the Cady family 
became established in New England, and when the 
war of the Revolution began Reuben Cady shoul- 
dered his old flintlock rifle and marched against 
the enemy. Long after he had been gathered to his 
fathers the rifle was preserved by descendants 
with commendable pride and eventually it was 
brought to California, but during a 4th of July 
celebration in 1851 it was destroyed, much to 
the regret of its owners. After the close of 
the Revolutionary struggle Reuben Cady re- 
moved to New York and settled upon a raw tract 
of land, where he remained until his death, mean- 
while engaged in agricultural pursuits. The ne.xt 
generation was represented by his_ son, Horace, 
a native of Connecticut, and in early manhood 
a farmer of Otsego county, New York, but after 
1840 a resident of Illinois, where he bought raw 
land and improved a farm near Camden, Schuy- 
ler county. On that homestead he continued to 
reside until 1850, the year of his death. In his 
marriage he was united with Eunice Cady, who 
was born in Connecticut, the daughter of a Revo- 
lutionary soldier, and died in Illinois. Of their 
six sons and four daughters there now survive 
two daughters and one son. Two of the sons, 
Hezekiah and Reuben, crossed the plains to Cal- 
ifornia in 1850. During the same year Hezekiah 



died near Stockton and later Reuben returned to 
Illinois, where his death occurred. 

Among the ten children Stoel Cady was fourth 
m order of birth, and was born in Otsego county, 
N. Y.. April 18. 1824. From his birthplace in 
1840 he accompanied the family to Illinois bv 
wagon through Canada, passing through Qii- 
cago when it was a hamlet of but three or four 
houses. .-Xt twenty years of age he bought his 
time from his father for $60 and entered the em- 
ploy of William Dexter, with whom he remained 
until 1849. I" the spring of that year he started 
for California with ox-teams. The old family 
physician predicted that he would not live to 
reach the west, as symptoms of tuberculosis 
were pronounced and his cough troublesome. 
However, he gained steadily in the outdoor life 
and since reaching California has had no illness 
more serious than fever and ague. 

Following the Humboldt and Carson route, 
Stoel Cady arrived at Placerville six months to 
a day from the time he started on the journey. 
(iood luck at first rewarded his efforts. In three 
days at the North h'ork of the American river he 
took out $1800 in gold dust, and this he deposited 
in the bank over night, but three toys claimed it 
and the bank turned it over to them. With $600 
he still had in his possession he bought stock 
in a company planning to build a dam across the 
river, but the enteriirise fell through and he went 
to Sacramento without money. In that city he 
took a contract to work as cook under Hinman & 
Lovcll in the building of the levee, for which 
he was paid $16 per day, and later he received 
$300 per month as cook for the construction men. 
Though cholera took its victims from among the 
workmen he refused to leave his place, but re- 
mained until the levee was completed. His next 
work was the caring for Mr. Hinman's stock 
during the winter of 1850-51, and these he drove 
to the .Stanislaus river, and in 185 1 put in a crop 
in what is now Stanislaus county, paying $75 for 
a single plow and ten cents a pound for seed 
barley. The crop from his forty acres of barley 
he hauled to Sonora, where he sold it at ten cents 
or more per pound. During the fall of 185 1 he 
paid $400 for a claim in San Joaquin county, two 
miles above the present site of Ripon. where he 



642 



HISTORICM. AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



improved a farm. Returning east via Panama 
in 185.5 'ic bought a herd of cattle in Illinois and 
drove them across the plains. It was during this 
journey he met Miss Nancy J. Pringle, whom he 
married August i. 1854, in San Joaquin county. 
After establishing a home upon his farm he 
gave his attention to the care of the land, which 
he placed under grain and alfalfa, also devoting 
considerable attention to the stock business. 
Eventually he sold the property to his son-in-law, 
A. J. Nourse, since which time he has resided 
with his son, Frank Pringle, in Susanville, and 
is now retired from life's activities. His wife, 
who was a native of Springfield, 111., was a 
daughter of William Pringle, and traced her an- 
cestry to Scotland. Orphaned in girlhood, she 
came across the plains with a family of acquaint- 
ances bearing the name of Johnson. Through all 
her active life she was a devoted member of the 
Qiristian Church and in that faith she passed 
from earth in March, 1897. Her death occurred 
in Stockton, and her remains were laid to rest 
in Ripon, Cal. Surviving her are three children, 
and one son, Frederick Reuben, died in 1893 near 
McDermitt, Nev. Those now living are Isabelle 
Eunice, wife of J. A. Plummer, of Stockton; 
Frank Pringle, of Susanville ; and Etta May, who 
is married and resides at Ripon, this state. 



RICHARD THOMPSON. In alternating 
successes and reverses the experiences of Rich- 
ard Thompson in California were many and mem- 
orable, beginning with his arrival in the state in 
the spring of 1850, and continuing until his death 
in 1902. The country where his mature years 
were spent was far removed from the scenes 
familiar to his youth, for he was of Canadian 
birth and parentage, born in Quebec November 
24, 1824, and reared and educated in the same 
environment. Under his father, who was both 
farmer and blacksmith, he learned the rudi- 
ments of agriculture, and gained a thorough prac- 
tical knowledge of blacksmithing. Later he 
clerked in a store for a few years. When news 
came of the discovery of gold in California he 
at once arranged his plans for an immediate de- 



parture for the gold-fields of the remote Pacific 
coast country. Going to New York he took 
passage on a ship bound for San Francisco. The 
voyage dragged monotonously but uneventfully 
until the Straits of Magellan were reached. 
There a storm wrecked the vessel on the rocks, 
but the crew were able to get the ship to the 
shore, and there the vessel was abandoned and 
the voyage begun anew on another ship. Land- 
ing in San Francisco in the spring of 1850, Mr. 
Thompson secured work at the blacksmith's 
trade, but was not satisfied to remain perma- 
nently in the city. 

In those days all of the emigrants were anx- 
ious to try their fortunes in the mines, and Mr. 
Thompson followed the general rush to the 
mines, coming to Plumas county in March of 
1 85 1, and beginning to mine at Rich Bar. Des- 
tiny, however, had no rich stores of the shining 
metal in reservation for him ; industry and pa- 
tience brought no returns, and when his funds 
were exhausted he began to mine for wages. In 
a short time he went to Spanish Ranch and 
opened a blacksmith's shop, forming a partner- 
ship soon with H. W. Kellogg in blacksmith- 
ing, and later in the mercantile and hotel busi- 
ness. The partners bought the Spanish ranch 
of four hundred acres, and also conducted the 
hotel, store and blacksmith's shop in partner- 
ship for more than forty years, building up a 
business that extended for miles in every direc- 
tion. Large profits rewarded their industry and 
sagacity, but unfortunately much of the money 
thus earned was invested in mines that promised 
well, but failed to realize expectations. 

During all his active life, after becoming a 
citizen of the United States, Mr. Thompson sup- 
ported Republican principles. Under the ad- 
ministration of President Lincoln he was af)- 
pointed postmaster at Spanish Ranch, and this 
position he filled efficiently until 1891, when he 
retired from the office. Meanwhile, for a great 
many years he also served as agent at Spanish 
Ranch for the Wells-Fargo Express Company. 
His younger son, William H., is now in the em- 
ploy of the Wells-Fargo Express Company, be- 
ing their agent at Santa Barbara, this state ; the 
older son, Charles R., is engaged in mining in 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



643 



Plumas county. When about twenty-one years 
of age he was initiated into the Independent Or- 
der of Odd Fellows at Quebec, and afterward 
joined Plumas Lodge No. 88, at Quincy. While 
he accumulated a fortune during his long and 
honorable business career, he was so liberal to 
all in need, so quick to respond to every appeal 
for aid, and so generous in his benefactions that 
he greatly reduced his holdings, and in addition, 
as before stated, he suffered some severe losses 
in the mines. However, he retained an amount 
sufficient to surround his declining years with the 
comforts of life and to leave his widow a com- 
petence for her support. 

The first marriage of Mr. Thompson occurred 
in i860, and united him with Sarah Jane Russell ; 
she died nine years later, leaving two sons. Two 
years afterwards Alicia Keough became his wife ; 
she passed away in 1884. Mrs. Elizabeth 
(Brooks) Hyde, who was born in London, Eng- 
land, April 6, 1836, became his wife in Septem- 
ber, 1885. During girlhood she went to Aus- 
tralia, where January 9, 1853, she married 
Charles W. Hyde, a native of Berkshire, Eng- 
land, and a merchant by occupation. From Aus- 
tralia Mr. Hyde went to Chili, and in 1855 to New 
York, where Mrs. Hyde joined him the following 
year. From there they proceeded to Iowa City, 
which was then the capital of Iowa and the ter- 
minus of the railroad. After farming in that local- 
ity for a short time Mr. Hyde removed to Kansas 
and pre-empted a claim in .\llen county. A 
year later, in 1859, during the Pike's Peak ex- 
citement, he and his wife left Kansas for the cen- 
ter of mining activity, but a few days in the 
mountains convinced them of the undcsirability 
of remaining longer, so they pursued their jour- 
ney overland to the Pacific coast country. The 
winter of 1859-60 was spent in Indian valley, 
Plumas county, Cal., and in March they removed 
to Rich Gulch, where Mr. Hyde embarked in 
mining. In 1862 they and their two children 
went to \'ictoria, British Columbia, but soon 
returned to California and settled at Ilowland 
Flat. .V year later they came to Twelve-Mile 
Bar in Plumas county, where Mr. Hyde held 
mining interests and won a fair degree of suc- 
cess. In Meadow Valley his death occurred in 



July, 1883, when he was fifty-si.x years of age. 
Of his five children three arc now living. Hattie, 
the eldest daughter, is the wife of S. C. Brown, 
of Meadow Valley. Amelia M. married Will- 
iam Johnston and lives in Verdi, Nev. Minerva 
is the wife of George E. Mattoon, of Honcut, 
iiutte county. For many years Mr. Hyde was 
identified with Plumas Lodge No. 88, I. O. O. 
F., at Quincy, in which he retained membership 
until his death. After he died his widow re- 
mained in Plumas county, and there was united 
in marriage with Mr. Thompson; since his death 
she has lived quietiv at her cottage in Quincy, 
surrounded by the friends of many years and 
blessed b\- the affection of her descendants. 



GEORGE WCXJDWARD. There are a 
great many California pioneers scattered 
throughout the state, but a "forty-niner" has a 
special claim to distinction above all others. 
They are a class by themselves. Those were his- 
toric days in California when the discovery of 
gold brought an inrush of gold-seekers, so fren- 
zied with the all pervading spirit of excitement 
that they were oblivious to hardships and dan- 
gers ; and with it all there seems to have been 
established a bond of kinship between the men of 
that time that the passing years have not obliter- 
ated. 

George Woodward, California pioneer of '49, 
is a native of Wilmington. Del., and the son of 
another George Woodward, the latter a native 
of Pennsylvania. In early days he followed the 
trade of miller, but later on in life became a 
farmer. In 1833 he removed with his family to 
Champaign county, Ohio, not far from Urbana. 
and there lived until his death, which occurred 
when he was sixty-six years of age. In a family 
of ten children George Woodward was the 
youngest and had one brother, Ephraim. who 
lived to the ripe age of ninety-one years. The 
family traces its descent from colonial days, the 
first Woodward to settle in .America coming 
with the colony that William Penn founded in 
what was afterwards named in his honor Penn- 
svlvania. 



644 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



George Woodward, Jr., was born July 14- 
1821, and was twelve years old when his father 
moved to Ohio. When he was seventeen he 
went to Columbus, Ohio, and served an appren- 
ticeship of four years at the carpenter's trade, 
following that occupation for a number of years 
in different parts of the country. 

As one of a party of thirty-six Mr. Wood- 
ward started for California from St. Joseph, 
Mo., on the i6th of May, 1849, reaching Las- 
sen's ranch October 6. He owned an interest in 
the outfit, which consisted of six wagons drawn 
by oxen, and at Lang's Bar, near where Oro- 
ville now stands, the party divided. Mr. Wood- 
ward went to Sacramento, working at his trade 
there during the following winter. In the spring 
of 1850 he went to Volcano, Amador county, 
and in that vicinity carried on mining and pros- 
pecting for one year. Subsequently going to 
Boone's Bar, near Forbestown, Butte county, he 
with others was instrumental in putting in a race 
dam to change the course of the south fork of 
Feather river. Notwithstanding their efforts the 
undertaking was not altogether the success that 
had been anticipated. In the fall of the same 
year, 185 1, Mr. Woodward went to Nelson 
creek, where he remained until the heavy rains 
made further work there impossible. He was a 
member of the party that located the Mammoth 
claim, adjoining the Eureka ledge. It was a 
good mine, but they did not understand quartz 
inining and could not make it pay. Mr. Wood- 
ward worked there during the summer and the 
next season put up and ran a quartz mill on 
Jamison creek. In the spring of 1853 he went to 
work for wages, building a three-mile flume on 
Nelson creek, and when that was completed 
built another flume near Spanish Ranch. The 
next season he built a small sawmill at Mohawk, 
which he operated for several years following. 
Then he went to the Eureka mine, where he 
helped build a forty stamp mill, and other im- 
provements they were making at the mine at that 
time. After they started up he designed and 
built the Mohawk sixty stamp quartz mill at 
Johnsville, also designing and building the Yuba 
mills, the Young America, and rebuilt a twenty 
stamp mill. After having charge of the com- 



pany's mills until 1888, he resigned his position 
at the Eureka and went to work at the Young 
America, where he was in charge one year. At 
the end of this time he discontinued mining en- 
tirely and came to live at Johnsville, where he 
has since made his home. 

October 25, 1857, ^Ir. Woodward married 
Mrs. Martha Portman, a native of England, who 
came to the United States when quite a young 
girl. She died April 6, 1893, having become the 
mother of seven children : Florence, wife of 
William B. Mathews, postmaster and express 
agent at Johnsville ; Alice, wife of F. T. Meffley, 
a policeman in Reno, Nev. ; Frank, who resides 
in this county; Fannie (better known as Birdie), 
Mrs. A. C. Hunsinger of Susanville, Cal. ; John 
J., at Reno, Nev.; Edgar W., a mining man of 
this county ; and Arthur, clerk in a sawmill. 

Mr. \\'oodward is now eighty-four years of 
age. Though in rather feeble health he retains 
his mental faculties unimpaired. He has seen 
the wonderful growth of California as a state 
since the days of the crude life of rough mining 
camps to the proud position she has taken in the 
sisterhood of states. His home, his family, and 
his life interests have been here, and he can look 
back through the years with a feeling of gratifi- 
cation in the thought that he was one among the 
band of pioneers of the Golden state. 



ANDREW HALL, familiarly called "Doc" 
by his more intimate friends, was born in Som- 
erset county. Me., November 12, 1850. Spend- 
ing his boyhood on the home farm in Maine, his 
opportunities for obtaining an education were 
limited. When but sixteen years of age the de- 
sire to cast in his lot with the remote west was so 
great that he sailed for San Francisco via the 
Isthmus of Panama. After his arrival he went 
at once to the mining region in the vicinity of 
La Porte, Plumas county, and for eight years 
followed mining, meeting with only fair success. 
At the end of that time he located in Quincy and 
embarked in the liquor business until 1890. Dis- 
posing of this business he started the Plumas 
Independent (a Republican newspaper) in 1892 




MICHAEL .SL(.;KU 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



047 



and has since continued interested in the enter- 
prise with his son Arthur, who now manages the 
paper, Mr. Hall giving his time to the perform- 
ance of his duties of sheritT, to which office he 
was elected in 1898, after a hitterly contested 
fight. Giving his undivided attention to the 
faithful performance of his duties he was re- 
elected in igo2 by a large majority. 

July I, 1875, Mr. Hall was united in marriage 
with Nellie Porter, who was born, reared and 
educated in Ohio. Two children blessed this 
union, George Porter, who died at the age of 
twenty-nine years, and Arthur A., manager and 
partner in the Plumas Indi'pcndeiii. After his 
election to office Mr. Hall could devote but little 
time to the newspaper business and he took his 
son into partnership, retaining a half interest 
himself. He is also interested in several mines 
in Plumas county, some of which are valuable 
property and hold out promises of a very encour- 
aging nature. 

In all matters that have come up for the bet- 
terment of the county and the advancement of 
the interests of its citizens Mr. Hall has always 
been found a liberal supporter and advocate. In 
the performance of the duties devolving upon 
him in office he has always been impartial and 
has had the interest of his constituents before 
him. Starting in life for himself at an early age, 
he has by perseverance and industry worked his 
way to his present position in the community, 
and wherever known "Doc'' Hall is a favorite. 



MICHAEL SUGRU is one of the pioneer 
settlers of Lassen county whose efforts in the 
early days of the state have been prolific of sat- 
isfactory financial returns. He is a native of 
County Kerry, Ireland, lx>rn August 15, 1829. 
Being left an orphan Ijy the death of his father 
in infancy, his earliest recollections are of efTorts 
toward self-support, as he grew into boyhood 
and young manhootl working on farms and driv- 
ing teams for traders. Later he was able to own 
a team and look after these interests for himself. 
After the death of his mother in 1844 he came 
to the United States, landing in New York 



er 
a hotel, 



Cit)-, where after two days he journeyed to Hol- 
yoke, Mass., there securing employment on a 
farm. Three years later, in 1847, he located 
m the middle west, in Green Bay, Wis., engaging 
with various lumber firms for some years. Three 
years of this period he spent in the employ of 
one firm as watchman of the sawmill and man- 
ager of the stables. In 1850 he made the trip 
to Louisiana on the Mississippi river, and in 
Baton Rouge worked on the levee, and lat 
drove a grocery wagon and worked in 
being compelled to stay there on account of tiie 
yellow fever. From that ix)int he enlisted in the 
Lnited States army for a five years' service, and 
ni St. Louis, Mo., was honorably discharged 
in December, 1863, at the arsenal, wiicre his com- 
pany had been placed after the breaking out of 
the Civil war. He remained in St. Louis for a 
time following his discharge from the armv, 
and engaged in the grocery and liquor business 
on the corner of Seventh street and Choteau ave- 
nue. He was successful in accumulating con- 
siderable means, but finally decided to elispose 
of his business interests there and seek a new 
home in the more remote west. 

In 1874 Mr. Sugru came to California and in 
the fall of the same year located on the property 
where he now makes his home, a ranch of one 
hundred and fifty-five acres, six miles east of 
Susanville on the Janesville road. Since that 
lime he has taken up two claims which have in- 
creased his property to four hundred acres, upon 
which he engaged in general fanning and stock- 
raising, and the raising of garden vegetables. 
Since 1900, on account of impaired health, he has 
turned over the management of his property to 
his son, James Sugru, and has permanently re- 
tired from the activities which have for io many 
years engrossed his attention, spending the even- 
ing of his days in that honorable retirement 
which follows well-directed ami successful 
efforts. 

In St. Louis, Mo., Mr. Sugru was twice mar- 
ried, his second wife being Bridget ^[oony, a 
nati\T of Ireland, and born of this union were 
three children, two sons and one daughter, of 
whom only one son. James, survives. He was 
born on the home ranch near Susanville on 



64S 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Christmas day of 1880, and there grew into man- 
hood of fine physique and corresponding quali- 
ties of heart and mind. He received his educa- 
tion in tlie common school in the vicinity of his 
home, and at the same time was thoroughly 
trained in the practical duties of a farmer's son. 
Upon the retirement of his father from active 
cares he assumed the management of the prop- 
erty. 



ELLIOT WINCHESTER. America was in 
the colonial period of its development when the 
Winchester family came from England to the 
bleak coast of Massachusetts, and subsequent 
generations lived and labored in the old Bay 
state. John Winchester and his son, Anson (the 
latter born December 3, 1790), were natives of 
Worcester county, where the latter acquired in 
youth a knowledge of the trade of mason and 
builder, and after removing to Michigan fol- 
lowed his trade in Detroit. E'elieving that the far 
west afforded greater opportunities than the cen- 
tral states, he left Michigan for the Pacific coast 
via Panama in 1856, and for eight years ensuing 
he remained in Oregon, but in 1864 joined his 
son Elliot in Honey Lake valley, where his death 
occurred at eighty-six years of age. Eor years 
he had been identified with the Congregational- 
ists, but after he came to Susanville, there being 
no church of his choice here, he allied himself 
with the Methodist Episcopal denomination. 
After the organization of the Republican party 
he always voted that ticket. Before leaving the 
east he married Miss Harriet Carpenter, whose 
father, Jason Carpenter, was a native of Worces- 
ter county, Mass., and a farmer in that local- 
ity for many years. The family, like the Win- 
chesters, was of English extraction. Mrs. 
Anson Winchester was born in Worcester 
county, Mass., in 1791, and died in 1840 after 
the family had removed to Michigan. 

Among seven children, all of whom attained 
mature years, Elliot Winchester was fourth in or- 
der of birth and is now the sole survivor. His 
eldest brother, Thomas Winchester, settled in 
Empire City, Ore., in 1858, and remained there 
until his death in 1874. Another brother, Lewis, 



crossed the plains to California in 1849 ^nd dur- 
ing the same year was accidentally drowned iii 
Feather river. Elliot Winchester was bom at 
Hardwick, Worcester county, Alass., March 22, 
1821, and at the age of thirteen years accompa- 
nied the family by wagon to Albany, N. Y., 
thence by the Erie canal across the state to Buf- 
falo, and from there by the great lakes to De- 
troit, where he gained his first ideas of life on 
the then frontier. His early education was ac- 
quired in the district school, to which he contin- 
ued to add by reading and observation. At 
twenty years of age he secured a tract of one 
hundred and twenty acres in the dense timber, 
where he experienced the difficult task of clear- 
ing and preparing the land for cultivation. While 
there he manufactured staves and tons of potash, 
that were shipped toi England. 

On leaving Michigan in 1859 Elliot Winches- 
ter traveled via Panama to Oregon and settled 
at Empire City, Coos county. Until 1864 he en- 
gaged in mining in Oregon, but at that time he 
crossed into California and bought a tract of 
raw land on the Susan river four miles below Su- 
sanville, where he improved a valuable stock 
and grain farm of two hundred acres. For many 
years he devoted his attention closely to agri- 
cultural pursuits and thus accumidated a compe- 
tency sufficient to provide his declining vears 
with the comforts of existence. On disposing of 
the land in 1890 he came into Susanville, where 
he now has a comfortable and attractive home. 
His first marriage took place January 14, 1841, 
in Oakland county, Mich., where he was united 
with Miss Marietta Sperry, a native of Vermont. 
At her death, which occurred in Michigan in 
1846, she left two children, namely : Lorenzo^ E., 
a famier near Susanville ; and Ellen, wife of Eber 
Yost, of Wyandotte, Mich., who died in April, 
1870. The second marriage of Mr. Winchester 
was also solemnized in Michigan in 1850, this 
union being with Miss Charlotte McConnell, who 
was bom in New York state and died in Michi- 
gan in 1856; no children survive of that union. 
The present wife of Mr. Winchester was Miss 
Ressie Harper, whO' was bom in Boston, Mass., 
in 1853, and was a daughter of Samuel and 
Phoebe (Weston) Harper, also natives of Bos- 





.Q/t<^i^^^^ 



HISTORICAL AND niOCRAl'IlICAL RECORD. 



651 



ton. In early manhood i\lr. Harper reinoved to 
Pittsburg, Pa., where he engaged in the manu- 
facture of cut glass. Both he and his wife died 
in Pittsburg, his demise occurring at the age of 
sixty-nine years. Of his eleven children only 
four are now living. One of the sons, William 
Harper, was a soldier in a Penn.sylvania regi- 
ment during the Civil war. Mrs. Elliot Win- 
chester was next to the youngest of the children 
who attained mature years and remained in the 
east until her marriage, which took place in 
Franklin, Pa., October 2i, 1895. 

Since the organization of the Republican parts- 
Mr. Winchester has supported its principles by 
his ballot at all elections. At fourteen years of 
age he became a member of the Congregational 
church in Michigan, and during his residence in 
that state he continued an active worker in that 
denomination. On coming to Lassen countv and 
finding no church of his own faith, he identified 
himself with the Methodist Episcopal church of 
Susanville in the fall of 1864 and ever since has 
been prominent in its management and devoted 
to its welfare. For years he held office as super- 
intendent of the Sunday-school, in addition to 
which he has been a faithful worker as a class- 
leader. At the time of the building of the former 
house of worship many years ago he was chosen 
a member of the building committee, and when 
the new church was to be built he was again hon- 
ored by being appointed on this resfK>nsible com- 
mittee. Among the people in whose midst he has 
lived for so many years he has a position of ac- 
knowledged confidence and respect, and is con- 
ceded to be one of the most honorable and jjub- 
lic-spiritcd citizens in his city and county. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON FULLER. 
The history of the Fuller family in America 
(represented in this state by W. H. H. Fuller, of 
Standish, Lassen county) dates back to the land- 
ing of the Mayflower at Plymouth, Mass., in 
1620, since which time members of the family 
have made good records in the Revolutionary 
war, war of 1812 and Civil war, as well as in 



some of tlie Indian wars. Mr. Fuller's father, 
Joseph Fuller, was a native of New York state, 
and there spent the greater portion of his life as 
a building contractor. He was killed in a rail- 
road accident at Deep Creek, near Uufialo, in 
the fall of i8<)2. His wife, formerly Adeline 
Duval, was born in Erie county, N. Y. Her 
family also made a good war record in this coun- 
try, her great-grandfather, Timothy Duval, serv- 
ing in the war of 1812. When he died he lacked 
only three months of being one hundred years 
old. The great-grandmother also lived to a very 
old age, dying at the age of ninety years. 

William H. H. Fuller was born at Pontiac, 
Erie county, N. Y., December 16, 1833, and is 
the only one living of a family of six children. 
He was reared in his native county, remaining 
at home until he was nineteen years of age, his 
mother having died when he was seven years old. 
His educational advantages were very limited, 
owing to the fact that it was necessary for him 
to assist in the .support of the family, and when 
only a boy he learned the carpenter's trade of his 
father. Later he apprenticed himself to a black- 
smith and wagon-maker. In 1852 he went to 
Indiana, locating at LaPorte, where he followed 
the blacksmith's trade for five years, at the end 
of which time he went to Aurora, 111., then to 
Twin Grove, Wis., following his trade for a time 
in both places. Returning to Illinois, he enlisted 
in Company H, Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry, serv- 
ing under Sherman in the Georgia campaign, 
and participating in the battles of Spring Hill, 
Franklin and Nashville, was wounded at Pump- 
kin \ine Creek, also received several slight 
wounds, but never left his regiment. After a 
service of two years and nine months he was 
honorably discharged, in .August, 1865. 

Before entering the service Mr. Fuller was 
married in Tennessee to Margaret Wood, a na- 
tive of that state. Upon his discharge from the 
army he went thither for his wife, returning 
with her to LaPorte, Ind., where he remained 
until 1867. Going to Omaha he entered the 
emplov of the Missouri River Transfer Company 
as blacksmith. Mrs. Margaret Fuller died, leav- 
ing a daughter, Addle, and some time afterward 



652 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



he was married in LaPorte, Ind., to Abigail A. 
Gitcliell, a native of Canada. 

Coming to California in 1869, Mr. Fuller lo- 
cated at what is now Lodi, in San Joaquin 
county, engaging in the blacksmith trade until 
going to Monterey county a short time after- 
ward, there serving as deputy sheriff under Mr. 
Smith for two years. Leaving Monterey he 
homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land 
and engaged in farming on Stony Creek (in 
what is now Glenn county) for eight years, at 
which time a disastrous flood destroyed all the 
results of his eight years' labor. Selling out he 
went to Modoc county, where he operated a 
ranch for three years, finally establishing the 
family home in Honey Lake valley, where he 
engaged at the blacksmith's trade until he re- 
ceived an injury to his right hand which ren- 
dered it necessary for him to abandon that kind 
of work. Nineteen years ago he paid $150 for 
fifteen acres of sage brush land, improved it, 
and put eleven acres of it in alfalfa. Subse- 
quently he established an apiary, and now owns 
over one hundred and fifty stands of bees; they 
produce two tons of honey annually, all alfalfa 
honey, which is said to be the finest in the world. 
His bees are about three-fourths Golden fire 
stripe Italian. 

Though Mr. Fuller's educational advantages 
were limited in his youth he studied after his 
marriage, and in this manner acquired a good, 
practical education. He was instrumental in se- 
curing the first postoffice at this place, naming 
it Detury and serving as postmaster three and a 
half years, when he resigned. The postoffice 
was then removed to Standish. When Mr. 
Fuller located at his present ranch there were 
only five houses in sight of his place ; therefore 
he has witnessed many changes and watched the 
country around him develop. In the Grand Army 
post at Susanville he served three years as officer 
of the day and one year as commander; then as 
adjutant until the post was abandoned. In poli- 
tics he is a stanch supporter of the Republican 
platform, and on the ticket of that party was 
elected justice of the peace in 1902, since which 
time he has efficiently discharged the duties of 
the office. 



HENRY THIELBAR. Noticeable among 
the many fine ranches of the Mohawk valley, 
Plumas county, is that of the King estate, the 
property of Mrs. Rebecca King, widow of Fred 
King, and Henry Thielbar. The ranch is under 
the management of Mr. Thielbar, a cousin of 
Mrs. King, and the prosperous condition of the 
business testifies to his capability and proves him 
to be an enterprising and thrifty manager. 

Henry Thielbar was born in Hanover, Ger- 
many, April 24, 1834. Immigrating to the Unit- 
ed States in 1859, he came direct to California 
and went to work for Mr. King on his ranch, re- 
maining in his employ nine years. At the end 
of diat time he went to Marysville, bought a 
mule team and engaged in freighting for four 
years. When Mr. King died in i8;«3, leaving a 
widow and family of small children, the respon- 
sibility of managing the business was too great 
for Mrs. King to undertake and she sold a half in- 
terest in the ranch to Mr. Thielbar. They have 
added to the property until now they have eight 
hundred acres of land and are keeping up a 
dairy of fifty cows. Aside from his interest in 
the King ranch Mr. Thielbar is the owner of a 
one hundred and sixty acre ranch in the vicinity. 
Mr. Thielbar has never married. 



FRED KING, deceased, was born in Prussia, 
September 26, 1825, and came to California in 
the early days of the state. Prior to that time he 
had followed the occupation of seaman on sailing 
vessels. He engaged in mining at Timbuctoo, 
Yuba county, and was very successful in his 
mining operations. Taking the money he had 
cleared there he went into a partnership with Joe 
Grove and Jim Harris in the purchase of the 
Sulphur Springs ranch, which consisted of about 
eight hundred acres of land. After a time he 
purchased the interest of his partners in the 
property and became sole owner of it. Besides 
ranching he engaged in running pack trains over 
the mountains until he sold out this ranch and 
went to live in Marysville, where he engaged in 
a wholesale and retail business which he was 
carrving on at the time of death, September 3, 




0. 



d.^i^U 



e 




■fVli^^lL 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



655 



1870. Air. King- was a successful business mar. 
and left a good estate to his widow and children. 
He was a Democrat in politics, but never held 
office of any kind. Fraternally he was a member 
of the Marysville Lodge of Free Masons. Re- 
ligiously die family are all Lutherans. 

Mrs. King prior to her marriage to ^Mr. King 
was Mrs. Rebecca (Neseman) Dietrick, and was 
born in Hanover, Germany, September 12, 1825. 
She came to the United States and settled at Gib- 
sonville, Gal., and in the same year was bereaved 
by the death of her first husband, Mr. Dietrick, 
who was lost in the mountains and perished dur- 
ing a severe snow storm. Her marriage to Mr. 
King occurred in September, 1858. After his 
death she left Marysville and with her family 
of small children came to the ranch upon which 
she has since made her home. Her eldest son, 
Henry Dietrick King, is engaged in the confec- 
tioner's business at Marysville; Fred Mathews 
is a manufacturer of butter tubs and lives at 
home; Nellie died at the age of sixteen years 
and seven months ; Ida, wife of John Creigh- 
ton, is at home with her mother ; Qiarles D. 
owns a ranch adjoining the home place. 



ISAAC SATTLEY CHURCH. Very early 
in the colonization of America the Church 
family became established in New England, and 
one of its members, Isaac, held a commission as 
captain during the Revolutionary war. A grand- 
son of this Revolutionary officer bore the name 
of Ezra Bliss Qiurch, and was born at Ferris- 
burg, Addison county, Vt., where he grew to 
manhood, married and engaged in general farm- 
ing. Accompanied by his wife, in i860 he came 
to California and took up one hundred and sixty 
acres at w-hat was then known as Church's Cor- 
ners (now Sattley). On this place he engaged 
in ranching until the infirmities of age prevented 
a continuance at agricultural labors. Here he 
died at the age of eighty-six. In politics he 
voted the Republican ticket after the organiza- 
tion of the party. His wife, who bore the 
maiden name of Harriet Sattley, was born in 
Vermont and died in California at the age of 



eighty-five years. Wiien the postoffice was es- 
tablished at her home place, in 1890, the office 
was given her family name, Sattley, and her son, 
Ezra, officiated as the first postmaster. 

While the family were living on a farm near 
Ferrisburg, Addison county, Vt., Isaac Sattley 
Church was born October 25, 1829, and in the 
common schools and in an academy of the home 
locality he received his education. At tiie time 
of the discovery of gold in California he gave 
up his school work and made preparations to 
start to the coast. During the spring of 1850 
he left home and proceeded via Panama, accom- 
panied by several of his schoolmates. Of all 
the gold-seekers on board the ship lie was the 
Noungest, but none was more ambitious or eager 
for work than he. Landing at San F"rancisco 
May 20, 1850, he proceeded to the mines at 
Horseshoe Bend, where he remained about two 
months without meeting with any success. A 
month was then spent at Nelson's Point, Plumas 
county, where he was successful in finding gold. 
During September he and his four partners went 
to the Forks, later given the name of Downie- 
ville, in honor of Major Downey. After having 
prospected and mined there until the fall of 1851, 
the condition of his health led him to abandon 
mining, and in 1852 he operated a dairy at 
Downieville. In the fall he sold the dairy and 
afterward hauled with a mule pack-train from 
Marysville to the mining camps. With the 
funds thus accumulated in 1859 he returned east 
and brought his parents back with him to the 
Sierra valley, and in i860 lx)uglit a squatter's 
title to his present ranch. On the surveying of 
the land he bought the same from the govern- 
ment, and then engaged in raising stock, con- 
ducting a dairy and carrying on general farm 
pursuits. For years he carried on agricultural 
pursuits with fair success, but eventually, after 
a severe illness in 1901, he rented the land, re- 
serving the residence and pasture for per.sonal 
uses. 

The first marriage of Mr. Qnircli took place 
February 15, i860, and united him with Miss 
Sarah Gear, who was born at \'ergenncs, .Addi- 
son county, \'t., came to California as a bride, 
and remained in the Sierra vallev until her 



656 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



death. January 2-j, 1882. Six children were 
born of their union, namely : Francis Sattley, 
who is engaged in the cattle business and gen- 
eral ranching in the Long valley, California ; 
Charles Gear, who has a ranch near Loyalton, 
Sierra county ; Mary P., wife of William Nair, a 
rancher of Sierra county ; Charlotte A., who re- 
sides with her father; Albert Bliss, whO' is en- 
gaged in the lumbering business in California ; 
and Roxie L., who married Charles McElroy, a 
stockman of the Sierra valley. After the death 
of his first wife Mr. Qiurch was united with 
Mrs. Rachel (Street) Hale, who was born in 
Ohio. In political opinions he has adhered to 
the Republican principles ever since the organ- 
ization of the party, but has never sought prom- 
inence in politics nor has he desired the leader- 
ship in local affairs. Interested from the be- 
ginning of his residence in Sierra county in mat- 
ters pertaining to education, he aided in build- 
ing the schoolhouse near his ranch and gave 
to the district the name of Alpine, which is 
especially appropriate by reason of the predom- 
inance of pine in the timber of this region. 



ROBERT S. FLOURNOY. During the ear- 
ly portion of the seventeenth century two brothers 
came from France and identified themselves 
with the colonial history of America. From one 
of these descended in direct line Roland Flour- 
noy, who was born near Lexington, Ky., the son 
of a planter, who was probably of Virginian 
birth and who eventually moved to Missouri and 
died there at eighty-five years of age. Originally 
a farmer, Roland Flournoy temporarily aban- 
doned that occupation early in life in order to 
enter the drug business in Lexington, but after 
he removed to Missouri about 1828 he resumed 
agricultural pursuits. In time he became the 
owner of a large stock ranch near Kansas City. 
The first house ever erected in Independence 
was built by himself, and he was closely identi- 
fied with the early history of that section of coun- 
try. When the trouble arose with the Mormons 
and they were expelled from Illinois he went to 
Nauvoo as a soldier to aid in the protection of 



the people and their property. As early as 1852 
he traveled overland to California and journeyed 
from this section up into Oregon, where he en- 
gaged in farming. During the fall of 1858 he 
returned to Plumas county and afterward made 
his home with his son, Robert S., beneath whose 
roof he passed away in 1863 at sixty-three years 
of age. During early manhood he had married 
Miss Margaret Simpson, who was born in Ken- 
tucky and in 1829 moved to Missouri, later go-r 
ing back to Kentucky, where she died in 1859, ''^ 
the age of forty-nine years. 

While the family were living at Independence, 
Mo., Robert S. Flournoy was born June 26, 1830, 
and in the private schools of that locality he 
gained a fair primary education, later for two 
years studying in the academy at Chapel Hill, 
Mo. At sixteen years of age he secured employ- 
ment as clerk in a store. When news came of 
the discovery of gold in California in 1849 he at 
once started for the new country, leaving Mis- 
souri in September and sailing down the Mis- 
sissippi river to New Orleans, where he took a 
steamer for Panama, and from there sailed up 
the Pacific to San Francisco. The voyage from 
Panama consumed ninety days, and it was not 
until April of 1850 that the ship cast anchor in 
the Golden Gate. 

Immediately after landing Mr. Flournoy pro- 
ceeded to the mines on the Yuba river in Yuba 
county, but soon left that place for Bidwell's 
Bar, where he made considerable money, but 
found the cost of living so high that actual net 
profit was small. From 1854 until 1858 he was 
located at Elizabethtown, near Quincy, Plumas 
county. In the latter year he discontinued work 
in the mines and rented a ranch in the Indian 
valley, where a year later he acquired property 
bv purchase. Selling out in 1864, he moved to 
Taylorsville, bought a pack train and began to 
haul freight to Silver City, Idaho, at which work 
he was engaged during the spring of 1866, but 
in June relinquished freighting and bought a 
ranch of four hundred and fifty-four acres, of 
which two hundred acres lie at the head of Gen- 
esee valley, Plumas county, while the balance is 
in timber and mountains. During 1885-86, aft- 
er years of profitable work on his ranch, he re- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



fio7 



turned to the cast and spent a considerable pe- 
riod visiting in Missouri and Kentucky. On his 
return to CaHfornia in the fall of 1886 he began 
to speculate in lots at San Diego, but suffered 
heavy losses, as did all holders of property there 
(luring the boom days. In February, 1891, he 
returned to Plumas county and since has made 
his home with his children, being now at the old 
ranch with his daughter, Mrs. Cooke. 

In politics Mr. Floumoy is a stanch Democrat. 
In November of 1855 he married Miss Angcline 
X'arner, who was born in Indiana, reared in Illi- 
nois, and came to California in 1854, remaining 
in this state from that time until her death in 
1883. Seven children were born of their union, 
namely : Margaret, who died at twent}--live 
years of age ; Harley C, cashier of the Plumas 
County Bank; Timey L., wife of J. E. Cooke, 
who has charge of the old Flournoy ranch ; Rob- 
ert W., in the employ of the government and 
now residing in Plumas county ; and Lucy, Fan- 
nie and John, the three last-mentioned dying at 
Taylorsville in early childhood. 



JOSEPH W. DECIOUS. Identified closely 
with the agricultural development of Honey 
Lake valley is the name of Mr. Decious, who 
since 1875 has owned and occupied a ranch of 
two hundred and thirteen acres lying in the 
vicinity of Milford. WTien he purchased the 
propertv only a very small acreage had been 
placed under cultivation and the onl\- building on 
the farm was one of logs. Under his super- 
vision a neat house has been erected, barns have 
been built and fences put up, so that the lanil 
has been transformed from a barren waste into 
a desirable homestead. In the raising of produce 
he makes a specialty of grain and hay and has a 
few acres in alfalfa, all of which yield bountiful 
crops in return for the care bestowed upon the 
land. Visitors to the ranch notice with interest, 
on the shore of Honey lake, the only steamer 
that ever sailed upon its waters, a small craft 
built in 1895, capacity thirty thousand pounds, 
which has been used principally for the bringing 
of freight to the residents of the vallev. 



Champaign county, Oiiio, is the native place 
of :\rr. Decious, and Septeml)cr 6. 1847, the date 
of his birth. His father, John, was born in Vir- 
ginia and at an early age became proprietor of a 
cabinet and furniture shop at Urbana. Ohio, 
where he built up a growing trade. About 1854 
he took his family to Iowa and settled in Jones 
county. From there in 1863 he crossed the 
plains to California with teams, being a member 
of an expedition that at one point of the route 
numbered forty wagons in the train. Settling at 
Susanville he secured employment as a carpenter. 
One of his earliest contracts, which he took with 
another carpenter, was for the erection of a 
porch around the old Stewart hotel. In 1865 he 
purchased a tract known now as the Winchell 
ranch, directly west of the Lakeview schoolhouse, 
and comprising one hundred and sixty acres of 
land, then wholly unimproved. Before he had 
been able to improve the property and while he 
was yet following his trade with the hope of se- 
curing the funds necessar\- for the development 
of the property, his death occurred in 1867. The 
Masonic lodge at Susanville, of which he had 
been worthy master and a leading member, con- 
ducted his funeral services at Susanville with the 
appropriate and beautiful ceremony of the order. 

Before leaving the east John Decious married 
Mary Stevens, who was born in Qiampaign 
county, Ohio, and who after his demise became 
the wife of William Raker. Of her first mar- 
riage there were eleven children, of whom the 
following attained maturity : Amos, who re- 
mained in Io\va and still resides in that state: 
Martha, widow of Milton Steinbcrger, and liv- 
ing near Reno, Nev. ; Julia. Mrs. William Craw- 
ford, of Oregon: Jane, who is the widow of 
James Christy and resides at Jaiwsvillc; Joseph 
W., of Lassen county : Ir\'in. who lives in Lassen 
county: and ATary, Mrs. SiflFord, deceased. 
WHicn the family moved from Ohio to Iowa, Jo- 
seph W. Decious was a boy of seven years, lience 
bis primary education was obtained principally 
in Jones coimty. Being needed at home, it was 
impossible for him to complete a grammar-school 
education, but by observation and reading he has 
atoned for the disadvantages under which he la- 
bored in youth. At the age of sixteen he accom- 



658 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



panied his parents to California, where he began 
to work for wages and later rented a ranch until 
he was in a position to acquire the title to land 
of his own. Stock-raising and dairying have 
been his principal interests in life and through 
them he has gained a competence as gratifying 
as it is deserved. 

December 9, 1868, occurred the marriage of 
Mr. Decious to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of 
Philip Wales, and a native of Illinois, but a 
resident of California from the age of six years. 
Of their union six children were born. The 
eldest, Alice, married Michael Phillips, and at her 
death left a son, Qiarles, who now makes his 
home with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. De- 
cious : her other child, Ilda, is deceased. The 
second daughter, Maude, married Eldon Ride- 
nour, and has four children, Jessie, Ivan, Ge- 
neva and Irene. The third child, George, is de- 
ceased. The fourth, Cora, Mrs. Richard Stubbs, 
makes her home with her parents, as does also 
her daughter. Beryl. The two remaining mem- 
bers of the family are Joseph and Elizabeth ; the 
son is a lineman for the Northern Electric Com- 
pany, and the daughter is a telephone operator. 

Though deprived of educational advantages 
himself, Mr. Decious has always been a friend of 
the public-school systeni, has served efficiently as 
a school trustee, and has labored to secure for his 
children the school advantages which he lacked. 
In politics he favors Democratic principles. His 
fraternal relations are numerous and important, 
and include membership in Janesville Lodge, F. 
& A. M. ; Honey Lake Lodge No. 223, I. O. O. 
F., in which he is past noble grand, and which 
in 1889 he represented in the grand lodge at San 
Francisco; the Order of the Eastern Star at 
Janesville, in which his wife is past matron and 
an influential worker; and Court No. i, at Susan- 
ville, which was the first to be organized in Cal- 
ifornia and numbered himself and wjfe as charter 
members, the original location of die court be- 
ing at Janesville, whence it was removed to Su- 
sanville. 

Since writing the above , Mr. Decious has 
rented his ranch and now makes his home in 
Cbico, Butte county, where his sons-in-law, 
Richard Stubbs and Eldon Ridenour, are em- 



ployed. Well pleased with the climate and gen- 
eral surroundings they have made investments in 
valuable property there. 



LUM ROSECRANS was born at Randolph, 
W. Va., October 19, 1835, the son of parents 
who were both natives of Virginia, of German 
descent. When he was nine years old he suf- 
fered the greatest misfortune that can befall a 
lad of that age. His mother died, and as her 
death deprived him of a home he was bound out 
to a man in Ohio to serve an apprenticeship at 
the cooper's trade. Life at the best would be 
hard enough for a boy of that tender age left 
homeless, but in this case additional hardship 
fell to his lot. The man he worked for was un- 
kind and even cruel, and at the end of a year, 
goaded to desperation, he ran away, going to 
Parkersville, where he boarded a steamboat 
bound for Cincinnati. Securing work on the 
steamer as second cook he worked at this for 
about a year, then became first cook, holding this 
position six years, after which for four years he 
was watchman on a steamer running on the Mis- 
sissippi river and up the Yazoo river from 
Vicksburg to Yazoo. 

In the spring of 1853 Mr. Rosecrans decided 
to come to California. Finding a party about to 
make the overland journey, he made arrange- 
ments with them to drive a four-yoke ox-team in 
payment for his passage. When he arrived in 
California he went to Point Defiance, North 
Yuba river, where he mined for three or four 
years, meeting with fair success. Later he 
mined at Brandy City and ran a tunnel at Indian 
Hill, but was not very successful at either of 
those places, so went to work for wages in 
Brandy City, earning about $4 a day for two 
years. Following this he carried on mining on 
.South Yuba for himself for a time. For two 
seasons following he drove a four-mule team 
hauling lumber from the sawmills to the mines, 
where it was used in making sluice boxes. Then 
he drove a twelve-mule team freighting for a 
season from Sacramento and Marysville to Vir- 
ginia City, Gold Hill and other mining camps, 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



661 



altogether working twelve or fourteen years for 
wages ranging from $90 to $145 per month. IJe- 
coming somewhat tired of that manner of living 
he turned his attention to quieter pursuits, took 
up some land in Lassen county and began rais- 
mg cattle, continuing in the business about three 
vears or until a hard winter came on and de- 
stroyed most of his stock. The next spring he 
sold off what he had left and came to the Sierra 
valley, where he bought a ranch and took up a 
homestead claim of six hundred and forty acres 
of land in one piece. After ranching there for 
several years he sold the place and for the next 
six years rented a place near Sierraville. In 1888 
he bought his present home ranch of three hun- 
dred and forty acres three miles south of Loyal- 
ton. 

Tune 29. 1883, i\Ir. Rosecrans married Miss 
Cclia Kelley, who is a native of Canada, her pa- 
rents being natives of County Donegal, Ireland. 
.Mrs. Rosecrans came to California in 1876 and 
lived at Mrginia City and Reno until her mar- 
riage. She is a member of the Catholic church. 

In politics Mr. Rosecrans is a stanch Demo 
crat. He has never held a public office and 
never had any desire to do so. He is a member 
of the ]\Iasonic fraternity, holding membershi]) 
in Reno Lodge. He is a type of the California 
miner of the early days. In spite of the numer- 
ous hardships and vicissitudes that have sur- 
rounded his life he is a hale and hearty man 
and continues well able to attend to the affairs of 
his ranch. 



CLARENCE A. ESTES. Upon the organ- 
ization of the First National Bank of Alturas in 
1901 Mr. Estes became the owner of a large 
number of shares and assisted in the jjcrfection 
of the new institution under the banking laws of 
the government, since which time he has held 
the office of president. The bank was estab- 
lished with a capital stock of $40,000 and enjoys 
the distinction of being the only national bank m 
Modoc county. A conservative business is con- 
ducted in loans and discounts and the officers of 
the bank, by the exercise of wise judgment and 
keen discrimination, have gained the confidence 
17 



of depositors and the general public, who have 
found the concern a valuable addition to the 
financial interests of the town and county. 

Throughout his life Mr. Estes has been proud 
of the fact that he is a native son of California, 
for he is intensely loyal to the state and devoted 
to its progress along every line of advancement. 
He was born in Tehama county, July 28, 1862, 
and is a son of Lance and Mary ( l.arlow) Estes, 
who removed to Modoc county in 1873, settling 
on an unimproved tract of land ten miles south 
of Alturas. Remote from the advantages of city 
life, the boy grew to manhood, meanwhile learn- 
ing habits of self-reliance, energy and persever- 
ance. When only eighteen years of age he made 
an independent st^t by ])urchasing a tract of 
eighty acres, and to rhig he added from time to 
time until he acquired a wild-hay ranch of sev- 
enteen hundred and twenty acres. L'nder his su- 
pervision the land was fenced, buildings were 
erected and a portion of the soil was brought un- 
der cultivation. Selling the ranch in 1899, he 
purchased an improved ranch of four thousand 
acres six miles south of iMturas, and there made 
his headquarters for two years. At the expira- 
tion of that time he made an advantageous sale 
and then came into .Alturas, wiiere he has since 
made his home, alx)ut 1898 purchasing the sub- 
stantial residence he now occupies. Meanwhile 
he has acquired a ranch of one hundred and six- 
ty acres, a large portion of which is in alfalfa, 
also a ranch of one hundred and twenty acres 
wholly in alfalfa. 

The marriage of Mr. Estes in 1886 united him 
with Josie, daughter of William Dale of Alturas, 
and a native of California, where she received an 
excellent education. They are the parents of four 
children, Effie, Rena, Hallie and Douglas. 
Ever since becoming of age Mr. Estes has given 
his tellot to the Republican party, both in local 
and in general elections, but his identification 
with politics extends no farther than the casting 
of his ballot, for he has never been a candidate 
for office and has never cared to take upon him- 
self the responsibilities of public positions, pre- 
ferring to devote his attention exclusively to the 
management of his lands and the supervision of 
the bank. 



662 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



FREDERICK MEYER. When mention is 
made of the substantial farmers of Lassen county 
the name of Frederick Meyer must not be omit- 
ted. Coming to this part of the state without 
means, a stranger in a strange conummity, he 
was quick to learn the conditions of soil and cli- 
mate and eager to seize each opportuiiit\- that 
came within his grasp. At the time of his ar- 
rival settlers were few. As far as the eye conld 
discern, for miles in every direction, scarcely a 
house appeared upon the landscape. The land 
faded into the distant horizon, unbroken by any 
indications of man's handiwork. During the 
years that have come and gone he has witnessed 
the gradual development of the region, the tak- 
ing up of land, the building of ranch-houses, and 
the cultivation of the soil, and none was more 
interested than he in the steady growth of the 
country. 

Born in Hanover, Germany, April 2, 1844, 
Frederick Meyer received a fair education in the 
German schools, and in 1867 came to America, 
where he has since resided in California. For 
ten years he had sailed the high seas before the 
mast, rising meanwdiile to be second mate. After 
giving up the occupation of a sailor he spent two 
years in San Francisco and then, in 1871, came 
to Lassen county, where, until the spring of igo6, 
he owned three hundred and twenty acres aboiit 
one and three-fourths miles southeast of Bieber. 
When he came here the land was wild and un- 
improved, but he transformed it into one of the 
finest farms of the region. A neat farm house 
and several large barns formed a valuable im- 
provement to the ranch. For years he inade a 
specialty of stock-raising, and as he had an abun- 
dance of meadow and pasture land it made pos- 
sible the keeping of a large number of stock 
cattle and dairy cows, and the cattle and dairy 
business were his specialties. However, he later 
put in about seventy acres of alfalfa. Besides 
his home place of one-half section he owned 
three himdred and twenty acres, which originally 
was wild land, biit under his patient labor was 
brought under improvement and all fenced ; be- 
sides this he owned forty acres of timber land. 
All of his holdings in Lassen county he sold in 
the spring of 1906. 



Since becoming a citizen of the United States 
Mr. Meyer has voted the Republican ticket, but 
at no time has he desired office or solicited par- 
tisan responsibilities. Fraternally he has become 
a leading member of Big Valley Lodge No. 286, 
I. O. O. F., at Bieber, in which he is past nol)le 
grand. In addition he maintains an active con- 
nection with the encampment, in which he ranks 
as a past chief patriarch, and also he holds mem- 
bership with the Lodge of Rebekahs in Bieber. 
Whatever of success he has gained, whatever of 
prominence he has reached, and whatever of con- 
fidence he has won in the esteem of his fellow- 
men, may be attributed to his own industrious, 
forceful, persevering and honorable character, 
and his present high standing as an agriculturist 
and as a citizen is due wholly to his unaided ex- 
ertions and patient efforts. 



WILLIAM M. RICHARDS. One of the 
most worthy and highly esteemed residents of 
Quincy is William M. Richards, who is now 
serving his third term as recorder of Plumas 
county. A man of strong personality, enterpris- 
ing and persevering, he has won success in his 
active career by sheer persistency of purpose. 
A son of the late William K. Richards, he was 
bom July 22, 1861, at Rich Gulch, Plumas coun- 
ty, and is therefore entitled to membership in 
the Native Sons of the Golden West. 

Born in Cornwall, England, William K. Rich- 
ards came to the United States with his mother 
in 1842 and made settlement at Mineral Point, 
Wis., where he engaged in mining and teaming 
for the following eight years. The news of the 
finding of gold in the west had made him discon- 
tented with the comparatively narrow life he was 
leading in Wisconsin and March, 1850, wit- 
nessed his departure for the coast with a com- 
panion, they having purchased a horse-team and 
outfit. Going to Nevada county, Cal., Mr. Rich- 
ads carried on mining at Grass Valley and Nel- 
son Point until 1853, when he changed his occu- 
pation, having purchased a ranch near Marys- 
ville, Yuba county. Three years later, in the 
spring of 1856, he disposed of his ranch and once 
more took up mining, having interests at Span- 





'yi^-i^a,- 



HISTORICAL AXU KlUGRAPillCAL RFXORD. 



(5«5 



ish Ranch and Rich (uilch, Pkimas county. In 
connection with this he also operated a ranch 
which in the meantime he had purchased near 
Quincy, in the American valley, hut in 1864, on 
account of an injury which he had received in 
his mine he was obliged to relinquish active 
work of all kinds. The accident terminated 
more seriously than was anticipated and ren- 
dered him a cripple the remainder of his life. 
His death occurred about six years later, Decem- 
ber 5, 1870, at which time he was forty-four 
years and eleven months of age. Starting life in 
the west with little save an abundance of hope 
and detemiination to win success in the few 
short years which remained to him, he accom- 
plished what many would have required twice as 
long to do, and at his death was fairly well-to- 
do. The wife who had shared his joys and sor- 
rows was in maidenhood Jane Murrish and is 
now the wife of Donald R. Finlayson, a sketch of 
whose life will be found on another page of this 
work. 

When the family removed to .\merican valley 
William M. Richards was a young lad, and at 
the time of his father's death he was nine years 
old. Until he was twenty years of age he made 
his home on the old homestead, two miles east 
of Quincy, and then began life on his own ac- 
count, carrying on mining and working in a saw- 
mill. His election to the office of county re- 
corder in the fall of 1894 necessitated the relin- 
quishment of personal interests almost entirely, 
and aside from some mining claims which he 
owns, his entire time and attention are given to 
the duties of office. So well pleased were his 
constituents with his services that at the close 
of liis first term he was the candidate for re- 
election and succeeded himself in office the sec- 
ond term. A similar experience followed in 
1902, and he is now filling his third term and 
twelfth year of consecutive service. 

In March, 1895. Mr. Richards was united in 
marriage with Miss Anna Clinch, who, like her 
husband, was born in this county, and they have 
one son, Lloyd. Politically Mr. Richards is a 
stanch Republican, guarding the interests of his 
chosen party with a jealous eye. He belongs to 
but one social organization, the Native Sons of 



the Colden West, his mcniijcrship being in Quin- 
cy Parlor No. 131. I^ibcral and public spirited, 
he has many friends in a community which has 
watched his progress during his active life and 
has found him invariably courteous, honorable 
and steadfast. 



THOMAS H. JOHNSTONE. There are 
few names more prominently associated with the 
commercial development of Mod<JC county than 
that of Mr. Johnstone, who is at the head of 
various important enterprises in the county and 
especially has been interested in movements for 
the commercial growth of Cedarville, his home 
town. The general store of which he is the man- 
ager and principal owner and which forms one 
of the largest concerns of its kind in Surprise 
valley, was incorporated in .April, 1905. under 
the laws of California, with a cajjital stock of 
$40,000, business being conducted under the 
name of the T. H. Johnstone Company. In 
March of 1905 Mr. Johnstone l)ecame tlie presi- 
dent of the newdy organized Surprise \'alley 
State Bank, capitalized at $25,000, and this re- 
sponsible position he now fills, in addition to 
conducting his im[x>rtant mercantile entcr|)risc 
and acting as notary public and agent for a num- 
ber of fire insurance companies. .Knother im- 
portant undertaking which owes its origin to 
himself and other men equally ])nblic-spirited is 
the Surprise \'alley Electric Light and Power 
Company, which was ' organized for the pur- 
pose of furnishing light and power to the peo- 
ple of the valley, and was incorporated in May. 
1905, with a capital stock of $25,000. Not only 
by the investment of money in shares of stock 
has Mr. Johnstone aided the develo])ment of 
this company, but he has been esi)eciall\ helpful 
through his services as treasurer and vice-pres- 
ident, which positions he has filled since the or- 
ganization of the company. 

Of Canadian birth, Mr. Johnstone was born 
in Ontario February 7, 1850. and grew to man- 
hood upon the home farm. .After the death of 
his father he conducted the fann for one year in 
the interests of his mother an<l then went to the 
resfions east of TTudson ba\ . where he was cm- 



666 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ployed in the lumber business. During the 
Fenian raid in Canada, in 1870, he enlisted as 
a private in the Ottawa Artillery, and later was 
promoted to be sergeant, serving as such until 
the troubles were ended. In recognition of his 
bravery and gallant services Queen Victoria 
some vears later presented him with a medal, 
which he now cherishes as one of his most val- 
ued possessions. 

On coming to the States, in 1876, Mr. John- 
stone became interested in mining near Virginia 
City, Nev., but soon removed to California, and 
for one year was employed in herding sheep in 
Modoc county. Next he rented a farm in what 
is known as the Cottonwood district of Sur- 
prise valley. On coming to Cedarville he 
secured a position as bookkeeper with M. D. 
Haynes & Co., and two years later, on the dis- 
solution of that firm, he was chosen business 
manager for Cressler & Bonner in the same 
town. Remaining with that firm for three years. 
when a consolidation was efifected of their inter- 
ests with Kistler Brothers, he was admitted as a 
member of the firm of Kistler, Johnstone & Co. 
Three years later, when that partnership was dis- 
solved, he bought out a small store owned "By L. 
Waldenberg & Co. With this as a nucleus he has 
built up a large trade that extends in every direc- 
tion from Cedarville throughout the surrounding 
country, and he also, since May of 1904, has op- 
erated a similar store at Eagleville. His at- 
tractive home in Cedarville is presided over by 
the lady whom he married June 26, 1878. and 
who was Miss Anna M. Mills, a native of 
Canada; they are the parents of two daughters, 
Cassie M. and Jennie D. The family are iden- 
tified with the Episcopal denomination, and are 
contributors to religious and philanthropic move- 
ments. Active in local politics as a leader of the 
Republican party in Cedarville and vicinity, Mr. 
Johnstone, though declining official honors for 
himself, has given his staunch support to friends 
during their candidacy for official positions, and 
has been a contributor to the upbuilding of the 
party in the county. Fraternally he is a member 
and past master of Surprise Valley Lodge No. 
235, F. & A. M., having been made a Mason in 
Canada in 1875. 



GEORGE BENTON BAILEY. One of the 
many worthy citizens and capable and indus- 
trious agriculturists of Honey Lake valley is 
George Benton Bailey, of Lassen county, who is 
actively engaged in general farming and dairy- 
ing, exercising great skill and good judgment in 
this pursuit. A native of Iowa, he was born at 
Mount Pleasant, Henn,' comity, September 10, 
1863, a son of J. R. Bailey, in whose sketch, 
which appears elsewhere in this work, further 
parental history may be found. 

Brought across the plains to California by his 
parents when an infant, six months of age, 
George Benton Bailey has since, with the excep- 
tion of one year spait with his parents in the 
Sacramento valley, made his home in this coun- 
ty. At the age of thirteen he commenced to work 
for wages whenever the opportunity came, and 
also continued to attend school a part of the 
lime until he was twenty years of age. During 
the winter of 1884- 1885 he attended the Stock- 
ton Business College to complete his education. 
After returning home again he worked for wages 
for six years. 

Marrying in 1890, Mr. Bailey subsequently, in 
company with his brother Walter, rented the 
home ranch for a year, and the following three 
years had charge of the farm known as the Bar- 
ry ranch near Janesville. Removing then to 
Buntingville, he rented his brother Ira's ranch 
for two years, and the ensuing year worked for 
wages, his family residing with his father-in-law, 
Mr. Theodore. In 1898. in partnership with his 
brother Walter, Mr. Bailey purchased the four 
hundred and forty acre ranch which he now oc- 
cupies, and also bought a third interest in one 
hundred and sixty acres of timber land lying 
near Janesville. At the end of a year he bought 
out his brother's share of the home ranch and has 
since continued the improvements already in- 
augurated. By assiduous work he has added 
mwch to the value of his estate, one innovation 
being the erection of a commodious residence in 
1903. As a general fanner he shows superior 
talent, raising cattle and horses, besides keeping 
a small dairy and cutting from five to six hun- 
dred tons of hay annually. In April, 1905, he 
bought a one-third interest in a cattle ranch in 





"^^^ cly^ <^ C/'^^^ "^^^^ 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



669 



Grasshopper valley, consisting of eight hundred 
acres of land. 

November 26, 1890, Mr. Bailey married Annie 
Kate Theodore, a daughter of John Theodore, of 
whom a sketch may be found elsewhere in this 
volume. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bailey 
four children have been born, as follows: Wil'- 
liam Theoclore, born September i, 1891 ; Crvstal 
Estella, December 22, 1893; Orlo George, Feb- 
ruary 26, 1896; and Lola Annie, March i, 1901 ; 
the child last mentioned died July 22, 1905. Be- 
coming self-supporting at an early age, all that 
-Mr. Bailey has accomplished and accumulated 
has been the result of his own unaided efforts. 
Politically he is a stanch Democrat. 



LEWIS EDWIN HORTON. Prominent 
among the pioneer settlers of this state is Lewis 
Edwin Horton, who was for many years an in- 
fluential factor in developing and maintaining the 
industrial and financial prosperity of northern 
California. An enterprising, keen-sighted, pro- 
gressive business man, he was successful in his 
many ventures, and is now living retired from 
active pursuits at Loyalton, Sierra county, en- 
joying to the utmost the fruits of his earlier years 
of labor. Although long past the allotted three 
score and ten years of man's life, he retains to a 
remarkable degree his pristine physical and men- 
tal vigor, and in the community in which he lives 
is held in high respect, his integrity and sterling 
worth being everywhere recognized. A son of 
Tuttle Horton, he was born, September 8, 1829, 
in Southold, Suffolk county. Long Island, N. Y., 
of English ancestry, being a lineal descendant of 
one Barnabas Horton, an eccentric character, who 
emigrated from England to New York at an early 
date, settling on Long Island in 1680. 

Benjamin Horton, Mr. Horton's grandfather, 
spent his entire life of ninety-two years on Long 
Island, being employed during his active years as 
a shoemaker. A native of Southold, L. I., Tut- 
tle Horton was a life-long resident of that place. 
As a young man he worked for many years as a 
ship carpenter, but subsequently became a land- 
holder, and was engaged in agricultural pursuits 



until his death, at the age of si.xty-five years. He 
married Clarissa Rodgers, who was born in 1799 
and spent her entire life in and near Southold] 
passing away at the age of three score and ten 
years. 

Brought up on the farm, and educated in the 
district schools and Franklinville Academy. 
Lewis Edwin Horton remained at home until 
seventeen years old. He then embarked in sea- 
faring pursuits, at the end of two years shipping 
before the mast as a seaman, and making his 
first voyage to Glasgow and other European 
ports as one of the crew on the bark Pilgrim. 
Giving up the sea, Mr. Horton sailed from New 
York as a passenger in November, 1849, and 
came by way of Panama to California, arriving 
m San Francisco during the latter part of Decem- 
ber, 1849. Tlie ensuing three or four months he 
was employed in lightering goods from ship to 
shore. Becoming a victim to the gold fever at 
this time he sold his lighter, and for alx)ut a year 
was engaged in mining, first in Coloma, then in 
Georgetown, and later in Downieville. Not 
meeting with the anticipated results in his oper- 
ations he located with a partner at Scotts Bar, 
where he established a store and' bought a pack 
train, and conducted a fair mercantile business 
for awhile. Selling out his possessions in 1853, 
he returned to New York by water, and in part- 
nership with three other enterprising men, visit- 
ed Illinois and Iowa, and in these two states 
lx)ught eighty-seven horses, which he drove 
across the plains in 1854, and soon after his ar- 
rival sold in San Francisco at a reasonable profit. 
Locating then in Yolo county, Mr. Horton was 
for a few years engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
having a ranch on Putali creek. Selling his land 
in 1859, he again went cast by the Panama route, 
an<l having purchased forty or fifty fine horses 
came across the plains with them, arriving in San 
I'rancisco in 1861, and there disposed of all of 
them at a good price. Subsequently, with a part- 
ner, he attended a government sale of mules in 
Los .Angeles, and readily found a market for all 
that he bought there in San Francisco. Going 
then to X'irginia City he carried on an extensive 
business for eight years, owning and managing a 
lumber yard, a butcher's shop, a grocery, and 



670 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



keeping teams employed in hauling quartz, hav- 
ing about forty horses at work. In 1870 he sold 
out his entire business at an advantage, and came 
to the Sierra valley, locating in the Summit dis- 
trict, where he purchased the old Steiner ranch of 
si.x hundred and forty acres. In the manage- 
ment of his farm he met with signal success from 
the start, and. subse(|uently purchased other land, 
becoming the owner of two thousand acres, which 
he operated successfully for "many years, carry- 
ing on stock-raising and dairying on a large scale. 
Having accumulated a competency, and feeling 
himself justly entitled to a few years of leisure 
and rest, he sold his large farm in 1903, and is 
now living retired, as above stated, in Loyalton. 

September 14, 1857, Mr. Horton married 
Christiana Hallock, who was born, July 17, 1830, 
in New York City, on the maternal side being a 
}iIayfIower descendant, and of Revolutionary 
stock, her mother's father. Captain Paine, hav- 
itig served as an officer in the Revolution. Five 
children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. 
Horton, namely: Charles Edwin and Arthur 
Hallock, proprietors of the Horton saw-mills and 
box factory at Loyalton ; Edith, wife of William 
Spurgeon Lewis; Eugene Lincoln, who died at 
the age of one and one-half years, and Lewis 
Herbert, who died when nineteen years of age. 
Politically Mr. Horton is a liberal Democrat, but 
has persistently refused all public office. Relig- 
iously iMrs. Horton is a member of the Congre- 
gational Church. 



REUBEN H. STOVER. Few men identi- 
fied with the history of Plumas county were 
more widely known and none was more highly, 
honored than the late Reuben H. Stover, who for 
years was one of the most extensive and influen- 
tial stock raisers and dairymen of the Big 
Meadows. The family of which he was a mem- 
ber originated in Germany, and his parents, Ja- 
cob H. and Rebecca (Hess) Stover, natives of 
Pennsylvania, traced their lineage to old fami- 
lies of the Fatherland. As early as 1839, during 
the frontier period of Iowa's history, Jacob H. 
Stover took his wife and children to the present 



site of Iowa City, where he engaged in farming 
for two years and then engaged in buying and 
selling lands, assisted in the founding of Iowa 
City, erected a grist and sawmill, put up a store 
and built the largest house in town. Prominent 
in local affairs, he served as county supervisor 
continuously during the period of his residence 
in Iowa. While he was living in Pennsylvania 
his son, Reuben H., was born in Center county, 
( )ctobcr 8, 1834, and there also the younger son, 
Thaddeus S., was born October 31, 1836. In 
the spring of 1850 the father and two sons made 
the overland journey to California with horses 
and mules, and after a month in Sacramento 
went to Bidwell's Bar, but soon went back to 
Sacramento and thence to Marysville, where the 
sons cared for their father during a long and 
severe illness. In the spring of 1851 they settled 
on a ranch one mile below Marysville, where the 
failure of the first year's crops was followed by 
better fortune the second year. In 1833 the fath- 
er returned to the east via Panama, leaving the 
sons in California. Ultimately he established his 
home in LaCrosse, Wis., where he died at sixty- 
four years and his wife when sixty-eight. 

The sons became business partners and con- 
ducted growing and profitable enterprises in the 
buving. selling and raising of cattle on their 
ranch in Plumas county, on the west side of the 
north fork of the Feather river. Eventually the 
property was divided, and Reuben H. became the 
sole ow^ner of six hundred acres in his home 
ranch, where he kept a dairy herd of from thirty 
to seventy cows. August 29, 1862, he married 
Miss Mary Ann Rose, who was born July 9, 
1846, eight miles from Milwaukee, Wis. Her 
father, William L, was a native of New York 
state, born November 21, 1824, and in youth ac- 
companied members of the family to Wisconsin. 
While he was the son of a cooper and learned 
that trade, he gave his preference to agriculture 
and was also master of other occupations. Leav- 
ing Wisconsin in 1851, he came via Panama to 
California and worked on a ranch for a brief 
jieriod, then engaged in mining at Mormon's Isl- 
and. For several years he kept a trading post 
and hotel at different mining camps, later operat- 
ed a hotel in Sacramento for two years, and then 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



G71 



purchased a small tract of land in Sacramento 
county, twenty tlucc miles east of the Capital 
City. Somewhat later he took up ranch land in 
Butte county, also followed ranching in Modoc 
county temporarily, and April 25. 1877, passed 
away in Butte county. In politics he voted with 
the Republicans, but was not an active party 
man. 

The mother of Mrs. Stover bore the maiden 
name of Margaret Inness and was born in Scot- 
land November 20, 1827; immigrating to the 
United States in girlhood, she was married in 
Wisconsin October 3, 1845, and in 1852 came to 
California via the Panama route, riding a nude 
across the isthmus, while her two children were 
carried on the backs of natives. Surviving her 
husband for about seventeen years, she died in 
Butte county, November 29, 1894. Of their six 
children all but two lived to mature years. 
Among the four was Mrs. Stover, who was six 
years of age at the time of coming to California, 
and who afterward remained with her parents 
until she became the wife of Mr. Stover. Since 
then she has made her home on the Stover ranch 
in Big Meadows, Plumas county. Nine chil- 
dren were born of her marriage, namely : George 
R., a vineyardist and stock dealer living at Col- 
lege City, Colusa county ; Clara E., wife of Jo- 
seph Tremain, editor of the Lassen Mail, of Su- 
sanville ; Anna L., who married George Redhead 
and lives in Des Moines, Iowa ; Laura B., Mrs. 
W. B. Smith, a widow residing with her mother; 
Giarles F.. the present owner of the home ranch ; 
Mertin I., a rancher and stock raiser on Payne's 
creek, Tehama county ; Eva L., who married 
Lawrence Urban, a carpenter of Sacramento ; 
Ada L., who died at thirteen years ; and Ethel 
Maude, who resides with her mother. 

In politics Mr. Stover favored the free trade 
principles of the Democratic party. The extent 
of the liquor traffic caused him to become in later 
life a Prohibitionist and strong temperance 
worker. After an illness of ten months he died 
October 10, 1897, mourned by his family and the 
large circle of friends to whom his manly traits 
had endeared him. The people far and near 
knew and honored "Rube" and felt the loss of a 
]5ersonal friend in his demise. The estate was 



willed to the widow and included seven hundred 
acres, forming a valuable ranch, and a dairy herd 
of from thirty to seventy cows. For a few 
years the land was managed by the son, Qiarlcs 
]•., in his mother's interests, but in 1903 it was 
sold to him and since then she has remained with 
him on the old homestead. 



ROBERT WILLIAM YOUXG. Plumas 
county has in RolK-rt William Young one of its 
most enterprising citizens, whose best efforts 
have always been given toward the upbuilding 
and development of this section. His years have 
carried him even now past the Bibical allot- 
ment, for he was bom seventy-five years ago, the 
(late of his birth being March 17. 1831. hut he 
is still hale and hearty, retaining not only an in- 
terest in public affairs, but i)articipating actively 
in them. Mr. Young is a native of Canada, his 
father, George Young, having located in Glen- 
garry county as an emigrant from his native 
country. Scotland, when a young man. and there 
engaged in farming until his death. His wife, 
formerly Nancy Murray, was a native of Can- 
ada, who died in the same country. 

Of the six children Ijorn to his parents, four 
sons and two daughters, Robert William Young 
was next to the oldest, and as such early learned 
the necessity of self-reliance and industry. He 
received his education through the medium of 
the public schools of Canada, and at the same 
time assisted his father on the home farm ; later 
he worked for an uncle, wlio was also a fanner 
in that section. I'pon attaining his majority he 
left home, and coming to the United States, re- 
mained from May to September in New York. 
Attracted to the Pacific coast by tlic glowing tales 
of its wealth and oi)portunities, in September of 
that vear (1852) he took passage on a steamer 
lx>und for California, via the Isthmus of Pana- 
ma. Following his arrival he located in Orovitle, 
P.utte county, where he secured employment as 
second cook in a boarding house, remaining in 
that occupation until April, 1853, when he went 
to Gib-sonville, Sierra county, and engaged in 
mining and prospecting. Not meeting with the 



(372 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



desired success, he located on Poorman's creek 
in April of the following- year and engaged in 
placer mining, here meeting with results which 
justified a continuance in the work for a period 
of three years. At the expiration of that time 
he located in Indian Valley and engaged in the 
building business in partnership with his brother, 
W. G. Young, and was so occupied until No- 
vember, 1859, when he returned to his old home 
in Canada, remaining there seven years. 

Desiring' to locate once more in the western 
states, Mr. Young came to California in 1866, 
and after a month spent in San Francisco- went 
by steamer to Portland, Ore., thence by river 
boat to Walla Walla, Wash., and from there 
overland to the Coeur d'Alene mines, and in the 
same season journeyed to Blackfoot City, Mont., 
where he mined for si.x weeks, then established a 
butchering business on Carpenter Bar, adjoining 
Blackfoot City. He was successful in his work 
for two winters, when he again visited his old 
home. In the spring of 1869 he went to Texas 
and for two years drove cattle from that state 
to Denver, and to Baxter Springs, Kans. The 
Indians were very hostile at that time, and he 
had many thrilling experiences and narrow 
escapes during his residence in the southwest. In 
1870 he again made the trip to California, but 
this time by train, and in Indian Valley worked 
in his brother's store ; a year later he went to 
Greenville and, in partnership, built a sawmill, 
which was afterward removed to Dutch Hill, 
where Mr. Young sold his interest to his part- 
ner. Building, butchering and farming occu- 
pied Mr. Young's time until 1876, when he came 
to Crescent Mills, Plumas county, where he 
operated a store and the post and express offices 
for one summer for Bransford & Mclntyre, and 
at the same time became interested in a quartz 
mine, known as the Premium mine, located be- 
tween Crescent Mills and Taylorsville ; he built a 
five-stamp quartz mill and operated the same for 
three years, but it is not now in active work, al- 
though he still owns the property, having it un- 
der bond at the present writing. He has prac- 
tically retired from the active cares of life, al- 
though he maintains a keen interest in afifairs 
about him and can be counted upon to further 



any plan for the advancement oi the community. 
In Canada, Mr. Young married Margaret Mc- 
Rae, a native of that country, and born of this 
union were three children, namely : Annie and 
Walter E., deceased; and Forrest R., who re- 
sides in Beckwith, Cal. In his political prefer- 
ence Mr. Young is a stanch Democrat, and al- 
though the county is largely Republican, was 
elected supervisor of the Seventh district of 
Plumas county, in 1892. He has served as school 
director many terms, and in 1905 was a candidate 
for the office of county treasurer. He is a popu- 
lar citizen of the community in which he has so 
long resided, and is held in the highest esteem 
for his many qualities of character. 



HANS SORENSON. A successful farmer 
of Lassen county, living one mile south of Stand- 
ish, is Hans Sorenson, a native of Denmark, 
born June 14, 1868, a son of Soren Olson, a na- 
tive and life resident of Denmark. Hans Soren- 
son was reared and educated in his native coun- 
try and came to the United States in 1886. He 
remained for two years in New York and Con- 
necticut, working for wages at any employment 
which he couid obtain, and in 1888 came to Cali- 
fornia. Going to Alameda county he worked 
for wages there for some time, doing teaming at 
odd jobs for three years. In the fall of 1901 he 
came to Lassen county and located in Honey 
Lake valley, purchasing and homesteading three 
hundred and twenty acres of land about one mile 
north of Spoonville, where he engaged in farm- 
ing until 1904. Renting two hundred acres of 
the Hiram McClellan ranch, all alfalfa land, he 
moved upon it, and now operates both places. 
His own land was all sage brush land, which he 
cleared, putting in grain and alfalfa (thirty-five 
acres of the latter), and has one hundred and 
seventy acres under irrigation. He has placed 
the improvements upon this land, and feeds cat- 
tle on that portion used for grazing purposes. 
He has devoted the greater portion of his life 
to farming, and has been very successful. 

Politically Mr. Sorenson is a stanch Repub- 
lican, and fraternally is a member of the Inde- 






-^--T-Z-^ 



HISTORICVL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



875 



pendent Order of Odd Fellows at San Leandro 
No. 231, Alameda county. He is energetic and 
enterprising as a citizen, interested in all move- 
ments tending to the welfare of his vicinity, and 
devoted to his life work in agricultural pur- 
suits. 



JORGEN JENSEN. Prominent among the 
early settlers of Honey Lake valley was the late 
Jorgen Jensen, who located in Susanville more 
than forty years ago, and from that time until his 
death was numbered with the most valued and 
esteemed citizens of the community. He was a 
man of sterling integrity, well known as an in- 
dustrious and thrifty farmer, a kind and accom- 
modating neighbor, and a loving husband and 
father. A native of Germany, he was born Jan- 
uary 28, 1836, in Sleswick-Holstein, and died 
November 2, 1900, on the home farm where he 
had so long resided, his death being a cause of 
general regret. 

At the age of nineteen years Jorgen Jensen 
came with his parents to iVmerica, and settled 
near Davenport, Iowa, his father. Christian Jen- 
sen, buying a farm there. After completing his 
education in the district schools he learned the 
blacksmith's trade, which he followed for a tunc. 
Drifting westward, he spent a short time in dif- 
ferent states, finally coming to California. Lo- 
cating in Butte coimty, he worked at his trade 
until 1863, when he removed to Taylorsville, 
Plumas county. Forming a partnership with 
William I'.rockman in 1864, he came to Honey 
Lake valle}-, where the firm embarked in busi- 
ness at Susanville, opening a blacksmith's shop. 
Soon afterward Mr. Jensen purchased a tract of 
wild land, from which he improved the ranch 
now occu])ied by his widow and children, lie 
labored with untiring diligence, erecting a fine 
residence and substantial barn and outbuildings, 
rendering his estate one of the liest in its ap- 
pfiintments of any in the neighborhood. .Xccu- 
mulating money, he invested in adjoining land, 
buying the Dobyns and Haley farms, at the time 
of his death owning four hundred acres. As an 
agriculturist he was exceedingly prosperous, for- 



tune smiling on his every effort. He was liberal 
in his views, a stanch Republican in politics, a 
Lutheran in religion, and was a charter member 
of Silver Star Lodge, J. O. O. F. 

October 14, 1877, at Horse Lake, Lassen 
county, Mr. Jensen married Effie Ann Cramer, 
who was born in 1843 '" Uavaria, Germany, 
which was likewise the birthplace of her fatlier, 
Cliarles Cramer. Her paternal grandfather was 
a man of prominence in the business circles of 
Bavaria, havmg been a large landholder and a 
capitalist. .\ well-educated man, being a college 
graduate, Charles Cramer left the Fatherland to 
seek his fortune on American soil, emigrating 
to Ohio in 1846. Settling in Stark county, he 
bought a farm nine miles south of Canton, and 
was there engaged in agricultural pursuits and 
in buying and selling land until his death, at the 
advanced age of eighty-six years. He was a man 
of upright moral principles, and a consistent 
member of the Cnited Brethren church. He 
married Catherine L'rshel, who was born in Ger- 
many, of wealthy parents, and died in Ohio, at 
the age of forty-two years. Of the thirteen chil- 
dren born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Cramer, 
eight grew to years of maturity, and seven sur- 
vive. F'ive came to California, namely: Charles, 
of Chico; Daniel, who served in an Ohio regi- 
ment during the Civil war, and now lives in 
Surprise valley; Mrs. Phoebe Riddle, of Honey 
Lake valley; Mrs. Effie Ann Jensen; and Mrs. 
Margaret Longnecker, who died in KJ04, at 
Johnstonville. 

.Mrs. Jensen was educated in the public schools 
of Ohio, and in 1876 came to Honey Lake val- 
ley, where she resided with her brother Cliarles 
until her marriage. She is a woman of superior 
business ability, and since the death of her hus- 
band has managed the estate with excellent suc- 
cess, continuing the improvements already begini. 
The farm contains over four hundred pcres, and 
is situated two miles east of Susanville, on the 
Susan river, from wliich it receives water for 
irrigation. She raises alfalfa, timothy and wheat, 
reaping good crops of each every year. Mr. and 
Mrs. Jensen became the parents of two children ; 
.\lbert Ross, born in 1879, assists his mother in 



676 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the care of tlie farm ; he married Georgiana E. 
Bunnell, December 20, 1905. Delia Katherine 
was born in 18(82. 1^1 rs. Jensen is a member of 
the Methodist church. 



JOSEPH McCHESNEY, M. D. The ances- 
try of the ]\IcChesney family can be traced back 
to the great-great-grandfather of Dr. McChes- 
ney of this review, Hugh, who was born in 1741, 
of Norman-Scotch ancestors. His marriage 
united him with Joannah Plum, who was born 
in England in 1747. In Rensselaer county, N. 
Y., their son Samuel was born in 1770. He 
married Jane Morrison, who was born in 1773, 
of Scotch and German antecedents. The grand- 
father, Joseph S., was also a native of New York 
state, born in 1795, and there he spent his entire 
life as farmer and hotel man, dying when about 
seventy-eight years old. His wife, Hannah, was 
born in 1793, of Scotch and German ancestors. 
Of the union of Joseph S. and Hannah McChes- 
ney, James was born in Troy, N. Y., in 1823. He 
received his primary education in his native city, 
later attending and graduating from Castleton 
(Vt.) Medical College in 1849. He at once 
opened an office for the practice of his profession 
in Troy, continuing there for two years, when, 
in 1851, he came to California and engaged in 
practice and also carried on a drug business at 
Columbia. During the thirteen years spent in 
that location he met with splendid success. In 
the meantime he made numerous trips east, 
bringing back cargoes of provisions and other 
supplies. He was on the Golden Gate when she 
was burned off the coast of Mexico in 1865, and 
had with him a quantity of gold which he was 
taking back east, but managed to save himself 
and his money. After remaining in Mexico for 
a time he finally completed the journey to Troy, 
N. Y. During 1859-60 he attended a medical 
college in New York City, after which he re- 
turned to Troy, where he engaged in the practice 
of his profession. During this time at Troy he 
speculated quite extensively, and lost over $20,- 
000 in all on the Board of Trade. He was over 
seventy years of age at this time, but he recov- 



ered his fortune and is now retired from active 
life, with a competency for his old age. He is now 
eighty-three years of age, and very active, writes 
an excellent hand, and reads without glasses. 
His wife, formerly Elizabeth Rose, was born in 
1825 in New York state, where she was reared 
and educated, coming to California in 1855 via 
Nicaragua. Of the one hundred and seventeen 
people in the party, one hundred died of cholera, 
but she with her small son escaped. She died at 
the age of seventy-seven years, her death occur- 
ring on Novembr 21, 1903. 

Joseph McQiesney was born at Columbia, Tu- 
olumne county, Cal., April 21, 1858, and is the 
second of three children, the eldest of whom is 
Daniel R., in the hardware business at Toledo, 
Ohio. The joungest child, Emma, is a maiden 
lady of excellent qualities of both mind and 
heart, and is noted for her gentle goodness and 
charitable acts ; she is general superintendent of 
the Troy Orphan Asylum. When his parents re- 
turned to the latter city in 1859 Joseph accom- 
panied them, remaining there until attaining 
school age, when he became a pupil in the com- 
mon schools. Subsequently he attended Hamil- 
ton College at Clinton, graduating therefrom 
with die degree of Bachelor of Arts. After this 
he attended the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons in New York City, having at an early age 
displayed a taste for the profession which his 
father had so honorably adorned ; after studying 
with his father he attended Hamilton College, 
from whish he received his degree. After gradu- 
ating from the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons in 1 88 1, he was for a time in St. Francis 
and Charity Hospitals, then became physician 
and surgeon for the Santa Fe Railroad in New 
Mexico. In 1884 he came to California, locating 
for a time at Yreka, where he practiced until 
1886, and two years later located at Quincy, 
where he built up a large practice. He has re- 
cently sold his practice here, to the regret of the 
community, and is going east to spend a year 
in the Hopkins University of Baltimore, Md., 
and in the medical colleges and hospitals. He is 
fraternally identified with the Masonic order at 
Quincy, and is past master of Plumas Lodge 
No. 60. 




ANDREW J. WILKERSON 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



r.Tit 



ANDREW JACKSON WILKERSON. 
Honored and influential among the old settlers 
of northeastern California is the gentleman whose 
name introduces this article and who still owns 
varied ranch and stock interests, A native of 
Middle Tennessee, he was bom fifty miles from 
Nashville on the 4th of July, 1832, and was one 
of fourteen children. Early in life he accom- 
panied his mother to Alabama and from there, 
at the age of thirteen years, went to Arkansas, 
where he made his home with a sister in Renton 
county. In 1859 he hired out to a Mr. Hale 
whose oxen he drove across the plains, arriving 
at Marysville after an uneventful trip of six 
months. Later, buying teams of his own, ho 
engaged in hauling freight between Marysville 
and Austin, clearing $1000 in a single trip. With 
the means thus earned he bought for $1800 the 
Willow ranch in Long valley, where he remained 
a number of years. From there he went to Ells- 
worth, Nev., and engaged in buying cattle, 
also conducted a meat market. Meanwhile he 
acquired the ranch in Lodi valley which he still 
owns and on which the Jacks springs are located. 
From Ellsworth he removed to a ranch on the 
Reese river, where he acquired vast interests in 
cattle and horses. Eventually he sold his brand, 
"A. J." for $4,700^ but reserved enough stock to 
enable him to start again. Since then he has 
used for his brand an inverted A and this brand 
on a horse is an accepted guarantee of its c|uality, 
for he has made a specialty of the finest breeds. 
While he has disposed of his cattle and the 
Reese river ranch he still owns the Ellsworth 
ranch, where his horses are now kept and where 
he spends a considerable part of each year. When 
the duties of his occupation permit of leisure, he 
retires to Susanville and visits with his daughters 
in their comfortable home. The nature of his 
occupation has been such as to preclude partici- 
pation in public affairs and fraternal and social 
activities, hence he has taken no part in politics 
and has not identified himself with any order 
except that of Masonry. 

After settling in Ellsworth Mr. Wilkerson met 
and married Hannah J. McKissick, who was 
born in northern Missouri and died at Ellsworth 
in September, 1877. at twenty-eight years of age. 



The family is of southern lineage. John Mc- 
Kissick was a native of North Carolina and 
established the family in Kentucky, whence he 
removed to a tract of raw land in the Platte 
Purchase in Missouri. Daniel, a son of John, 
was the first white male child born in the I'latte 
Purchase and he grew to manhootl in tliat then 
frontier, where he married Melissa Fowler, 
daughter of an officer in the war of 181 2. For 
a time he engaged in operating a sawmill in the 
southwestern part of Iowa on a small island that 
to this day bears the name of McKissick Island. 
A man of considerable genius and mechanical 
ability, he was well qualified for the milling 
business and, indeed, for all work requiring ex- 
pertness with tools and machinery. As a sur- 
veyor and civil engineer he displayed consider- 
able talent and did much skilled work. During 
1 861 he brought his family across the plains to 
Long valley, where his brother, Jacob, had settled 
many years before. After a time he removed 
to Ellsworth and took up the teaming business. 
In 1875 he returned to California and after a 
year in Honey Lake valley he settled in Secret 
valley, Lassen county, where he improved a 
ranch and carried on a large stock business. 
Secret valley was not discovered until years after 
Honey Lake valley had been settled and its 
whereabouts were accidentally revealed to Mr. 
Ball as he traveled through that part of the coun- 
try by way of the caiion bearing his name. 

On the ranch of nine hundred acres twenty- 
eight miles northeast of Susanville Daniel Mc- 
Kissick made his home from 1876 until his death. 
June 26, 1895, at seventy-five years of age, and 
amid the scenes familiar to him through all those 
years he was laid to his last rest. It was not 
long before his wife joined him in. death, her 
demise occurring December 26, 1896. Both were 
earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Oiurch and possessed the high principles of 
honor, broad spirit of charity and strict integrity 
that ever characterize the true Giristian. In 
politics he voted with the Democratic party. His 
brother, Jacob, previously mentioned as having 
preceded him to the west, became a wealthy 
stockman, a large land owner and a prominent 



k 



080 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Knight Templar Mason, and passed his last days 
in Nevada, dying at Reno. 

In the family of Mr. Wilkerson there were 
four children, namely : Andrew J., who was a 
little less than seven years of age when he died 
at the family home in Secret valley; Henry J., 
who engages in ranching near Fallon, Nev. ; 
Etta May and Hannah Jane, who were reared 
in the home of their grandfather, Daniel Mc- 
Kissick, and attended the district schools of 
Secret valley. During April of 1902 they re- 
moved to .Susanville, where they own a com- 
modious residence in Hall's addition to the city. 
Among the people of the town they are promi- 
nent and popular, being faithful members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church and generous con- 
tributors to worthy causes. Miss Etta is an 
active worker in the Order of the Eastern Star 
and is also known as a skilled horsewoman, while 
Miss Hannah, who completed her studies in 
Reno, is now teaching school at Willow creek. 



DUNCAN jMcINTYRE. There are few of 
the interests associated with the material develop- 
ment of Plumas county that have lacked the co- 
operation and practical assistance of Mr. Mcln- 
tyre, who, while aiding in the permanent growtli 
of the country, has also established his own for- 
tunes upon a firm basis so that he now ranks 
among the moneyed men of this region. When 
he came to California in the fall of 1869 he set- 
tled at Greenville and since then his history has 
been that of the town, for he has prospered alike 
as merchant, manufacturer, hotel proprietor and 
miner. Though to a degree retired from com- 
mercial activities, he still owns a store, and almost 
all of the stock in the Round Valley Consolidated 
Mining Company, having one hundred and forty 
thousand out of the one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand shares in his own name, and owning four 
excellent locations with quartz mine prospects on 
the same. 

As their name indicates, the Mclntyre family 
is of Scotch origin. Duncan Mclntyre, Sr., was 
born in the highlands of Scotland, and at ah 
early age came to America, settling near the St. 



Lawrence river in Canada, where he remained 
until his death at eighty-four years. His son, 
Duncan, Jr., was born in the county of Glen- 
gary, province of Ontario, April 18, 1848, and 
remained at the old homestead until he was 
twenty years of age, when he started out to 
make his own way in the world. Going first to 
Minnesota, he worked in the harvest fields near 
Patterson, and then was employed in a brick- 
yard, but after six months returned to Ontario. 
In the fall of 1869 he left Canada permanently 
and settled in California, where for six years he 
was employed by the day in the timber and 
quartz mills near Greenville. Next for eight 
years he conducted a soda manufacturing busi- 
ness, from which he netted fair returns. On 
selling the plant he turned his attention in 1S84 
to die general mercantile business, in which he 
met with a growing and gratifying success, and 
which he has conducted up to the present time. 
In 1889 he bought the large building used for a 
hotel, and this he conducted in addition to manag- 
ing the store. After five years he sold the hotel, 
but four years later he was obliged to take the 
property back, and subsequently he continued as 
proprietor of the hotel until 1904, when he sold 
the property to his son-in-law, George Wiegand, 
the present proprietor. 

The marriage of Mr. Mclntyre occurred in 
Alay, 1873, and united him with Miss Elizabeth 
Skinner, who was born in Scotland April 23, 
1848, and in childhood accompanied relatives to 
the province of Quebec, Canada, settling near 
Montreal, and from there in the fall of 1869 
came to California. Nine children were born 
of their union, but three died in infancy or child- 
hood. The others are named as follows : Lewis 
Philip, who is associated with his fatlier in busi- 
ness; Maude, wife of George Wiegand, of 
Greenville ; Donald James, who is engaged in 
mining in this section ; John Angus, who is now 
learning the machinist's trade in Canada ; Wal- 
lace Bruce, who resides with his parents at Green- 
ville ; and Duncan William, who died at twenty- 
one years of age. In politics Mr. Mclntyre 
votes with the Republican party. There are few 
residents of Plumas county to wdiom has been 
granted as large a degree of success as that 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



CM 



which has rewarded the efforts of Mr. Mcln- 
t_\re, who occupies a place among the wcaltliy 
business men of northern California. The pos- 
sessor of executive ability, keen judgment, dis- 
criminating foresight and tireless energy, he 
was enabled to secure a foothold in the busi- 
ness world through the exercise of these quali- 
ties, and after a substantial start had been secured 
the upward progress was rapid and steady. Un- 
aided he has risen to influence and prominence. 
When he came west he was a stranger in a 
strange land, unfamiliar with the customs of the 
])eople and ignorant of the possibilities of west- 
ern soil or her mines or agricultural wealth ; yet, 
hampered as he was, he nevertheless gained a 
(inick and steady hold upon commercial enter- 
prises, and has gained a prestige as a man of 
unusual capabilities as well as high principles. 



CLARK J. LEE. To a large number of the 
men who have found business opportunities 
awaiting them in Plumas county and in turn 
have endeavored to promote the commercial 
welfare of this portion of California, mention 
belongs to Clark J. Lee, president of the Plumas 
County Bank and projirietor of the leading gen- 
eral merchandise store in Ouincy. As are a 
great many of her best business men, Mr. Lee 
is a native Californian. and was born near Dob- 
bins, Yuba county, July 7, 1861, a son of Cory- 
don and Elizabeth (Rodgers) Lee. 

In 1852, when CaHfornia was still in the in- 
fancy of its history as a commonwealth, Cory- 
don Lee left his native surroundings in Michi- 
gan, came to California by way of Panama and 
located in Plumas coimty in what is now La 
Porte. Before coming to the west he had read 
law and upon locating in La Porte began the 
practice of his profession, in addition to which 
he carried on mining with considerable success 
for several >ears. With the money which he 
had thus accumulated he established himself in 
the cattle business at Marysville, but the ven- 
ture proved disastrous, losing all of the money 
which he had invested in the enterprise. Undis- 
nuned h\ this stroke of ill-luck, however, in 



1806 he located in Quincy and establisheil the 
general store of which his son is now the pro- 
prietor, carrying it on successfully the remain- 
der of his life. Three years prior to his death, 
wliich occurred in March, 1889, at t'l*-' age of 
sixty-nine years, he met with an accident which 
unquestionably hastened his death. .As a Demo- 
crat he was a conscientious voter, but never an 
office seeker. .Mthough he had met with the 
usual ups and downs that come to all pioneers, 
he was successful in the main, and so thoroughly 
had he adopted western life and customs that he 
was known as a typical Californian. His wife, 
formerly Elizabeth Rodgers, was also a native 
of Michigan, and in that state their marriage was 
celebrated. Coming to California in 1855, Mrs. 
Lee spent the remainder of her life in this 
state, dying in 1870, when only forty-one years 
of age. Besides Clark J. she left two children. 
Thomas C, a liveryman in Oroville, and .\lta 
Elizabeth, the wife of James W. Larison, a resi- 
dent of Quincy. 

When Gark J. Lee was a lad of five years his 
parents took up their residence in Quincy, and 
as soon as he was old enough began his studies 
in the public schools. After his school days 
were over he clerked in his father's store until 
he became of age, wdien he was given a one- 
fourth interest in the business, .^fter the fath- 
er's death he purchased the interest of the other 
heirs and has since conducted the business 
alone, owning and managing one of the leading 
general merchandise establishments in Quincy. 
When the advisability of establishing a bank in 
Quincy was recognized he was one of the first 
to give his approval to the innovation, and wlien 
the Plumas County Bank was established in 
1903, with a capital stock of $25,000. he was 
cho.sen president of the institution. 

The marriage of Mr. Lee, which was sol- 
emnized Eebruary 22. 1886, united him with 
Miss Elizabeth Miller, who was born in Gibson- 
ville. Sierra county, this state, and two children 
have been born to thciu, Mildred and Corydon, 
aged nine and tw^o years respectively, .^s was 
his father before him, Mr. Lee is a Democrat in 
his political belief, and like him. too. lie has 
never had any desire to fill public positions. 



682 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



By virtue of his birth in this state he is entitled 
to membership in the Native Sons of the Golden 
West and is identified with Plumas Parlor No. 
131, while fraternally he is a member of Plumas 
Lodge No. 88, I. O. O. F., also of Quincy. It 
may be said of Mr. Lee that he has thoroughl\- 
understood and appreciated the advantages by 
which he was surrounded and turned them to 
the best possible account, in consequence of 
which he has become one of the prominent and 
financially substantial men of Plumas county. 



MRS. KATE HOSTETTER. The years in 
their flight have brought many changes to the 
western country since Mrs. Hostetter, a child of 
eleven years, crossed the plains and for the first 
time viewed the prospects of the then frontier. 
Reared and educated in the west, she is devoted 
to its development and intensely interested in its 
progress, particularly as related to matters agri- 
cultural. Practically all of her married life has 
been passed upon ranches and she now owns a 
well improved farm in Honey Lake valley, Las- 
sen county, which, at the time the land was taken 
up by Mr. Hostetter, presented a drearj' aspect 
of sagebrush, destitute of even the slightest at- 
tempt at improvement. The one hundred and 
sixty acres of the original farm now bear ex- 
cellent improvements, and a later purchase of 
forty acres across the creek also has been brought 
under cultivation, the entire estate being de- 
voted to alfalfa, dairying and general farm prod- 
ucts. 

A native of Montgomery county, Ind., Mrs. 
Hostetter was a daughter of William R. and 
Sarah (Stover) Harrison, and a granddaughter 
of George and- Anna (Rader) Stover, members 
of old \'irginia families. Her mother was boni 
in Mrginia and at an early age removed to In- 
diana, where she met and married William R. 
Harrison. The latter was born April 29, 1813. 
in North Carolina, and was a third cousin of 
President William Henr\' Harrison and a man of 
education and ability. For some years thev lived 
in Iowa and he followed the profession of law, 
but in 1849 he became one of the early miners of 



California, attracted across the plains by reports 
concerning fortunes to be made in the mines of 
the coast. IDuring the spring of 1858 he returned 
east for his famil>- and immediately brought 
them to California. As he crossed the plains 
with them he met an old Sioux Indian chief and, 
being a Mason, gave him the sign, which he 
afterward believed saved the party, for the In- 
dian told him to remam in camp on that spot for 
one day. At the expiration of the time the chief 
returned and told them that they could continue 
in safety. It then developed that he had gone 
ahead and given notice to a band of Indians not 
to molest the party. 

A prominent lawyer and leading Republican of 
the early days in the west, William R. Harrison 
served as the first judge of the counties of Shas- 
ta and Tehama, and as the second of Lassen 
county, and at one time was district attorney of 
Tehama county, and also of Lassen county. 
Meanwhile he held numerous interests in mines 
in this state and Nevada, but gave his attention 
principally to the work of a lawyer and an office- 
holder. On the organization of the first Ma- 
sonic Lodge in Shasta county he became a char- 
ter member and served as its master, later in- 
stalled the lodge at Susanville and various other 
places, and also rose to the degree of Knight 
Templar. His death occurred at Susanville, Las- 
sen county, April 24, 1870; his widow still sur- 
vives and, at the age of ninety years, is active 
and remarkably well preserved. 

The first marriage of Miss Kate Harrison took 
place in Humboldt county, Nev., November 12, 
1863, and united her with Thomas Benton John- 
ston, who was born in Missouri, crossed tlie 
plains in the early '50s and afterward sojourned 
in various parts of California and Nevada. The 
day after their marriage they started for Cali- 
fornia and settled later at Red Bluff, from which 
place, in 1871, removal was made to Susanville. 
Four children were bom of the marriage, three 
of whom survive, namely ; Sallie, who married 
Allen J. Long and lives in Plumas county ; Sam- 
uel Thomas, who married ]\Iiss Ida Bronson and 
lives in Plumas county ; and Zebnoe, who re- 
mains with his mother. January i. 1874, Mrs. 
Johnston became the wife of Francis Marion 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



fis3 



Hostetter, whci was Ijorn in Missouri, crossed the 
])lains in 1862 and settled in Lassen county, tak- 
ing up land now owned by Mrs. C. O. Barham. 
The tract was wholly unimproved, but under his 
super\'ision was transfonned from the primeval 
condition of nature into a valuable estate, w-ith 
orchard, farm house and cultivated fields. On 
selling that property he bought the tract now 
owned by his widow. In addition to improving 
his land he owned and operated a sawmill. In 
early manhood, while living in Iowa, he had mar- 
ried Julia Bradley. Five children were born of 
the union, who are now living, namely; Mary, 
who married Edward Tregastia and lives in Ne- 
vada ; Jane, Mrs. James Haley, of California ; 
John, in Montana ; Anna, in Sierraville, Cal. ; 
and Ulysses, in Montana. Of his second mar- 
riage five children were born, three of whom 
are living, namely : Bert, who remains with his 
mother and assists in the cultivation of the home 
place ; Leila, Mrs. H. Fitch, of Hot Springs ; and 
Lenus, living with his mother on the home ranch. 
The husband and father passed away February 
II, 1897, and was buried in the Janesville ceme- 
tery. In politics he voted with the Republican 
party from the time of its organization until the 
date of his death, and, though not active in l(X~al 
affairs, he maintained an intelligent interest in 
all movements for the benefit of the community. 
Since his demise, his son, Bert, and step-son, 
Zebnoe Johnston, have cultivated the home place, 
and in addition own and operate three hundred 
and twenty acres near Hot Springs, both mean- 
while remaining with their mother on the Honey 
Lake valley ranch. Both are stanch Republicans 
in fKjlitical views ; both also are identified with 
Honey Lake Parlor No. 198, N. S. G. W., at 
Janesville, and Mr. Johnston has officiated as 
president of that organization. 



LORENZO ELLIOTT WINCHESTER. 
The substantial and well-to-do agriculturists of 
Lassen county have no better representative than 
Lorenzo Elliott Winchester, who owns and occu- 
pies a highlv improved and well-appointed farm, 
lying one and one-half miles east of Susanville. 



A man of enterprise and keen foresigiit, he pos- 
sesses a good understanding of the best ways of 
so conducting his business as to secure tlie most 
satisfactory returns, and in his chosen calling is 
meeting with excellent success. A native of 
Michigan, he was 1x)rn July 24. 18^4. in Wayne 
county, about thirty miles from Detroit, a son of 
Elliott Winchester, of whom a brief sketch may 
be found elsewhere in this volume. 

Brought up on the home farm. Lorenzo Elliott 
Winchester attended the district school when a 
boy, and at the age of ten years began to be self- 
supporting, working for his board and clothes, 
and going to school winters. In June, 1861. in- 
spired by patriotic ardor, he enlisted in Company 
B, Forty-fourth Ohio \'oIunteer Infantry, and 
being mustered into the service at Parkersburg 
served in Virginia for two years under Rose- 
crans. In 1863 he was mustered out. and hon- 
orably discharged on account of physical disa- 
bility. Returning to his native state he bought 
land in Wayne county and embarked in farming. 
Selling out in 1871, he came to California, locat- 
ing in Honey I^ike valley. In 1872 he bought 
his present ranch of three hundred and sixty 
acres, lying on the Susan river, a mile and a 
half from Susanville. His ranch is irrigated by 
ditches, receiving water from the river, and is 
all meadow land, being called Meadow ranch. 
In the care of his estate he exercises great skill 
and good judgment, and is ver>- profitably en- 
gaged in the cattle business and hay raising, 
some seasons harvesting seven hundred tons. 
He also raises thoroughbred cattle, making a 
specialty of Shorthorns and Durhams. Besides 
his home property he formerly owned a ranch 
in Madeline and one in Modoc county, both of 
which he sold at an advantage. In addition to 
the interests already mentioned he deals in agri- 
cultural implements, representing the Mihvaukee 
farm machinery, and the Melrose wagons and 
carriages, having a good trade in each. He is 
also engaged to some extent in the dairy busi- 
ness, keeping a fine grade of cows. 

Mr. Winchester married for his first wife, in 
\\'ayne county, Mich., Georgiana Carpenter, 
who was born in that county and died in 1876 
in Lassen countv. Cal. She left two children, 



68i 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



namely : George Edward, a blacksmith in Su- 
sanville ; and Ida, wife of John Cornell of Su- 
sanville. In Susanville Mr. Winchester married 
Sarah Pickard, who was born in Honey Lake 
valley, a daughter of Thomas Pickard, who set- 
tled here as a pioneer, and is now a resident of 
British Columbia. Mr. and Mrs. Winchester are 
the parents of six children, namely : Charles Ed- 
ward, Maude, Richard, Robert, Thomas and 
Franklin. In politics Mr. Winchester is inde- 
pendent, voting with the courage of his convic- 
tions, regardless of party restrictions. He was 
a member of Benton Post No. 163, G. A. R., un- 
til its charter lapsed, and served for a time as its 
commander. Mrs. Wincliester is a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal church and an active 
worker in the denomination. 



PETER KENTON HEARD. From boyhood 
a resident of California and now engaged in 
farming in Surprise valley, Modoc county, Mr. 
Heard is a native of Texas and was born Febru- 
ary II, 1873, to Kenyon and Mary (Pate) 
Heard. When he was ten years of age he ac- 
companied his parents from Texas via the 
southern overland route to California and set- 
tled with them, after a trip of six months, on a 
ranch near Lake City, where his mother still 
makes her home, and where his father died in 
1893 at the age of sixty-five years. At the age 
of twenty years he started out to earn his own 
livelihood and for nearly two years rented, to- 
gether with his oldest brother, the old homestead, 
but for the fcjllowing four years he rented land 
in Plumas county, this state. On his return tn 
Modoc county he bought the Gilcher ranch of 
three hundred and twenty acres near Eagleville, 
and here he since has engaged in agricultural 
pursuits. Of his land about fifty acres are in 
alfalfa, while the balance is in meadow, grain 
land and pasture. 

The marriage of Mr. Heard took place in the 
spring of 1893 and united him with ]\Iiss Maude 
Miller, who was born in Plumas county, re- 
ceived a fair education, and for some terms 
prior to her marriage engaged in teaching 
school. Her father, Andrew Miller, was a na- 



tive of Bavaria, Germany, but left there at the 
age of nine years and with his parents settled in 
Maryland, the family home being in Harford 
county for three years. From there he accom- 
panied the family to Illinois and settled in Pike 
county. Crossing the plains in 1849, lie en- 
gaged in farming in the Sacramento valley. A 
\ear later he went to Hangtown, where he re- 
mained until the spring of 1851, and then for 
twelve years engaged in the mercantile business 
at Longville. In 1863 he removed to Susan- 
ville, Lassen county, and with a partner. Rufus 
Kingsley, erected the first fire-proof store in the 
village, a building now owned by Alexander & 
Knoch. In addition he operated the old Stew- 
art hotel. In April of 1871 he was appointed 
receiver of the United States land office at Su- 
sanville, holding that office for twelve years. 
As early as 1859 he had purchased a tract of 
land near Longville, Plumas county, and, after 
years of business activity, he retired to his land- 
ed estate, where he died December 5, 1903. At 
the time of his death he was seventy-seven 
years of age, his birth having occurred June 8, 
1826. Fraternally he was identified with the 
lodge, chapter and commandery of Masonry at 
Susanville. August 25, 1862, he was united in 
marriage with Miss Lydia Abbott Russell, who 
was born in Maine August 20, 1838. They be- 
came the parents of the following children : 
Maude, Mrs. Heard; Russell Keith, who was 
born April 12. 1865; Frank Leon, born August 
3, 1866, and now residing at Longville, Cal. ; 
Mabel L., who was born February 11, 1868, and 
now owns and conducts a mercantile husiness at 
Longville ; Perley, who was born January 6, 
1870, and is now living in San Francisco: and 
Mark, who was born December 30, 1873, ^''^1 
makes Longville his home. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Heard were lx)rn three children : Hazel was 
born February 8, 1894; Perry, July 12, 1895; 
and Lois, born May 28, 1905, died April 25, 
1906. The family are identified with the Con- 
gregational church and Mrs. Heard is also iden- 
tified with the Order of Eastern Star at Al- 
turas. In politics Mr. Heard votes with the 
Democratic party and gives his support to its 
men and measures. 



IIlSTOKiCA!. AXl) lUOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



685 



GRANT A. SCHROTER. A successful mer- 
chant of Shasta, Shasta county, is Grant A. 
Schroter, the son of Gunther Frederick Carl and 
Pauline Schroter, both natives of Prussia. The 
father was a harness maker by trade, following it 
until 1850, when he emigrated to America, mak- 
ing his home in Chicago, 111., for two years. In 
1852 he came to California, driving an ox team 
across the plains, and upon arriving in the state, 
located at Marysville, where he engaged in har- 
ness making for a year, at which time his shop 
was burned. Going from Marysville to Sacra- 
mento, he worked at his trade until the spring 
of 1855, then came to Shasta and opened a har- 
ness shop. At the end of three years he sent 
back to Germany for his sweetheart, and they 
were married here in 1858. 

Fourteen years later Mr. Schroter opened a 
harness shop in Redding, and also the Charter 
Oak hotel at Shasta, which he operated until 
1888, then rented it and moved to Redding, 
where he was again burned out. In 1894 he sold 
out his place at Redding and returned to Shasta, 
there living a retired life until his death, which 
occurred March 15, 1905, at the age of seventy- 
five years, nine months and seven days. He 
was a member of Western Star Lx>dge, No. 2, F. 
& A. M. Mrs. Schroter died January 9, 1884, 
leaving nine children. Oscar Alvin, born June 
12, i860, died August 9, 1880; Arthur E., who 
was born November 26, 1861, is engaged in mu. 
ing at the Little Nellie mine in Shasta county, 
Otto Paul, who was born November 13, 1863, 
is now residing in San Mateo, in the employ of 
the Spring Valley Water Company; Gunther 
Frederick, born March 23, 1864, is now running 
his father's general merchandise store; Fritz 
Carl, born December 5, 1865. is engaged in min- 
ing; Emilie W. F., who was born April 15, 1867, 
is the wife of J. S. Strode, who is owner and 
manager of the Oro Grand mine; W. A. makes 
his home in Redding ; Augusta A. is the wife of 
G. C. Stroder, of Trinity county ; and Grant A. 
completes the family. 

Grant A. Schroter was born January 14, 1869, 

and was educated in the common schools of 

Shasta county, making his home with his parents 

until his seventeenth year. After learning the 

18 



blacksmith's trade he followed it for four years, 
at tlie end of which time he went to Igo and 
opened a shop for himself. At the end of one 
year he sold out and went to Mott, working there 
at his trade for a few months, then came to 
Shasta and bought a half interest in the black- 
smith business of Sam Isaacs. Selling this at the 
end of one year, he engaged in mining for three 
years, then went to Trinity county and operated 
a mill for his brother-in-law, Mr. Strode, for 
three seasons, then came back to Shasta and 
again engaged in mining, which he continued 
until 1898, when he purchased the general mer- 
chandise store which he now owns and manages. 
May 18, 1897, he was married to .\gatlia Schaf- 
ter, who was born in Germany, and one child has 
come to bless this union, Nellie Malvina, who is 
five years of age. Mr. Schroter is supervisor of 
district No. i of Shasta county, which position 
he has filled for three years, and is vice president 
of the Sacramento Valley Development Associa- 
tion, and a member of the executive committee of 
same. Fraternally he is identified with the Ma- 
sons, belonging to the same lodge of which his 
father was a member, of which lue was master 
in 1903. He supports the Republican party, as 
did his father also. 



SARDIS D. WILCOX. Owing to conditions 
of soil and climate a portion of Tehama county 
is peculiarly adapted to the slieep industry, fur- 
nishing the pasturage on which this breed of 
stock flourish with especial vigor. While still 
a mere youth Mr. Wilcox became cognizant of 
the advantages offered to sheep-raisers in this 
locality and, grasping the opportunity, he thus in 
earlv manhood laid the foundation of his present 
gratifying success and his standing among the 
leading sheep-raisers of the county. The saga- 
cious judgment which led him into this industry 
has enabled him to surmount obstacles and over- 
come hardships, and, while lie has had some re- 
verses, to a large degree his career has bc.'n one 
of success and prosperity. 

The record of the Wilcox family will be found 
elsewhere in this volume, in the sketch of G. B. 



686 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Wilcox, who is a brother of Sardis D. Wilcox, 
their father being Abel M., well known among 
the pioneers of the early '60s in Tulare county. 
Born in Stillwater, Minn., February 16, 1851, 
Sardis D. Wilcox was a child of nine years when 
he accompanied his parents across the plains and 
at the expiration of a long and tedious but un- 
eventful journey settled four miles east of 
Portersville, Tulare county. From there, after 
a little less than five years, he came to Red Bluff 
at the age of fourteen years, in July of 1865. At 
an early age he began to be self-supporting and 
when eighteen years old he turned his attention 
to the occupation of sheep-shearing. Carefully 
hoarding his earnings, he was able to lay aside 
$1,000 by the time he had attained the age of 
twenty-one years. With this as an encouraging 
start he embarked in the cattle business, but in 
1882 turned his attention to the raising of sheep, 
which has been his principal occupation through- 
out life. The first land which he secured was 
taken up from the government and has been 
added to from time to time, until now he has 
twenty thousand acres in Tehama, Shasta, Modoc 
and Lassen counties, a part of which is tillable 
land, although the larger part is for pasturage 
only. On his home ranch, situated four miles 
north of Red Bluff, he now has about eleven 
thousand head of sheep, and in their care em- 
ploys a large number of hands during the busy 
seasons. 

The marriage of Mr. Wilcox occurred in Wat- 
kins, N. Y., July 15, 1895, and united him with 
Miss Cora May Close, who was born in Pennsyl- 
vania and died in California January 20, 1897, 
at the age of thirty years. The only child of 
their union is a daughter, Imogene, who is now 
a student in the Red Bluff schools. Among the 
people in his part of Tehama county Mr. Wilcox 
is known as an enterprising ranchman and capa- 
ble stock-raiser, one who works systematically 
and with method, keen to see an opportunity to 
increase his successes and prompt in decision 
and action. To one so devoted to personal affairs 
as he, the activity of a politician presents no fas- 
cinations and public life makes no appeals of im- 
pelhng influence. Nor do fraternal matters en- 
gross his attention to the detriment of home 



duties, for he has no identification with such 
other than his membership in Lodge No. 76, I. 
O. O. F., at Red Bluff. Though displaying 
neither fraternal nor political activity, he is a 
man of friendly disposition, warm-hearted and 
genial, ever ready to aid worthy men and worthy 
movements, and thus gives to his community a 
citizenship of the highest order. 



MARCELLUS B. VILAS. Since 1865 M. 
B. Vilas has been identified with the business 
men of Shasta county as the owner of a large 
sawmill situated two and a half miles east of 
Shingletown. Through his native thrift and 
close attention to business he is now enjoying a 
large patronage in the county in which he has 
made his home for some years. He is the son of 
Joseph and Mary Vilas, natives of Vermont and 
New Hampshire respectively. The father lived 
to reach his seventy-seventh year, but his mother 
died in 1840, when her son, M. B., was only six 
years of age. 

Born in St. Lawrence county, N. Y., March 
23, 1834, Marcellus B. Vilas received his educa- 
tion in the public schools of his community, inter- 
spersed with light duties on the home farm. At 
the age of seventeen years he embarked in the 
stock business, buying horses and shipping them 
to the western states. He continued in that occu- 
pation for three years, after which he engaged in 
lumbering in Wisconsin, remaining there for four 
years. At this time the discovery of gold at 
Pikes Peak was causing considerable emigration, 
and in 1859 ^^i"- Vilas determined to join the 
tide of gold seekers, starting across the plains 
with ox-teams. Upon reaching Ft. Laramie he 
determined to try his fortunes in California in- 
stead, and arrived in this state in September, 
1859. Locating in Shasta county, he engaged in 
mining for six years, meeting with well deserved 
success. After a short time spent in Nevada he 
returned to this state in 1865 and purchased the 
property, whereon he made his home for thirty- 
four years. In December, 1905, he removed to 
Modesto, where he has one hundred and twelve 
acres in alfalfa. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



687 



In 1864 Mr. Vilas married Emma Williamson, 
and of the union were born four children, 
namely: Edward P., living at Anderson; Helen, 
the wife of Mark Thatcher, a mill man of Shasta 
county; Lillie, the wife of Samuel Sorenson, of 
Reynolds Mill; and Walter M., in business with 
his father. In 1876, twelve years after their mar- 
riage, the death of Mrs. Vilas occurred, at the 
age of twenty-nine years. Three years later Mr. 
Vilas married Sarah McMulIen, a native of Ire- 
land, and they are the parents of seven children ; 
Perry E., in business with his father; Clay, at 
home ; Bertha M., residing in San Francisco ; 
Gertrude, the wife of Leo D. Weinnand. of San 
Francisco, and Homer, Herbert and Ralph, the 
three latter at home. 

Fraternally Mr. Vilas is a Mason, belonging 
to the lodge at Millville. His political views 
bring him into afifiliation with the Republican 
party, whose men and measures he supports by 
his ballot. 



SARAH ELIZABETH SPANN. One of 
the capable and successful business women of 
Anderson, Shasta county, Mrs. Sarah E. Si)ann 
resides on her property one mile and a half east 
of Anderson, which consists of fifty acres de- 
voted to peaches and prunes. She was born in 
Adams county, 111., December 22, 1836, the 
daughter of John T. and Mary (Haney) Free- 
man, natives of Virginia and Pennsylvania re- 
spectively. After their marriage in Ohio they 
located first in Adams county, 111., thence re- 
moved to Iowa, and later to Missouri, where they 
remained until the spring of 1853. Desiring to 
locate in the more remote west Mr. and Mrs. 
Freeman drove ox-teams to California and up>on 
their arrival in this state, after six months en 
route, settled near Balls Ferry, Shasta county, 
where the mill now stands. In this section he 
engaged in farming and stock-raising until 1856, 
then removed to Thomas creek, Tehama count}', 
and again engaged in ranching and sheep rais- 
ing to quite an extent until his death, which oc- 
curred in August, 1871, at the age of sixty-seven 
years. His wife died in May, 1869, also at the 
age of sixty-seven years. 



In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Freeman were 
three daughters and two sons. Sarah Elizabeth 
being the only one Jiving. Her early education 
was received in the common schools of Missouri, 
and while still young she came to California with 
her parents. She resided with her parents on the 
home farm until her marriage to John Wilson, 
which occurred in August. 1855. He was a na- 
tive of Tennessee, but his eariy boyhood was 
spent in Missouri. In 1850 he crossed the plains 
to Oregon and the following year came to Cali- 
fornia, purchasing the property now managed bv 
Mrs. Spann. Mr. Wilson bought the land from 
Major Redding and devoted the same to farming 
until his death, which occurred December 9, 1863. 
at the age of thirty-six years. Mr. and Mrs. 
Wilson were the parents of four children, name- 
ly: James C. Mar>' Alice, George A. and Ella 
A., all deceased with the exception of James C, 
who resides with his mother. 

August 26, 1866, Mrs. Wilson married John 
Wesley Spann, who was born in Tennessee, but 
was reared to manhood in Missouri, where he 
was editor of a newspaper at Independence. In 
1850 he came to California by boat and soon after 
his arrival became assessor of Placer county. He 
also engaged in niining and erected a quartz mill 
in that county. About this time he took a trip 
east and upon his second arrival in California, 
in 1859, located at Sacramento, where the death 
of his first wife occurred. In 1865 he removed 
to Shasta county and participated in the mining 
enterprises at Texas Springs until his second 
marriage, after which he followed agricultural 
pursuits until his death, also officiating as justice 
of the peace of Anderson for sixteen years. 

Mr. Spann was an active member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church South, and took an inter- 
est in all matters pertaining to its welfare. His 
death occurred March 19. i88fi. at the age of 
sixty-three years. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. 
Spann were four children : Elizabeth E. is the 
wife of Eugene Shanahan of this vicinity; Anna 
Jessie, deceased, was the wife of Henry B. Fris- 
bie. by whom she had two children. Edward Wes- 
ley and Cyril Osmond, deceased ; Qiarles H., 
who was born January 14, 1871, has lived on the 
home farm all his life with the exception of eight 



688 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



years spent in San Francisco ; he was married 
February 3, 1902, to Emma Aldersley, of the lat- 
ter city, and they are the parents of two children, 
Margaret E. and John A. ; and John Richard 
Spann was married in September, 1899, to Elsie 
Fallon and resides in the home vicinity ; they 
have two children. Norma Lulu and Robert Al- 
mon. Mrs. Spann is very active in the manage- 
ment of her property, which shows in its im- 
provements careful attention and well-directed 
efforts. 



HENRY C. COMPTON. One of the old- 
time ranchers and cattle men who made a place 
for himself in the history of Butte county was 
Henry C. Compton. His father, Runyon Comp- 
ton, was a native of England, a farmer by occu- 
parion, who immigrated to Windsor, Canada, 
and from there came to the United States, locat- 
ing near Detroit, Mich., where his death oc- 
curred. His wife was formerly Eliza Ketchum, 
a native of Canada, her death also occurring in 
Michigan. Of this union fourteen children were 
born, seven sons and seven daughters, the sec- 
ond child being Henry C. Compton. His birth 
occurred in Windsor, Canada, and his boyhood 
was spent in Michigan, where he divided his 
time between attending public school and work- 
ing on his father's farm. In early manhood he 
came to California, making the trip by way of 
the Isthmus of Panama, and for a time worked 
in the mines around Placerville and Hangtown, 
making some money, but not liking mining he 
came to Butte county. Locating near Oiico he 
took up land, but this proved to be a Mexican 
grant and he therefore lost it. He then rented 
land from the grant and engaged in farming and 
stock-raising, besides raising grain. He later re- 
moved to the Pitt river, and after remaining 
there for a short time returned tO' Butte county 
and purchased the homestead of one hundred 
and ninety-two acres lying two miles south of 
Qiico. upon which he engaged in general farm- 
ing. Later he purchased a farm in Colusa coun- 
ty, consisting of nineteen hundred and twenty- 
five acres, which he devoted to the cultivation 
of grain and the raising of stock, and there his 
death occurred. 



In Marysville, Cal., November 30, 1859, Mr. 
Compton was married to Mary Murdock, who 
was born near Belfast, County Down, Ireland. 
Six children were born of this union, namely: 
Adam M. ; Lizzie Ann, wife of E. Packer, of 
Colusa county ; Henry C, Jr., who lives near the 
homestead ; Ira Lorenzo, who makes his home 
on the Colusa county ranch ; Mary Ellen, wife 
of John Deter, who resides on the home place ; 
and Jane, deceased. Mrs. Compton was a daugh- 
ter of Gawn and Ann (Cain) Murdock. natives 
of County Down, Ireland, where the father car- 
ried on farming, and where his death occurred. 
After her husband's death Mrs. Murdock came 
to the United States, reaching New Orleans in 
1850, thence going up the river to Ohio. In 
1853 she came to California, starting from Ar- 
kansas and making the trip across the plains 
with ox-teams. Seven months and five days were 
consumed in making the trip and as they met 
heavy storms of rain and snow it was a trying 
ordeal. Mrs. Murdock had twelve children with 
her, including her own and her step-children. 
She first located on a ranch near Yuba City, but 
the latter years of her life were spent in the home 
of her daughter, Mrs. Compton, where her death 
occurred. 

Since the death of her husband Mrs. Compton, 
with the help of her sons, has successfully man- 
aged the estate, including the fine home place 
of one hundred and ninety-two acres near Chico 
(where she lives, in company with her daughter, 
Mrs. John Deter) and the Colusa county ranch 
of nineteen hundred and twenty-five acres, which 
is devoted to stock-raising and the cultivation of 
grain. Mrs. Compton is a very able woman, of 
bright intellect and charming conversation. 



HUGH MOONEY. Born in 1825, in County 
Down, Ireland, where both of his parents spent 
their entire lives, Hugh Mooney worked on his 
father's farm until about twenty years of age. 
His education was very limited, owing to the 
lack of advantages in his native county, and in 
1846, when about twenty years of age, he came 
to America and located in Philadelphia, Pa. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



689 



Having learned the blacksmith's trade from his 
father he followed that calling until the winter 
of 1847, when he went to Pittsburg, that state, 
and was similarly occupied for two years. Sub- 
sequently he went to Cincinnati, but soon left 
there for Wisconsin, where he worked in the 
lead mines and at his trade for about a year. 
Going from there to Galena, 111., he remained 
until 1 85 1. During that year he went to St. 
Louis and to St. Joseph, Mo., again working at 
his trade, and it was while in St. Joseph that 
the opportunity to come west came to him. His 
passage cost him $100, $50 of which had to be 
paid down, and the remainder one month after 
arriving in Sacramento, Cal. He arrived August 
20, 1852, and the following day he obtained em- 
ployment at blacksmithing at $6 per day and 
board. Everything was very high during those 
days, the cost of shoeing a horse being $6, and 
general blacksmith work was charged for in pro- 
portion. 

Having saved his money, Mr. Mooncy gave up 
his position in Sacramento and went to Poor 
Man's creek with $250, but at the end of three 
months returned to Sacramento without a cent, 
bare-footed and half starved. He went to work 
for a few days, then proceeded to Marysville 
with $2.50, with which he purchased a pair of 
shoes and obtained work at his trade, but after 
two months at Marysville, returned to his old 
position at Sacramento, where he remained until 
1854. In that year he went to Red Bluff and 
set up a blacksmith shop. Two years later he 
made a trip to Ireland, but at the end of six 
months returned to California; the condition of 
things in Red Bluff not meeting his expectations 
he decided to come to Tehama, where he again 
worked at his trade, and in 1857 purchased a 
shop in which he followed his trade until 1862. 
In that year he purchased two hundred acres of 
land adjoining Tehama and engaged in farming. 
As he was able he added to this ranch until he 
now has three hundred and ninety acres in his 
home place. He also owns twenty-two hundred 
acres in another ranch, and two hundred acres 
near Corning, Cal. In the raising of hay, grain, 
hogs and cattle he has been very successful. He 
has demonstrated what energy and perseverance 



can accomplish, especially when coupled with 
Irish pluck and determination. 

Mr. Mooney was married in Oroville, Cal.; 
to .Mary Conrad, who is also a native of Ireland, 
and five children have been born to them, twc 
sons and three daughters, viz.: Barnard Hugh, 
who lives in Sacramento ; Clara Ellen, who mar- 
ried A. T. Ellis, of Tehama county ; and Mary 
Ann, Margaret Jane and John Joseph, who live 
at home, the latter working with his father. Mr. 
Moone)- is a Democrat, and was supervisor for 
eight years, also school trustee for a great many 
terms. He is an active and enterprising man, 
and is a member of the Roman Catholic Church. 



GRANT BUTLER WILCOX. Among the 
more prominent and substantial business men of 
Red Bluff is G. B. Wilcox, a large landholder, 
and one of the most extensive sheep raisers and 
dealers of northern California. Far-sighted, sa- 
gacious and enterprising, he has achieved note- 
worthy success in his undertakings. A native 
Californian, he was born November 20, 1863, in 
Tulare county, where his father, Abel Wilcox, 
was then carrying on a sheep ranch. 

Born and reared in New York, Abel Wilcox 
subsequently removed to Minnesota, and was 
there engaged in general farming and stock rais- 
ing for some time. In i860 he came across the 
plains to this state, making the long journey by 
the southern route, and stopping over in Texas 
for a year or two. Locating on a ranch in Tu- 
lare county, he embarked in the sheep business 
for a short time, going from there to Corvallis, 
Ore., where he remained a year. Preferring 
California's climate and soil, he removed to Te- 
hama county, buying a farm, but before making 
many improvements on liis property he died, his 
death occurring in 1866. He married Betsey 
Sanders, who was born in New York, and now 
resides in Red Bluff. She bore her husband six 
children, of whom but two survive, namely: 
Sardis D., a sheep raiser, of Tehama county, 
and G. B. 

Left fatherless when tliree years old. G. B. 
Wilcox was brought up on the Tehama county 



G90 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



farm which his father purchased just before his 
death, and was educated in the Red Bluff schools, 
remaining at home until attaining his majority. 
Forming a partnership then with his brother, 
Jerry A. Wilcox, under the firm name of Wilcox 
Brothers, he embarked in the sheep business, 
commencing on a modest scale by purchasing a 
small ranch about four miles north of Red Bluff. 
Stocking this ranch with fifteen hundred head 
of sheep, he rented land on Blossom ranch for 
a winter range, his summer range being in Mo- 
doc county, and by persevering effort built up an 
extensive business, the partnership continuing 
until his brother's death, in 1898. Still retain- 
ing possession of the original ranch, Mr. Wilcox 
has since enlarged his operations, and now owns 
eight thousand acres of land on Elder creek, ten 
miles south of Red Bluff', and also has six thou- 
sand acres north of the town. He devotes nearly 
all of his land to the raising of sheep, keeping 
about ten thousand head, and also buys and ships 
quite extensively. He also has ranges in Modoc 
county. Gal., and in Lake county, Ore. In 1903 
he purchased his present residence in Red Bluff, 
on the corner of Main and Willow streets. 

Mr. Wilcox married, in Red Bluff, Mrs. Louise 
(Robinson) Morgan, who was born in Missouri, 
Politically he is a strong adherent of the Repub- 
lican party, and fraternally he belongs to the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. Wil- 
cox is a member of the Christian Church. 



LEONARD FRANKLIN DOZIER, M. D. 
A gratifying medical and surgical practice and 
an honored place as man and citizen in the com- 
munity of Anderson, Shasta county, Cal., has 
come to Dr. Leonard F. Dozier since his resi- 
dence in this locality. He was bom on his fath- 
er's plantation, on the Great Pedee river in Will- 
iamsburg county, S. C, September 13, 1836. 
After receiving his preliminary education at 
home through the medium of private tutors he 
entered the South Carolina Military Academy; 
from which he graduated in 1856, then entered 
the Oglethorpe Medical College at Savannah, 
Ga. Upon the completion of his course in 1859 



he engaged in the practice of medicine for a 
year, in the meantime occupying the chair of 
materia medica in the college. Later he re- 
moved to Burke county, Ga., where he continued 
his profession until May, 1862, then entered the 
Confederate service as a private soldier. After 
serving in that capacity for six months he was 
raised to the rank of adjutant in the Twenty- 
first South Carolina Infantry, C. S. A. He held 
this rank until after the siege of Morris Island, 
Charlestown Harbor, which was at first garri- 
soned exclusively by his own regiment. While 
resisting the assault of the enemy he received a 
severe wound in the chest which developed into 
pneumonia, confining him in the fort at Battery 
Wagner for sixty days. His health was so im- 
paired by this illness that he was appointed army 
surgeon, with orders to report to General Long- 
street at Knoxville, Tenn., under whom he 
served faithfully from 1864 until the surrender 
of General Lee at Appomattox April 9, 1865. 

After his discharge from the service Dr. Do- 
zier made a short visit to his old home, and later 
went to the county seat of Williamsburg county, 
S. C, where he practiced his profession until 
starting for California, arriving in the state in 
March, 1868. Locating in Rio Vista, on the 
Sacramento river, he soon established a lucrative 
practice, in connection with which he owned and 
successfully managed a well-equipped drug store. 
In April, 1875, after seven years of merited 
prosperity, he removed to Napa, and soon after 
his arrival was appointed first assistant physician 
of the State Insane Asylum. After serving in 
that capacity until October i, 1901, he was ap- 
pointed superintendent of the institution. On 
October i of the following year he resigned his 
position and removed to his ranch one mile and 
a half northeast of Anderson, which is devoted 
to the raising of fruit, his crops being heavy and 
excellent in quality. 

Fraternally Dr. Dozier is a Mason, and for a 
number of years he was identified with the Cali- 
fornia State Medical Society.. He has been 
twice married, his first marriage occurring in 
May, 1859, and uniting him with Agnes B. Bona, 
of New Orleans. Of the five children born of 
the union only two survive : Dr. W. E. Dozier, 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



691 



a resident physician of the De Lamar mines, 
and Thomas B. Dozier, a prominent attorney of 
Shasta county. Mrs. Agnes B. Dozier died soon 
after coming to CaHfornia and in the year 1874 
the doctor married Mary Dudley, a native of 
South Carolina. They became the parents of 
three children, only one of whom survives, name- 
ly : John Dudley Dozier, who married Myrtle E. 
Fuller, a native of Iowa. They reside on the 
home farm and are the parents of one child, 
William Fuller Dozier. 



GEORGE ERNEST GILES. Two and one- 
half miles south of Balls Ferry, in one of the 
most productive and desirable portions of Shas- 
ta county, lies the fann occupied by Mr. Giles, 
his father having purchased the tract in 1887. 
Although he carries on general farming to a cer- 
tain extent, his principal eiTort is in the line of 
stock-raising, that branch of agriculture appeal- 
ing to him as the most congenial and remunera- 
tive. A son of the late James Kenon Giles, he 
was born in Tehama county September 9, 1864. 

A native of Massachusetts, the late James K. 
Giles arrived in California in September, 1850, 
after a tiresome journey by mule-team, having 
left his home in Decatur, 111., on April i. Not 
unlike the majority of those who came to the 
west at that time his first thought was to reach 
the mines, and accordingly he went to Hang- 
town. His success as a miner there was evi- 
dently not satisfactory, for shortly afterward he 
went to Cache creek, Yolo county, still in the pur- 
suit of gold. Despairing of gaining more than 
a mediocre living in this pursuit he finally en- 
tered upon a ranching career which was the be- 
ginning of his success in the west. From Yolo 
county he removed to Tehama county in i860, 
carrying on an extensive stock business there 
until his removal to Princeton, where until 1877 
he was interested in a flouring mill. From 
Princeton he removed to Germantown, now in 
Glenn county, and in 1879 came to Shasta coun- 
ty, locating between Anderson and Cottonwood 
on a farm that he improved and upon which he 
made his home until 1887, in which year, as has 



been previously stated, he purchased the farm 
on which his son now resides. This ranch was 
cleared from a brush patch, and of the three 
hundred and twenty acres all are under cultiva- 
tion except twenty acres. James K. Giles was 
born January 9, 1824, near Shelburne Falls, 
Mass., and died February 12, 1905. Mrs. Giles, 
who before her marriage was Miss Rosena Jones, 
was born in Wisconsin. She came to California 
in 1851 and was married in 1853. She is still 
living and makes her home with her son George, 
now being in her seventy-first year. 

The parental family comprised eleven children, 
as follows: Edward, deceased; Ella, the wife 
of Robert W. Kennedy, of Santa Qara county ; 
John W., of Redding; Ada, deceased; May F., 
wife of Emil Fritz, of San Jose; George Ernest; 
Myra E., a teacher in one of the public schools 
of Shasta county ; Chauncey A., of Battle Creek ; 
Avery, deceased ; Clara L., wife of E. H. Wil- 
cox, of Shasta county; and Rosa A., who is still 
at home with her mother. The early education 
which G. Ernest Giles received in Tehama 
county was followed by more advanced learning 
in the public schools of Anderson, whither the 
family came in 1879. After his graduation he 
taught school for two years, but on account of the 
confining nature of this employment his health 
became impaired and he was obliged to give it 
up for something that would furnish him exer- 
cise in the open air. Ranching appealed to him 
as both remunerative and health-giving, and he 
has followed it ever since. Politically Mr. Giles 
is a Republican, as was his father before him, 
and the only fraternal organization to which 
he has allied himself is the Ancient Order of 
Foresters, belonging to Court Cottonwood, in 
the town of that name. 



FRED M. CLOUGH. Tlie Pacific coast man- 
ager of the Diamond Match Company's interests 
at Chico assumed his present responsibility in 
1902, bringing to the industrial development of 
this beautiful town and fertile surrounding coun- 
try a wealth of business sagacity and judgment 
which it had taken years to acquire. He had 



692 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



learned valuable lessons from association with 
a number of eastern concerns, all more or less 
conservative in their nature and enlightening in 
their reliable and straightforward methods. Mr. 
Clough has lived for one year more than half a 
centur}-, having been born in West Mount Ver- 
non, Kennebec county, Me., December 30, 1853, 
and with the exception of fifteen years of that 
time has supported himself. His father, Wil- 
ioughbv, and his grandfather. Chase, were born 
and lived on farms in Maine, his mother, for- 
merl}- Betsey Adams Lyford, being a native of 
the same northern state. F. M. Clough was the 
youngest son in a family comprising four sons 
and three daughters, and was educated in the 
common schools of Maine, at Eaton preparatory 
school and Wesleyan Seminary. His grand- 
father. Chase Clough, was a soldier in the war 
of 1812. 

At the age of fifteen years F. M. Clough began 
to work in a grocery store in Kents Hill, Me., 
and in 1870 removed to Middletown, Conn., 
where he worked for a sewing machine concern 
for a couple of years. In 1872 he was engaged 
as machinist with the Northampton Emery Wheel 
& Machine Company, Leeds. Mass. Later he was 
employed as foreman in the Mill River Ivory But- 
ton Company, located at Leeds, Mass., until May, 
1874, when the factory was destroyed by the Mill 
River flood. In 1874 he was employed by the 
Smith & Wesson Revolver Works, Springfield, 
Mass. In 1875 he was employed as tool maker 
by Newell Brothers of Springfield, and in 1877 
began a five-years' association with the Ameri- 
can Braid & Ivory Button Company of West 
Cheshire, Conn. For the same length of time 
he was superintendent of a large lumbering con- 
cern in Maine. In 1886 he removed to Penn- 
sylvania and engaged in the lumber business in 
Lumber City for five years, in 1891 associating 
himself with the Lebanon Match Company of 
Lebanon, Pa. He then became identified with 
the Diamond Match Company at St. Louis, in the 
capacity of traveling machine inspector, and in 
1893 was stationed at Chicago as assistant in 
charge of the German affairs at the World's 
Fair. During 1894-95 he again traveled for the 
Diamond Match Company, and in 1896 bought 



out the Pacific Match Company at Tacoma, 
Wash., turning over its interests to the Diamond 
Match Company within a year's time. In 1896 
he became manager of the lumber interests of 
the company at Athol, Mass., and in September, 
1902, assumed his present responsibility as Pa- 
cific coast manager for the company's interests, 
with headquarters at Qiico. He is also general 
manager of the company's railroad, which is 
thirty-two miles in length. In addition to in- 
terests mentioned Mr. Clough has identified him- 
self with various enterprises which tend to the 
upbuilding of the town and county, among them 
being the Chico Investment Company, organized 
by him in 1903, and of which he is treasurer. 
He is also president of the Stirling City Bank, 
incorporated in December, 1903. 

Mr. Clough established a home in Springfield, 
Mass., marrying Annie B. Bonney, a native of 
Brooklyn, N. Y., and a daughter of William Bon- 
ney, born in Birmingham, England, and a clergy- 
man in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Five 
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Clough, 
as follows : Florence, Emily, Nellie, Frank and 
Irvin. An eminently social and genial nature 
renders Air. Clough's advent in Chico of addi- 
tional importance. He is a keen appreciator of 
fraternal organizations, and is a member of the 
Blue Lodge, F. & A. M.; Chapter, Commandery 
and Shrine of Islam. In politics he is a Repub- 
lican, and socially he is a member of the Union 
League Club. 



WILLIAM S. WILCOX. In the interval be- 
tween his arrival in California and his death 
forty years later Mr. Wilcox acquired a large 
landed property by energy and foresight, and at 
the same time by the exercise of the highest 
principles of honor and uprightness he made for 
himself a lasting place in the regard of acquaint- 
ances and associates. As a pioneer spared to 
witness the achievement of his hopes, it was his 
privilege to gain personal success in a large de- 
gree and also to witness the gradual upbuilding 
of his home county of Shasta, the introduction 
of railroads, the establishment of homes, the ma- 
terial development of towns, and the transforma- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



o;»3 



tion of raw and unattractive land into valuable 
ranches from whose care gratifying profits came 
to reward the efiforts of the owners. 

The first twenty years of the life of William 
S. Wilcox were passed somewhat uneventfully 
on a farm in Illinois. His parents, Lemuel and 
Theresa Wilcox, were natives of that state and 
remained there until death. On the farm near 
Staunton, where he was born March 21, 1832, 
he early learned lessons of industry and self-re- 
liance that helped him in later years of efTort 
and application. In the years of his youth 
schools were few and their opportunities meager 
as compared with similar institutions of the pres- 
ent century, but such advantages as were offered 
he grasped eagerly and acquired a fair knowl- 
edge of the common branches. When news came 
of the discovery of gold in California it was his 
instant resolve to seek his fortune in the great 
and far-distant west, but not until 1852 did he 
start on the long journey, which he made over- 
land with ox-teams. Like many of the early 
comers to the state, it w^as his hope to find a for- 
tune in the mines, but soon he became convinced 
of the futility of such hopes, and for that reason 
turned his attention to agriculture as offering a 
more certain means of livelihood. 

On coming to Shasta county Mr. Wilcox 
worked at first on the ranch of Major Redding 
and later came across the river to take charge 
of Major Sheldon's ranch of four hundred acres, 
which he bought a few years later. By subse- 
quent purchases he became the owner of one 
thousand acres, the greater portion of which 
comprised fertile farming land. On this prop- 
erty, situated two miles south of Balls Ferry, he 
passed the remaining years of his busy, useful 
and successful life, and here his life came to a 
close, January 5, 1892, when he was about sixty 
years of age. In his death the community was 
deprived of one of its most progressive agricul- 
turists, the Odd Fellows' lodge at Red Bluff lost 
one of its early members, and the Presbyterian 
Church in Balls Ferry lost one of its most gen- 
erous contributors. Upon his family the bereave- 
ment fell with especial force, for he had been 
a thoughtful husband and an affectionate father. 
His wife, with whom he was united December 



3, 1868, bore the maiden name of Mary Ncel 
and was born in Pennsylvania in 1841, coming 
from the east to California in 1859 by steamer. 
Her parents, Henry and Rhoda (Hiller) Neel, 
were natives of Greene county, Pa., and the 
former died in that state in 1854; the widowed 
motiier eventually came to the Pacific coast and 
remained here until her death in September of 
1868. In the family of Mrs. Wilcox there is a 
daughter and a son, Maggie E. and Elbert H. 
The daughter became the wife of Daniel L. Co- 
ver and they reside at the old home with her 
mother, as docs also the son. who is interested 
in the stock business with his mother. 



FRED DERSCH. For half a century the 
Dersch family have been prominent in the his- 
tory of Shasta county, Cal., and the above- 
named member of this worthy family is no ex- 
ception, being one of the substantial citizens of 
the community, where he is held in high esteem 
by a large circle of acquaintances. A native of 
Shasta county, Cal., he was born March 7. 1856, 
a son of George and Mary (Kinmelmeyer) 
Dersch, both natives of Germany. The father, 
born in 1833, immigrated to America at the age 
of twenty-one years and located for a time at 
Whiskeytown, Shasta county, Cal., where he 
engaged in mining. It was during his residence 
in that locality that he left California temporar- 
ily for a trip to Michigan. After his marriage, 
which was solemnized in that state, he returned 
with his bride to California. He continued to 
make his home in Whiskeytown until the fall of 
1861, then locating upon the property now in the 
hands of his son, which he devoted to the raising 
of stock. During this period the lives of the 
settlers were in constant peril from attacks by 
the Indians. On the 5th of August, 1866, Mrs. 
Dersch was shot by an Indian while standing in 
front of her door, and with our subject, who was 
then only nine years of age, was hidden by her 
brother-in-law, Fred Dersch, in a large pile of 
brush, where they remained until help came. The 
injuries which Mrs. Dersch received were so 
.-crious that medical aid could not restore her 



\ 



694 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



and her death occurred the following day, at the 
age of thirt3--three years. Mr. Dersch continued 
to make his home in that locaHty until 1883, when 
he removed to Redding. While there he married 
Bridget Hughes, whose death occurred in 1904. 
Mr. Dersch engaged in business in the neighbor- 
hood of Redding until his death, in January, 
1894, at the age of sixty-six years. 

Fred Dersch had the advantages of the com- 
mon schools of Shasta county, but he has learned 
more from the great teacher, experience, to whose 
counsel he has ever been a willing listener. At 
the age of twenty years he made a trip to Ger- 
many, remaining one year. Upon his return 
to this state he made his home with his uncle, 
Fred Dersch, who had a half interest in the 
home place; he came to California in 1849, and 
while engaged in mining was in an explosion 
which resulted in the loss of his sight. In com- 
pany with his uncle our subject engaged in the 
sheep business, taking a large band to Idaho, 
where they remained»for five years. In 1888 he 
again made a trip to the old country and upon his 
return the following year located upon the prop- 
erty where he has since made his home. This 
consists of four thousand acres of range land 
and about one hundred acres of fine farm land 
which is well improved and highly cultivated. 
The year after he assumed management of the 
property the death of his uncle occurred at the 
age of sixty-five years. 

While on his second visit to Germany Mr. 
Dersch married, August 13, 1888, Marie Eliza- 
beth Dersch, also a native of Germany, and they 
are the parents of two children. Mary and Sophia, 
besides which they have adopted two others, 
Mamie Clark and Fred Schuller Dersch. The 
family are members of the Dutch Reformed 
Church. Mr. Dersch is a member of the Ma- 
sonic lodge at Millville. 



WILLIAM HAWES. In following the pur- 
suit of agriculture a large number of the pro- 
gressive citizens of Shasta county have accumu- 
lated wealth ; others, while not gaining fortunes, 
have become well-to-do, and among the latter 
class we mention the name of William Hawes, 



the owner and occupant of a farm of fifteen hun- 
dred acres five miles east of Anderson. The i • 
nucleus of his present large holdings was pur- | | 
chased in 1863 and comprised one hundred and 
sixty acres, to which he has added from time to 
time as his means would allow, until today he is 
known as one of the large land owners of this 
part of the county. 

William Hawes was born in New York state 
May 8, 1836, a son of Michael and Martha 
Hawes. The father, who was born in one of 
the Rhine provinces in Germany, came to the 
L^nited States in the early '30s, settling in Bal- 
timore, Md., where he gained a good livelihood 
by following the blacksmith's trade. Not long 
after his arrival in this country Mr. Hawes was 
united in marriage with Martha Hoffman, a na- 
tive of Pennsylvania, where their marriage oc- 
curred. She died in 1840, when her son was 
only five years old. The father died in 1878, 
when in his sixty-eighth year. William Hawes' 
earliest recollections carry him back to his birth- 
place in New York state, where he attended pub- 
lic school and assisted his father in his black- 
smith shop and upon the fann. When twenty- 
four years old he felt competent to start in life 
on his own account. Wisely discerning that the 
west held larger opportunities for a youth of 
ambition and energy than the more conservative 
east he made arrangements to come to the Pa- 
cific coast. On the sailing vessel Clipper he em- 
barked from New York City September 6, 1858, 
and after a voyage of six months via Cape Horn 
reached San Francisco, Cal., March 6, 1859. For 
one year he was employed in a lumber camp at 
Cottonwood, and later was interested in mines 
at Oregon Gulch. It was in 1862 that he first 
became identified with Anderson, Shasta county. 
For a time he was in the employ of Mr. Ander- 
son, who owned a hotel here, but finally Mr. 
Hawes rented the hotel from his employer and 
ran it alone for one year. Having tried various 
means of gaining a livelihood he returned at 
last to the one with which he was most familiar, 
and upon the farm which he then purchased, in 
1863, he is still making his home, content both 
with his location and selection as a life calling. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



C95 



The first marriage of William Hawes occurred 
April 26, 1862, and united him with Rebecca 
Foster, who came to the coast with her parents 
in 1861. Five children were born of this mar- 
riage, as follows: John, an orchardist in So- 
noma county; Henry, also a resident of that 
county; Alice, who is the wife of John Beatie 
and resides near the old homestead ; Granville, 
in the oil business in Stockton ; and Daniel, of 
Fresno county. Mrs. Rebecca Hawes died in 
May, 187s, at the age of thirty-eight years. In 
April, 1876, Mr. Hawes married Henrietta 
Young, a native of Germany, and the onlv child 
of this marriage, Jacob, is still at home with his 
parents. The only fraternal order with which 
Mr. Hawes is connected is the Independent Or- 
der of Odd Fellows, his membership being in 
Millville Lodge No. 240. For twenty-five years 
he has served on the school board as trustee, his 
long retention in office indicating his ability and 
popularity. Politically he is a Republican. 



DANIEL G. HUNT. A man of sterling 
worth and integrity, who through his own efforts 
has won his present high position in the agricul- 
tural community of Shasta county, Daniel G. 
Hunt, of Millville, is a fine representative of the 
self-made men who have come to California 
from the middle west and made their homes 
in this well-favored spot. Coming to the Pacific 
coast a poor boy of nineteen years Mr. Hunt 
has gradually worked his way up to a position 
of influence, and is known as one of the largest 
stockmen in Shasta county, his ranch, which in- 
cludes between six and seven thousand acres, 
lying in close proximity to Millville and about 
twelve miles northeast of Anderson. Although 
formerly a very energetic business man, Mr. 
Hunt is now living retired in Millville, where 
he has a comfortable and commodious residence. 

Daniel G. Hunt was born in Missouri August 
26, 1831, a son of Nathan and Isabel (Wright) 
Hunt. Nathan Hunt was a man of some- note 
in Kentucky, and it was in his honor that the 
city of Huntsville was so named. From Ken- 
tucky, where he was born and reared, and where 



he carried on farming, he removed to Missouri, 
his death occurring in that state in 1847. His 
wife survived him for several years, dying in 
California in 1855. Reared and educated in Mis- 
souri until reaching nineteen years of age, Dan- 
iel G. Hunt then started for the west with ox- 
teams, reaching Hangtown August 31, 1850. An 
experience of one year in the mining camps there 
was sufficient proof to Mr. Hunt that his abilities 
could be exerted with more telling results in 
another direction, and the business he then 
adopted he continued to follow to the last of his 
working days. Until the spring of i860 he car- 
ried on a large cattle ranch, in this county, but 
in that year took a trip to his old home in Mis- 
souri, going by water. The next year, however, 
he returned by crossing the plains, under much 
more favorable circumstances than he had made 
the same journey several years previously. He 
at once located upon his present ranch, which he 
had purchased prior to his trip to Missouri, and 
to which he has since added until he now owns 
between six and seven thousand acres. 

During the early days when the Tin-Tin and 
Pitt River Indians were committing depredations 
and murdering many of the white settlers of this 
section, Mr. Hunt and others helped to subdue 
them. He was a participant in the battle of Cow 
Creek Bridge and took part in many of the 
skirmishes. Of the men who lived here alone 
for a time Mr. Hunt was the only one that was 
not murdered by the Indians. In the fall of 
1853 news was brought by an Indian boy that 
the Indians were going to kill him and his broth- 
ers; he gave the alarm to all his neighbors and 
eleven in all came to his cabin, where the In- 
dians, seventy-five in number, were surprised 
and routed, leaving nine dead and six wounded. 

December 24, 1865. Mr. Hunt was united in 
marriage with Sarah Martha Ilcryford, a na- 
tive of Missouri, whose parents came to Cali- 
fornia in 1857. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt became the 
parents of six children, as follows : William 
H., a resident of this county; John M., who re- 
sides on the old home ranch near Millville; Dora 
Alice, the wife of Harold Girdner, of Anderson ; 
Lottie J., of Redding; and Clemons Reid and 



696 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Sadie, both of whom reside in Millville with 
their father. As a citizen Mr. Hunt takes a deep 
interest in the welfare of his community and for 
over forty years has been a member of the school 
board, although he has refused other positions 
which he is in every way qualified to fill. 



CHARLES CECIL Van LIEW. Among the 
able educators of this state mention is due C. C. 
Van Liew, president of the Northern California 
Normal school at Chico, Cal. He was born Febru- 
ary 15, 1862, in Aurora, III, the eldest of four 
children born to Frederick H. and Mary (Ho- 
bart) Van Liew, both natives of New York state. 
The paternal family is of Dutch ancestry, and 
Daniel Van Liew, the grandfather, was born in 
New Jersey. His son, Frederick H., selected the 
medical profession as his life work, and practiced 
it in Aurora and Hinsdale, 111., for many years, 
passing away in the latter place in 1889, aged 
sixty-five years. His widow survives him, mak- 
ing that suburb of Chicago her home. They 
had two sons and two daughters. 

The common-school education of C. C. Van 
Liew was supplemented by a complete course in 
the high school of Aurora, from which he was 
graduated in 188 1. He subsequently studied 
medicine under his father, but that career did not 
appeal to him very strongly. However, he went 
abroad in 1889 and pursued his studies at Jena 
and Leipsic, Germany, for three years, receiving 
the degree of Ph. D. During this time he trans- 
lated from the German a physiological psychology 
by Ziehen, also the "Outlines of Pedagogy" by 
Rein. After the return of Professor Van Liew 
to the United States he took up normal work 
and found his first field of labor at St. Cloud, 
Minn. Some time later he became identified with 
the State Normal school at Normal, 111., in its 
chair of psychology. In 1897 he was called to 
take charge of the department of education and 
supervision of training in the State Normal at 
Los Angeles, Cal. Two years later he accepted 
his present position. Since he assumed his re- 
sponsible duties a marked improvement is appar- 
ent in all departments, the school being one of the 



best disciplined in the state and the educational 
work is under the supervision of a corps of 
trained instructors. Those graduated from this 
institution take high rank in the business world 
for their efficiency, reflecting great credit on the 
institution. 

Professor Van Liew has prepared a history on 
the "Normal Schools of California" and the "Cali- 
fornia System of Training Elementary Teach- 
ers." He is also joint author of "Phonics and 
Reading." He has been a regular contributor 
to educational journals, especially the Western 
Journal of Education of San Francisco. The 
State Board of Education find in him a valued 
member, as well as the Northern California 
Teachers' Association, the California State 
Teachers' Association and the National Educa- 
tional Association. He also holds a membership 
with the Schoolmasters' Club of the state. 

In 1887, at Wheaton, 111., occurred the mar- 
riage of C. C. Van Liew and Miss Ida J. Traber, 
a native of Ohio. Two children have been born 
to them, Rachel M. and Samuel C. Although a 
Republican in politics. Professor Van Liew does 
not take an active part in the workings of the 
party. He is a vocalist of ability, having a rich 
baritone voice, and from 1885 to 1889 sang in 
various church choirs in Qiicago. It has been the 
aim of Professor Van Liew to elevate the edu- 
cational status of the students and schools of the 
state, and he has always been active in all move- 
ments toward that end. 



JOHN I\IcKEA. The president of the Espe- 
ranza Lumber & Timber Company, one of the 
leading lumber manufacturing organizations of 
northern California, is a member of a southern 
family, descended from Scotch progenitors, and 
represents the fourth generation in America. His 
paternal grandfather was a native of North 
Carolina, but spent a large part of his active life 
in South Carolina, and there occurred the birth 
of the father, Curtis I. McKea. The latter, after 
having engaged in the mercantile business in Mo- 
bile, Ala., for some years, went to Brazil in 1862 
and on his return a year later settled in New 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAriTTr \L RFXORD. 



697 



Orleans, going- from there to Shreveport, La., 
where he died. By his marriage to Miss Cassy 
Johnson, who was born in South Carolina of an 
old X'irginia family, he had eight children. 
Among these John, the next to the youngest, is 
the only one on the Pacific coast. In Mobile, 
Ala., he was born May i6, 1859, and there and 
in New Orleans and Shreveport he passed the 
ilays of childhood. and youth, meanwhile receiv- 
ing a public school education. 

On starting out for himself in 1881 Mr. Mc- 
Kea came to California and secured employment 
in lumbering at Lyonsville, Tehama county, later 
going to Sisson, Siskiyou county. About 1884, 
in connection with Messrs. Vance and Parson, 
he embarked in the lumber business under a co- 
partnership and built a mill at Warmcastle on the 
McCloud river in Siskiyou county. A substan- 
tial plant was built up, with a capacity of forty 
thousand feet per day. Later the Esperanza 
Lumber & Timber Company was incorporated 
with Mr. McKea as president, the other partners 
being R. C. and Hugh B. Jones of San Francisco. 
In 1901 a modern mill was erected on Elk creek, 
a branch of the McCloud river. The plant has 
been fitted out with every improvement of the 
present day, and with steam as the motive power 
eighty thousand feet of timber can be turned out 
in one day. In the vicinity of the mill the com- 
pany owns tracts of sugar and yellow pine, 
which furnishes them an abundance of timber to 
be manufactured into lumber. At the time they 
began milling Mr. George was the only person 
engaged in the business and his subsequent fail- 
ure leaves them the oldest concern of the kind 
in Siskiyou county. The mill is operated during 
the summer months, and while operating it Mr. 
McKea resides in Siskiyou county, returning to 
Red Blufl' for the winter. He was married in 
this city to Miss Hattie E. Huff, a native of 
Michigan, but a resident of Red Bluff since 
childhood. They are the parents of eight chil- 
dren. The family attend the Presbyterian 
Church and Mrs. McKea is actively connected 
with the work of that denomination. 

.Ml through active life the inclinations of Mr. 
.McKea have led him into commercial rather than 
political activities. Of a practical and commercial 



temperament, he finds his greatest pleasures in 
promoting the success of the industry with wliich 
he is connected. Yet no duty pirtaining to citi- 
zenship has been neglected. His political views 
bring him into affiliation with the Republican 
party and he supports its men and measures by 
his ballot. Movements for the benefit of Red 
Bluff receive his sympalliy and support, and he 
is a thorough believer in the future prosperity 
and importance of the city where he has made his 
winter home. A disciple of Masonry, his connec- 
tion with the fraternity began in Sisson Lodge 
No. 310, F. & A. M. Later he became associated 
with Cyrus Chapter No. 15, R. A. M., at Yreka, 
Red Bluff Commandery No. 17, K. T., all the 
bodies of Scottish Rite Masonry, and is a mem- 
ber of the Consistory No. i, of San Francisco and 
Islam Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles 
Mystic Shrine, of San Francisco. 



THOMAS H. RAMSAY. A prominent and 
progressive native son, residing in the Sacra- 
mento valley, and who is descended from the 
Scotch peerage, is T. II. Ramsay, whose grand- 
father, William, was born in Scotland, but came 
to America and settled in Pennsylvania, where 
he engaged in farming. An only son, he mar- 
ried Polly O'Neil, going with her to Missouri, 
where he died. The father, Charles Ramsay, 
was born in Pennsylvania, March 8. 1820, and 
after his father's death in Missouri he followed 
farming and stock-raising on the Missouri farm 
until 1849. I" *^'i^' y^^"" '^"^ came to Cilifornia 
over the plains with an ox-team, and in addition 
to working in the noines, also engaged in farming 
and stock raising in Solano county, where he pur- 
chased a large tract of land. After a busy and 
useful life he died in 1879, having been very suc- 
cessful in his undertakings. Politically he was a 
Democrat, but never cared for public office. He 
was one of the founders and a leading member 
of the Episcopal Church at Cordelia, Solano 
county. His first marriage united him with 
Donallcy Jane James, who was bom in Qay 
county, Mo., and died in California. Tliey had 
eight children, six sons and two daughters. Octo- 



698 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ber 2, 1867, he was married to Elizabeth Wyer, 
who was born in Ireland, and died in San Fran- 
cisco in 1888. Three children were bom of this 
union. 

Thomas H. Ramsay was born in Cordelia, So- 
lano county, March 2, 1869, and is the eldest 
child of his father's second marriage. He was 
educated in the common schools at Cordelia, and 
in the comniercial schools of Oakland and San 
Francisco. After the death of his father he en- 
gaged in agricultural work for his mother, but 
at the age of twenty-one years went to San 
Mateo coimty and engaged in ranching, taking 
charge of the ranch of E. D. Jones of San Fran- 
cisco. At the end of eight years he became gen- 
eral manager of the Stanford University estate 
at Vina, Cal., consisting of eight thousand acres 
— vineyard, stock farm and orchard. He was 
manager of this estate for three years, resigning 
to accept the management of the Cone estate at 
Red Bluff, Tehama county, consisting of one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand acres, ten 
thousand of which is farm land and four hundred 
acres in orchard, in which are raised large quan- 
tities of pears, prunes, peaches, etc. UfKDn this 
ranch there are from forty to fifty thousand head 
of Merino sheep, about three thousand head of 
cattle and five hundred horses and mules, all un- 
der the management of Mr. Ramsay, who is also 
president and manager of the Cone & Ward Co., 
Incorporated, and director and manager of the 
Cone Ranch Company. On account of his ex- 
tensive knowledge of horticulture ]\Ir. Ramsay 
was selected to represent this nation as juror of 
awards in horticulture at the Paris Exposition, 
but after his selection was prevented from act- 
ing on account of business, so resigned. Mr. 
Ramsay is an independent Democrat, and frater- 
nally is connected with the Masons. He is a 
prominent man in the Sacramento valley, and is 
very active in all movements pertaining to the 
welfare of the state. 



ISAAC NORTON BROCK. One of the 
most prominent citizens of Sutter county is I. 
N. Brock, who is a successful rancher and stock- 
man living three and a half miles southwest of 



Wheatland. His father, Smith Brock, was a 
native of the state of New York, where as black- 
smith and carpenter he spent his entire life, 
dying of cholera when in the prime of life. His 
grandfather, Jonathan Brock, was also a native 
of New York state, where he was a farmer and 
stockman, and died at the advanced age of 
eighty years. His mother, formerly Abigail 
Norton, was also a native of that state, her 
parents having located in New York when she 
was a girl of four years. She also lived to an 
advanced age, dying when eighty-two years old. 

Isaac Norton Brock was born at Troy, N. Y., 
December 9, 1835, and was reared on his father's 
farm until twelve years old. At that age he 
went to work at $6 per month, and from that time 
on has made his own way in the world. In 
1854 he went to Wisconsin, locating for a time 
in Rock county, but determining to come fur- 
ther west, started for Pike's Peak in 1859. After 
getting as far as Fort Kearney, Neb., he re- 
turned to Wisconsin and worked through the 
summer, and in the fall again started on the 
western journey. Leaving New York December 
3, 1859, he came via Panama to California, land- 
ing in San Francisco in January, i860. Going at 
once to Nevada City, he there interested himself 
in mining and also worked in a sawmill until the 
following spring, when he came to the present 
site of Wheatland and began working in the 
harvest fields. The following fall he came to this 
section and erected a cabin on a ranch which he 
still owns, squatting there until the land was 
put on the market, when he purchased it from 
the raili;oad and government. He engaged in 
raising sheep in addition to general farming, 
gradually increasing his herd of sheep and adding 
to his land, until he now owns about three 
thousand acres, having sold about eighteen 
hundred and sixty acres a few years ago. 

January 5, 1871, Mr. Brock was married to 
Jeannette Parker, who was born at Janesville, 
Wis., where she spent her childhood and was 
educated. Ten children were born of this mar- 
riage, viz. : Martha Ellen, who' married D. I. 
Waltz, a prominent citizen of Merced county; 
Alice L., who married Robert F. Dunn, a rancher 
near Wheatland ; Minnie, who died at twenty 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRArHICAL RECORD. 



6!tH 



years of age; Blanche E., who is the wife of 
J. T. Denton, a merchant of Maxwell, Colusa 
county; Jennie F.. at home; Joseph N., who re- 
sides at Sacramento; Horace J., Frank, Isaac N., 
Jr., and McKinley Parker, all of whom are at 
home. In politics Mr. Brock is a Republican. 
His party friends proposed his name for sheriff 
and as representative to the legislature, but he 
refused to accept the nomination. He was 
supervisor in 1878, and served in that capacity 
for four years. He was one of the organizers 
of the Farmers' Bank of Wheatland. At one 
time he was identified with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. 



CHARLES B. H. HANVEY, M. D. The 
ancestry of the Hanvey family is traced to Scot- 
land, whence some of its members crossed to Ire- 
land during the era of the religious persecution. 
The first of the name in America was Daniel, a 
native of Downpatrick, County Down, near the 
shores of Dundrum bay, in Ireland. William 
Henry Hanvey, M. D., a son of the original im- 
migrant, was born and reared in Ontario. The 
possessor of superior mental talents, genial man- 
ner and superb control of will, he was well qual- 
ified for the profession which he selected, that 
of medicine and surgery, in which he gained his 
training in Toronto University and at Buffalo, 
N. Y. After a long period of practice in On- 
tario, about 1870 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, 
where he engaged in practice until his death at 
fifty-six years. From his father, who was a civil 
engineer and land surveyor, he inherited mental 
endowments of no ordinary degree, and these 
(lualities in turn were inherited by the next gen- 
eration. While living in Canada he met and 
married Jane Eliza Hewitt, a native of Rich- 
mond Hill, Ontario, and a daughter of Oiarles 
B. Hewitt, who was born in Newhaven, Oswego 
county, N. Y., became a contractor and secured 
the contract for building a part of the Grand 
Tnink Railroad. After many years in Ontario 
and Ohio Mrs. Hanvey eventually removed to 
California and now, at seventy-two years, is 
making her home in Plumas county with her son. 

During the residence of his parents in Ontario, 



Canada, Charles B. H. Hanvey was born. July 
26, 1856, and was named in honor of his mater- 
nal grandfather, .\fter having completed the 
studies of the grammar and liigh schools, he was 
sent to the Montreal University and there took 
the regular course, graduating in 188.^, with the 
degree of M. D. Shortly afterward he went to 
British Columbia in the capacity of assistant sur- 
geon in the employ of the Canadian Pacific Rail- 
road, remaining there for two years and then 
joining his father in practice at Cleveland. Dliio. 
Shortly after the death of his father he removed 
to Chicago and opened an office. During the six 
years of his residence in that city he not only 
conducted a private practice, but also acted as 
chief assistant in Cook County Hospital for the 
Insane. 

On leaving Chicago Dr. Hanvey became as- 
sistant surgeon in the employe of the Mexican 
Central Railroad Company at Tampico. Mexico, 
where he remained for two years. The climate, 
however, was unhealthful to such an extent as 
to render a change necessary, and he thereupon 
sought the more genial country of Califoniia. In 
search of the bracing mountain air he came to 
Plumas county and settled at dreenville. where 
he remained in practice about nine years. Mean- 
while he aimed to keep abreast with all the dis- 
coveries in therapeutics, it Iwing his ambition to 
utilize in his practice all the most mwlern meth- 
ods of diagnosis and treatment. To further 
broaden his professional knowledge he relin- 
quished his ])ractice temporarily and spent two 
years in the medical colleges and hospitals of 
San Francisco, Chicago and New York, where 
he completed a post-graduate course. On re- 
suming active practice he came to Plumas coun- 
ty and bought Dr. McQiesncy's practice at 
Quincy, where he now makes his home. He 
still retains mcmbershi]i in the Association of 
Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and is in- 
terested in all movements pertaining to the pro- 
fession, whether in his native country or his 
adopted land. Since becoming a citizen of the 
United States he has supported the principles of 
the Republican party. WHiilc living at Greenville 
he was initiated into Masonry and is now a 
member-at-large of tlie blue lodge. 



700 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ti 



While living in British Columbia in 1884 Dr. 
Hanvey married Miss Jean Qiarles, a native of 
Victoria, British Columbia, where she was 
reared and educated. Descended from an ancient 
Scotch family, she is a daughter of Thomas J. 
Charles, who was born in Scotland, but emi- 
grated to Canada, and became a member of the 
old Hudson Bay Company. The doctor and his 
wife have three children, Marguerite Giristine 
Charles, William Henry and Douglas, all of 
whom are students in local schools. 



THEODORE CHARLES TODD. A na- 
tive of Chautauqua county, N. Y., T. C. Todd 
is a prominent farmer of Lassen county, near 
Standish. His father, Ora B. Todd, was born 
in Herkimer county, N. Y., removing from 
there to Qiautauqua county, where he lived un- 
til 1884. He then brought his family to Cali- 
fornia and settled in \'entura county, where he 
followed ranching until his death. He died in 
Riverside county, and his wife, formerly Lor- 
inda Woolcott. a native of Qiautauqua county, 
died in \'entura county. 

Theodore Giarles Todd was born September 
10, 1845, and of the seven children born to his 
parents, he is the sixth in order of birth. He 
received a good common school education in 
New York state, and remained at home witli* 
his parents on the farm during the time they 
resided in New York, then came with them to 
this state in 1884. Upon arriving in California 
he purchased a farm of seventy acres which he 
operated for two years, then sold it and went 
to San Diego county, where he purchased an- 
other farm of one hundred and sixty acres of 
unimproved land. .Vfter retaining possession of 
this for a year he disposed of it and went to San 
Jacinto, where he owned valuable town prop- 
ertv. Remaining there four years, retired from 
the activities of business life, he then went to 
Los Angeles, where he resided nine years en- 
gaged in manufacturing water pipe, after which 
he lived for a time at various places in the 
state before finally establishing his home in 
Lassen county upon his present property. For 
about two vears he carried on farming in \'en- 



tura county, being similarly engaged in Colo- 
rado Desert, Riverside county, for four years, 
then he and his son took up a desert claim of 
three hundred and twenty acres which they 
operated until 1904, thence coming to Lassen 
county. Mr. Todd owns three hundred and 
sixty acres of valuable land here which he in- 
herited from a sister and brother-in-law, and 
upon which lie raises hay and grain, besides run- 
ning a dairy, sending his milk to the creamery. 

In New York state Air. Todd was married to 
Alice Jones and five children were born to them, 
viz. : Fred O., who resides in Riverside coun- 
ty ; Minnie, who married Oilman Daggett and 
resides in Riverside county; Myra, the wife of 
Merle Thompson of New York, and a resident 
of Los Angeles, Cal. ; Delphine, who married 
Frank H. Colby of Los Angeles ; and C. Theo- 
dore Todd, who is at home. In politics Mr. 
Todd is a stanch supjxjrter of the Republican 
platform. He has devoted his whole life to agri- 
cultural pursuits, in which he has been success- 
ful. 

Otis N. Johnson, who married Mr. Todd's 
sister, became a pioneer settler of this state, 
coming here from his native state. New York, in 
1859, traveling overland across the plains by 
means of ox teams. After reaching this state 
he engaged for a time in buying and selling 
stock, afterward purchasing a ranch near Susan- 
ville, Lassen county, where he lived for a num- 
hcT of years. Selling this ranch he continued 
to reside in Lassen county where, with the ex- 
ception of about three years while in Los Ange- 
les, he has lived ever since coming to California. 
The last eighteen years of his life were spent 
on the ranch which Mr. Todd now owns and 
resides upon. He was an early settler of 
Honev Lake valley, his cabin being one of the 
first in the valley. He had many thrilling ex- 
periences with the Indians during the early 
days, and lived to see great changes in the 
county, as well as in the state. He died Sep- 
tember 20, 1905, and was buried at Susanville: 
his wife, formerly Sally M. Todd, surviving 
him three months and ten days. Mr. Johnson 
was a Republican in politics, and was a success- 
ful business man. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



703 



WILEY CORNELISOX. The Cornclison 
family is of Holland- Dutch extraction, and for 
many years has been represented this side of the 
Atlantic. The first member of whom we have 
any authentic knowledge was the great-grand- 
father of our subject, who removed from Old 
\irginia to Kentucky during the Revoluticmary 
war, and in the latter state the grandfather, Jesse 
Cornclison, was born. That state was also the 
i)irthplace of the father, John Cornclison, who 
later went to Tennessee, following farming there 
until 1833. Going to Arkansas that year, he 
remained there two years and then settled in 
Barry county, ]\lo., there continuing agricult- 
ural pursuits. In 1850 he and his son Wiley 
crossed the plains to California with horse teams. 
Leaving Missouri April 10, 1850. thev arrived 
in Placerville August 23, and engaged in min- 
ing in Placer and Plumas counties and vicinitv 
until the death of the father, which occurred in 
Honey Lake valley in 1875, when he was sixty- 
five years of age. The wife of John Cornclison, 
formerly Elizabeth King, was a daughter of 
Jesse King, a native of Tennessee, who in 1857 
settled in Barry count}'. Mo. Mrs. Cornclison 
died in Missouri, leaving nine children, only 
two of whom are living. 

\\'ilcy Cornclison was born in Franklin coun- 
t\-. Tenn., December 11, 1831, the eldest of his 
parents' family. Removing to Missouri with his 
])arents in 1838, he was reared and received a 
common-school education in the latter state. He 
was eighteen years of age when he came to 
California, and for "a time after reaching this 
state he engaged in mining in Mormon Island, 
on .American river, and Meadow \'alley, Plumas 
county, in 1853 Roing to Old Elizabethtown. In 
March, 1857. he came to Lassen cotmty and 
look up a farm one and a quarter miles below 
Susanville, making bis home however in town. 
At the time he located in the county Ploney 
Lake valley contained onlv thirteen men and two 
women, he himself making the fourteenth man 
in the settlement. 

To Mr. Cornclison belongs the credit of cut- 
ting and hauling the first saw log in Lassen 
county, and he cut the first lumber with whip- 
saw in Honey Lake valley.' With others he 
19 



buUt a saw mill, an.f continued in the sawmill 
business some tlirce months. In 1858 he cstal>- 
lished a trading station on the Humboldt river 
twenty miles above Lassen Meadows, trading 
lor cattle and horses, which he brought to Honey 
Lake valley and placed on his farm. During the 
next ten years he moved about from place to 
place, and for a time carried on a merchandise 
business in Susanville, under the firm name of 
Blanchard & Cornclison. In the fall of i860 he 
went to the old Thompson ranch, near Honey 
lake. Later he engaged in farming on a ranch 
below Buntingville, which he still owns. This 
place he improved, making a stock farm of it, 
and subsequently rented it. in i8C>3 he opened 
a blacksmith's shop in Janesville which he ran 
some eighteen months, then sold out. In 1873 
he purchased the old Adams sawmill on Baxter 
creek, and some time later located on his present 
place two and a quarter miles from Janesville, 
at the foot of Thompson's Peak, where he de- 
veloped water power sufficient to operate a mill. 
The water flows from a mountain stream, the 
]jower being produced by flumes, tank and reser- 
voir. The tank is two feet high, six feet wide 
and three hundred and four feet long, this be- 
ing used for back water to supply the pipe. 
The water is conveyed in a pipe eight hundred 
and twenty-five feet to the water wheel, and has 
a fall of two hundred and forty feet. The three 
foot wheel is on one end of a saw shaft, with 
saw on the other, this being Mr. Corneli.son's 
own invention. He has run this plant twenty- 
one years, and is undoubtedly the first man on 
this coast to run a mill in this way. The capac- 
ity of the mill is ten to twelve thousand feet 
per day. The lumber is sold direct from the 
yards at the mill, of which Mr. Cornclison is 
manager. Aside from the sawmill business he 
owns a farm of two hundred and ninety acres 
near Buntingville. upon which he raises stock 
and has four hundred and eighty acres of timber 
land. 

In 1863 Mr. Cornclison was married at Janes- 
ville to Frances E. Barnes, who is a native of 
Illinois, but came with her [larents to this state 
in i860, crossing the plains with ox teams. Six 
children have been born to them, as follows : 



704 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



George, who is a rancher on the Susan river ; 
Fred, who is with his father in the sawmih busi- 
ness ; Edith Jarbo, a widow of Saratoga; Frank, 
deceased ; Minnie, who married Elfonzo Foot 
and resides at Janesville ; and Clara Frances, 
who resides at home. Fraternally Mr. Corneli- 
son is connected with the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, and in politics is a stanch 
supporter of the Democratic platform. 



WILLIAM WATSON. A man of scholarly 
attainments and a close student of the best sci- 
entific journals of the day, William Watson is 
well fitted for his chosen profession, and takes 
high rank as a civil mining engineer. He is 
also county surveyor and United States deputy 
mineral surveyor, with offices in Ouincy, Plum- 
as county, where he is well and favorably 
known, having been a resident of the county 
since 1877. 

An Englishman by birth, William Watson 
was born in Brighton August 13, 1852, and was 
reared in his native land until he had passed 
his majority. During his boyhood he attended 
the common schools near his home and sup- 
plemented this training by a course at Brigh- 
ton College. The theoretical knowledge which 
he had thus far obtained was put to a practi- 
cal test upon leaving college, when for six 
years he followed a commercial life, two years 
of this time being on the floor of the stock 
exchange. When about twenty-three years of 
age he determined to carry out a long cherished 
idea of making his home in the new world and 
March 22, 1875, he debarked in New York 
City. It was in the west, however, that his 
chief interest was centered, and just nine days 
after landing in the eastern metropolis he landed 
in San Francisco. After remaining in that city 
in quest of a suitable position for about five 
months he finally went to the mines of Tuolumne 
county, but after two years of prospecting had 
little or nothing to show for the time and labor 
expended. From there he went to Gold Hill, 
Nev., remaining in the mines there until the 
spring of 1877, when he located at Qierokee 



Flat, Butte county, also interested in mining. 
It was in August of that year that he came to 
Plumas county and for four years he carried 
on mining at Spanish Ranch with considerable 
success. ■ 

Mr. Watson dates his most permanent sue- B * 
cess, however, from the year 1881, at which 
time he entered the employ of James E. Mills 
in the capacity of bookkeeper and assistant sur- 
veyor, positions which formed the lowest rung 
in the ladder of success which he ascended rap- 
idly from that time on. To such an extent had 
he applied himself to master surveying that in 
1885 Mr. Mills made him chief assistant. His 
collegiate education had made him the master 
of four languages, Latin, Greek, French and 
German, accomplishments which he was enabled 
to put to practical use during the twenty-one 
years in which he was in Mr. Mills' employ in 
topographical and geological surveys. During 
this time he had acquired a thorough knowl- 
edge of the profession and was at liberty to ac- 
cept and carry out work on his own behalf at 
odd times. During all of this time he had con- 
tinued his interest in mining, becoming an ex- 
pert in examining mining properties, and at the 
time of Mr. Mills' death in 1902 was in British • 
Columbia engaged in work of this character. 
Since 1903 he has been engaged in hydraulic 
work on his own account, as well as working 
for others, and for the past three years has been 
engineer in the Western Power Company. He 
also finds time for considerable general work 
in the line of surveying, which is confined to 
Plumas and Butte counties. 

March i, 1887, William Watson was united 
in marriage with Miss Mary F. Kanady, who 
was born in Sacramento county, Cal, and of 
the five children born to them the eldest, Har- 
old, died in infancy. Ernest and Arthur are 
now students in Santa Clara College, and Edith 
and Herbert are still at home with their par- 
ents. Being in perfect sympathy and accord 
with the principles of the Republican party Mr. 
Watson upholds his chosen party both by his 
voice and vote, and at the hands of his party 
friends was in 1902 elected school trustee, re- 
ceiving a large majority. In his church affilia- 



HISTORlCAl, AND BIOGRAIM IICAI. RKCORD. 



705 



tion Ik- is identified with the Episcopal denomi- 
nation, while his wife is an adherent of the 
Roman CathoHc chnrch. Mr. Watson has hewn 
a creditable career out of the waiting possibili- 
ties in the far west and is deserving of the uni- 
versal esteem of his fellow-citizens. 



FRANCIS H. CAMPBELL. Actively iden- 
tified with the farming interests of Plumas coun- 
ty is Francis H. Campbell, whose ranch is sit- 
uated five miles south of Beckwith. As a gen- 
eral farmer and stock-raiser he is meeting with 
well-merited success, his homestead with its im- 
provements bearing visible evidence of his in- 
dustry and judicious management. A son of 
James M. Campbell, he was born June 23, 1838, 
in Cuba, Allegany county, N. Y., of Scotch de- 
scent on the paternal side, the emigrant ancestor 
of the Campbell family having emigrated from 
Scotland to New England, settling in New 
Hampshire. He is also of Revolutionary stock, 
his grandfather, Robert Campbell, a native of 
Qierry Valley, N. Y., having served as a sol- 
dier in the Revolution. 

James M. Campbell was born, lived and died in 
New York state, attaining the age of seventy-five 
years. Choosing the occupation to which he was 
reared, he was engaged in tilling the soil through- 
out liis active career. He married Mary Morey, 
who was born in New York, of French ancestry, 
and the daughter of a woolen manufacturer. She 
too lived to be seventy-five years old. 

Until becoming of age Francis H. Campbell 
remained at home, helping his father on the farm 
and obtaining a practical common school educa- 
tion in his native town. Beginning life then as a 
wage-earner, he worked 1>y the month for two 
years, and with the thrift characterizing his an- 
cestors saved a large part of his earnings. Start- 
ing westward then in search of better opportu- 
nities, he migrated first to Illinois, where for a 
year he worked on a farm, and likewise taught 
penmanship. Coming from there to California 
in 1861, he found employment in the mines, first 
in Nevada City, and then at I lowland Mat. Lo- 
cating in this valley in the spring of 1863, he 



worked on a rancii for several months. No- 
vemlx?r 7. 1864, he enlisted in Company K. Sev- 
enth California Volunteer Infantry, the regi- 
ment that built Fort Dowell , .Arizona. He 
served for eighteen months, the regiment Ix;- 
ing engaged in fighting Indians and raiders, and 
after the close of the war. on March 29. 1866, 
was mustered out of service. 

Returning to the valley. Mr. Campbell again 
began working by the month, for three years or 
more operating a sawmill in this vicinity. In 
1870, with a view to settling permanently in life, 
he located on his present home farm, in 1871 fil- 
ing a homestead claim, and to this original i)ur 
chase he has since added, now owning a rancli 
of three hundred and sixty acres, and also a 
forty-acre timber tract. 

On March 5, 1872. Mr. Campbell married 
Harriett Calista Hale, who was born in Gardiner, 
Me., September 26. 1851, and came to this state 
in 1870. Six children have been born of the 
union of Mr. and Mrs. Camplx^II, namely: James 
H.. station agent at Beckwith with the Boca & 
Loyalton Railroad, and also engaged in farming; 
George H., attending the Conservatory of Music 
in Boston. Mass. ; Charles F., a student in the 
State University at Berkeley, Cal. ; Calista T., 
deceased: Tene S., attending the Riverside high 
school; and Frederick M.. at home. Politically 
Mr. Campbell is a straightforward Republican, 
supporting the principles of that party by voice 
and vote. He takes an intelligent interest in 
local affairs, and in 1889 was elected supervi.sor 
of the Beckwith district, a position which he 
filled so acceptably that he was subsef|uently 
elected to the same office for a second term. 
Fraternally he is a member of Hope Lcnlge No. 
234, F. & A. M., of Beckwith. The Kettle post- 
office is located in his house, ami Mrs. Cani|)l)ell 
is the postmaster. 



MELLEN WILLIAMSON. A pioneer res- 
ident of California, and a veteran agriculturist 
of Plumas county, Mellen W'illiamson. of Big 
Meadows, is eminently worthy of honorable 
representation in a work of this character. .-M- 
though eighty years have passed ■^incc lu' inadi- 



706 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



his advent into this world of ours, he bears the 
burden of time with ease and dignity, being hale 
and hearty, as active as a man twenty years 
younger, and reads and writes without the aid 
of glasses. Of good old New England ances- 
try, he was born, February 20, 1825, in Somer- 
set county, Me., and was there brought up on 
a farm, remaining at home until twenty-seven 
years of age. 

In 1852, on January 5, Mr. Williamson, lured 
by the wonderful stories told concerning the 
discovery of gold in California, started for this 
eldorado of the west, coming by the Panama 
route to Yuba county, where he followed min- 
ing for a year. The ensuing fifteen years he 
was similarly employed in Butte and Plumas 
counties, but not meeting with the desired suc- 
cess in obtaining the golden metal he changed 
his occupation, and for a number of years 
worked for different ranchers. He subsequent- 
ly pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of 
land in the valley, and in 1886 filed on one 
hundred and sixty acres of land in Big Mead- 
ows. Having proved up, he is now the owner 
of three hundred and twenty acres of valuable 
land, which he manages with excellent success. 
Pie has never married, but for the past seven- 
teen years has made his home with the family 
of Peter Olsen, of whom a brief biographical 
sketch may be found on another page of this 
work. In his earlier agricultural career Mr. 
Williamson worked for five years for Mr. Ol- 
sen, and until the death of the latter the two 
managed their land together, carrying on gen- 
eral farming with satisfactory results, and each 
contributing his full share toward the develop- 
ment and growth of the countv. 



EDWIN E. PHELPS. Variously interested 
in commercial and agricultural pursuits in Plu- 
mas county, Mr. Phelps is known to the travel- 
ing public as proprietor of the Meadow Valley 
hotel, and in addition at this writing holds the 
office of postmaster and superintends important 
ranching interests in the heart of the valley. A 
member of a pioneer family of California, he 



has made his home in this state from the age of 
eleven years and represents the progressive citi- 
zenship that has been the most important factor 
in the development of the west. His father, 
James C. Phelps, was born and reared in New 
Haven, Conn., and there learned and followed 
the trade of shoemaker, besides for some time 
finding employment as a cigar manufacturer in 
his native city. Leaving his family in the east, 
in 1858 he sought a home for them in California. 
Eor two years he made his headquarters in Jack- 
son, Amador county, and worked in the Oneida 
quartz»mine, after which he spent a similar peri- 
od in the mines at Aurum City, Eldorado county. 
Returning to Amador county, he discovered and 
partly developed what came to be known as the 
Bay State mine. This he operated for a period 
of six years and then sold at a fair profit. It was 
then that he identified himself with Plumas 
county through the purchase of a home in 
Meadow valley and the opening of a shoemaking 
shop, which he conducted in addition to devoting 
some attention to mining. For some eight years 
he held office as justice of the peace and in poli- 
tics took an active part with the Democratic par- 
ty. Prior to leaving the east he was made a 
Mason in Utica, N. Y., and later transferred his 
membership to the blue lodge at his California 
home town. At the age of seventy-nine years 
and three months he passed away in November, 
1902, having been active until a very few days 
before his death. 

The marriage of James C. Phelps united him 
with Miss Lovina Meeker, who was born in Con- 
necticut and passed the years of youth at Wal- 
lingford, that state. When her husband came 
to the west she remained awaiting his decision as 
to the removal of the family, and when he report- 
ed prospects to be encouraging she brought her 
sons via Panama in i860 to California, where 
she afterward made her home. In character gen- 
tle, in disposition mild and amiable, she exempli- 
fied the doctrines of religion in her life, and was a 
faithful member of the Episcopal church. Wlien 
seventy-nine years of age she was found dead in 
her bed one morning in April, 1903, death having 
come quietly and without pain in the sleep of the 
night. Surviving her are three sons, of whom 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRArillCAL RECORD. 



707 



the eldest and youngest, John Cj. and James C, 
Jr., are living in San iM-anciseo, while the second, 
Edwin E., continues to make his home in Plumas 
county. The last-named was born in New Ha- 
ven, Conn., March i, 1849, ^"^1 at an early age 
began to work in mines, continuing as a miner 
and prospector until 1878, when he turned his at- 
tention to ranching and the keeping of a hotel. 
Fraternally he is connected with Plumas Lodge 
No. 88, L O. O. F., at Ouinc\-, and in politics he 
is a strong Republican. 

In his marriage Edwin E. Phelps became 
united with Miss Mary L. Hughes, who was 
born at Soda Bar, Plumas county. The two 
daughters of their union are Verbenia M., Mrs. 
Arthur A. Hall of Quincy, and Mary Elizabeth, 
a school girl of nine years. Mrs. Phelps was 
born August 18, 1859, ''"'^1 's a daughter of 
Thomas and Elizabeth (Pary) Hughes, the lat- 
ter of whom made her home with Mrs. Phelps 
until her death, May 3, 1906. A native of 
Wales, born May 13, 1830, Thomas Hughes 
learned the gardener's trade in boyhood. At the 
age of seventeen years he came to the United 
States and settled first at East Dennis, Mass., on 
the shores of Cape Cod. During 1854 he came 
lo the Pacific coast. At first he was employed at 
gardening in what is now the heart of San 
Francisco. In 1855 he came to Plumas county 
and first mined at Dutch Bar, hut in 1857 re- 
moved to Soda Bar, on the east branch of Feath- 
er river, where he opened a store and public 
house, remaining in that place until 1868. Dur- 
ing the fall of 1869 he purchased from M. D. 
Smith the Meadow \'alley hotel and ranch of 
three hundred and twenty acres, and afterward 
carried on the hotel, acted as postmaster of 
Meadow Valley, engaged in ranching and for 
many years made a specialty of the dairy busi- 
ness. In fraternal affairs he was connected with 
Plumas Lodge No. 88, I. O. O. F., at Quincy. 
Up to the time of his death, which occurred in 
1890, he was actively interested in the various 
affairs which had engaged his attention in the 
preceding years. The ranch which Mr. Hughes 
occupied and owned was inherited by his widow 
and their daughter, Mrs. Phelps, and is now the 
home of the Phelps family, there being five hun- 



dred acres in the estate, of which three hundred 
acres comprise fertile and valuable valley land, 
while the remainder of the properly is in timber. 
Among the people of Plumas county Mr. and 
Airs. Phelps occupy an honored position and are 
esteemed for the qualities of mind and heart 
which have brought them into rank with the 
most progressive people of their community. 



ARTHUR F. MARTIN. The family repre- 
sented by this progressive stock-raiser and dairy- 
man of the Big Meadow valley in Plumas county 
is of pioneer California stock, his father, Jona- 
than F., having sought the possibilities of the 
west as early as 1852, and afterward acquired 
diversified interests which he retained until 
death. Of eastern descent, Jonathan F. Martin 
was horn in Vermont March 4, 181 2, and grew 
to manhood upon a farm. Upon starting out 
for himself he first gave his attention to agricult- 
ure, but later became interested in a foundry. 
When he came to California, via the Isthmus of 
Panama, in 1852 he immediately went to the min- 
ing regions. For a time he acted as superintend- 
ent of the Banner mine, and he also became in- 
terested in a coal mine near Oroville, where he 
mined the first coal discovered in the state, but 
the work proved expensive and unprofitable. 
-About i860 he returned via Panama to Vennont 
for his family, and after coming back to the coast 
he engaged in mining at Thompson's Flat, Butte 
county, where June 6, 1861, occurred the birth 
of his son whose name introduces this article. 

While at various times he met with good fort- 
une in the mines, the losses sustained by Jona- 
than F. Martin were so heavy that when he 
abandoned the occupation in 1864 he had sunk 
about $20,000 in disastrous mining ventures. 
With a hope of meeting with greater success in 
agriculture he removed to the vicinity of Dayton 
and settled upon a ranch. From there about 
1873 he removed to the Big Meadows, in Plumas 
county, where he filed a claim to the tract now 
owned by his heirs. In addition to the one hun- 
dred and sixty acres for which he filed his claim, 
he bought a half section of range land and con- 



708 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



siderable swamp land, giving him in his ranch an 
aggregate of eight hundred and twenty acres. 
To this he added from time to time until his total 
possessions aggregated thirteen hundred acres, 
utilized for the pasturage of stock and the rais- 
ing of farm products. In the attaining of this 
large landed estate he had the active co-operation 
of his sons and the counsel and sympathy of his 
wife. 

• Through all the period intervening between the 
organization of the Republican party and his 
death, Jonathan F. Martin was a supporter of 
the party and a stanch friend of its platform. 
The only fraternal body in which he held mem- 
bership was the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, his connection being with the lodge at 
Dayton. Sturdy and strong almost to the very 
last, he passed away after a brief illness, March 
i6, 1886, aged seventy-four years. His wife, 
who bore the maiden name of Sophronia A. 
Coolidge, was a native of Vermont and has 
made her home in California since i860. The 
busv vears of a long and industrious life have 
enfeebled her frame and weakened her body, but 
her mind is unimpaired by the cares of four 
score and four years. Of a cheerful religious 
spirit, her last days are bright with the hope of 
immortality ; both herself and husband were act- 
ive members of the Christian Church, and from 
youth lived consistent, honorable lives. Of their 
nine children only three arc living, namely : 
Oscar, of Oiico, this state, who inherited three 
hundred and sixty acres of the estate, and now 
makes a specialty of hauling freight from his 
home town; Orland J., who inherited the prop- 
erty on Butte creek and engages in ranching on 
that place; and Arthur F., who inherited the cat- 
tle, comprising seventy-five head. 

The home place of eight hundred and forty 
acres was bequeathed to the mother, for whom 
the youngest son manages the land, in addition 
having charge of an adjoining tract of seven 
hundred and twenty acres of valley land, re- 
cently purchased by him. The larger part of 
the tract is utilized for a stock range, there be- 
ing usually from one hundred to two hundred 
head of cattle on the range belonging to Mr. 
Martin, besides outside stock which are pastured 



there. At times he has as many as fifty milch 
cows in his dairy, and the making of butter is 
one of his specialties. As early as 1888 he pur- 
chased the first cream separator in the valley 
and for some years bought milk from neighbors, 
but since separators have come into general use 
he handles his own product only. In other ways 
he has shown himself to be progressive, quick 
to adopt new methods, ambitious to attain an 
honorable competency and far-seeing in judg- 
ment. Like his father he believes in the prin- 
ciples for which the Republican party stands. 



JOHN MATHEW SHORT. Both through 
his intimate association with the Republican par- 
ty in Plumas county and through his efficient 
service m the office of county tax and license 
collector, Mr. Short has become well known to 
the residents of this part of the state. His nom- 
ination for office occurred in the fall of 1898, his 
election following in due course, and January i, 
1899, he entered upon the duties of the office. 
The office of tax and license collector had not 
existed prior to the year 1899, but was created 
that year by the board of county supervisors, 
and thus Mr. Short has the distinction of being 
the first incumbent. So satisfactorily had he 
filled the position during his first term that at its 
close he was re-elected in 1902. 

Mr. Short is a native of California, and was 
born in Placerville on the last day of the year 
1864. His father, William Short, was bom in 
St. Lawrence county, N. Y., making his home 
there on a farm until the breaking out of the 
Civil war. Coming to California in 1861, he first 
identified himself with Oroville, Butte county, 
going from there to the mines on Feather river 
in Plumas and Sierra counties. Subsequently 
he worked for wages in the mines at Crescent 
Mills, Plumas county, besides which he also fol- 
lowed farming there and at Greenville, carrying 
on this double occupation the remainder of his 
life. His death occurred September 16, 1902, at 
which time he was in his seventy-second year. 
Politically he was a believer in Republican prin- 
ciples. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



709 



The liovliood years of John M. Short were 
spent in Plumas county, as he was only five or 
six months old when the family removed to In- 
dian valley. Until he was alx)ut twenty years of 
age he remained at home and worked on his 
father's farm, but after reaching that age started 
out on his own responsibility and for about six 
years worked by the month on neighboring 
ranches. By this time he had saved sufficient 
means to enable him to purchase a half interest 
in a meat market at Greenville, which he oper- 
ated from the spring of 1894 until the fall of 
1898, when he sold his interest to his partner. 
The business had proven a very successful un- 
dertaking and Mr. Short relinquished his inter- 
est in it from necessity rather than choice, his 
nomination and election to his present office 
bringing about the change in his plans. 

Mr. Short was united in marriage December 
II, 1901, to Miss Bertha Stahley, also a native of 
this county, and they have two children, Thelma 
and Harold J. As a business man, citizen and 
public official Mr. Short has won a host of 
friends and is highly esteemed by all who know 
him. 



RICHARD M. JACKS. Of the throngs who 
endured the hardships of the long journey over 
the mountains and plains in order to reach the 
gold mines of the then unknown west, by far the 
largest number have passed into the silence of 
eternity and have made the last journey that hu- 
manity is called upon to take. Upon crossing 
the continent during the memorable year of 1850 
Mr. Jacks endured untold hardships in the ef- 
fort to reach the land of whose wealth rumor 
had whispered alluring tales, but he never re- 
gretted the decision which led him to forsake the 
home of his boyhood for the opportunities of the 
undeveloped coast country, and in his old age he 
found himself surrounded by comforts earned by 
his industry and frugality, and sufficient to give 
to his advancing years the contentment which 
comes from a life well spent and the friendship 
of the best class of citizens. 

In Howard county. Mo., Mr. Jacks was born 
September 22, 1832, and there he passed the 



years of youth upon the large plantation owned 
by his father and operated by the family slaves. 
While he was yet in the springtime of life and 
awaiting a favorable opening to establish him- 
self in life, news came of the discovery of gold 
in California, and thus his future was decided 
for him. In 1850 he started from his old home 
with a company of emigrants and traveled with- 
out incident to the Missouri river, but there mis- 
fortune awaited them in the loss of their oxen. 
Having no way of proceeding with their sup- 
plies, they hired a man to haul their wagons 
across the plains, while they walked the entire 
distance to California, and on the 5th of Sep- 
tember landed at Placerville, footsore and weary. 

After having mined in various localities, Mr. 
Jacks came to Plumas county and in April, 1851, 
mined at Poorman's, while the summer he spent 
at Canon creek. For three years he mined at dif- 
ferent places in Plumas county, and in 1854 he 
settled at Quincy. During the same year he 
built at Meadow X'alley the sawmill which he 
operated for a number of years. With other 
parties he e.xcavated for the Plumas ditch, which 
proved at first very profitable, bringing them 
$115,000 the first year, but later they lost all of 
their original profits. In 1863 he prospected at 
Reese river, hut the results were so discouraging 
that he was glad to return to Plumas county. In 
i8f)4 he bought and pre-empted a homestead of 
three hundred an<l twent)- acres, besides which 
he became the owner of the Meadow valley wa- 
ter ditch, which furnishes four thousand inches of 
living water for the entire year and thus gives 
an ample supply for the irrigation of the valley 
land. At one time Senator Perkins, who was a 
warm personal friend, was interested with him 
in this property. .\ man of inventive ability, he 
devised a number of improvements for mines 
and mills, but these he never realized upon, their 
profits being taken by other parties. 

In Wyandotte county, Kan., January 11. 1871. 
Mr. lacks married Miss Florence Fremont Piell, 
who was I)orn in Platte county. Mo., March 17. 
1854, and received a fair education in her home 
neighborhood. Immediately after their mar- 
riage Mr. and Mrs. Jacks came to California and 
settled on the ranch which still is the home of 



710 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



the latter. Eight children were born of their 
union, namely : Donathan Richard, a law grad- 
uate, who has the honor of being the first collect- 
or of port at Port Harford, San Luis Obispo, and 
who held a position as inspector in the custom 
house at San Francisco; Mary E., wife of 
Charles Thompson, who owns the Elizabeth 
mine at Rich Gulch, Plumas county ; Solon P., 
who is engaged in ranching in Big Meadows ; 
Elias T. (known as Lyle), who is clerk in the 
court of Judge Sewall of San Francisco; Flor- 
ence J., who is a dressmaker in San Francisco ; 
Andrew, who remains with his mother in Plu- 
mas county ; Ruth Perkins, a successful teacher 
in the Plumas county schools ; and Agnes, who 
resides on the home ranch. The family circle was 
broken by the death of the father, which oc- 
curred January 24, 1899, while he was visiting 
in Wyandotte county, Kan. The loss fell heav- 
ily upon his wife, who had labored by his side 
for many years and had contributed largely to 
his success. In his home life he had been kindly 
and thoughtful, fond of reading, an interesting 
conversationalist, and enjoying the society of 
people of culture and refinement. Though he 
never held office, he was stanch in his allegiance 
to the Democratic party through all of his life, 
and fraternally he was active in Plumas Lodge 
No. 60, F. & A. \[., and in his life exemplified 
the noble principles of Masonry. 



ALVIN W. WHITNEY. The genealogy of 
the Whitney family is traced back to the early 
days of the settlement of New England, the 
first of the name in the new world being John, 
who was born at Westminster, England, July 
20, 1592, and crossed the ocean to Watertown. 
Mass., as early as 1635, identifying himself with" 
the new colony, among whose members he after- 
ward wielded considerable influence. Belong- 
ing to the same family was the late William C. 
Whitney, at one time secretary of the navy. 
Several generations lived and died in Maine, and 
in that state Ephraim Whitney spent the greater 
part of his life, following the occupation of a 
farmer, but at an advanced age he came to Cal- 



ifornia and resided at Santa Cruz until his death 
at eighty years. During the existence of the 
Whig party he upheld its tenets and later be- 
came a stanch Republican. 

Among the children of Ephraim Whitney was 
Alvin W., born at East Corinth, Me., May 27, 
1838, and during boyhood a student in the acad- 
emy of his native town. At eighteen years of 
age he went to Bangor, Me., where he secured 
a clerkship in a wholesale dry-goods establish- 
ment. Two years later, in 1858, he came to 
California via the Panama route and for about 
four years engaged in the mercantile business 
at Knight's F"erry, after 1859 his work being 
largely in the buying of merchandise which he 
hauled to the mines and there sold. Returning 
to San Francisco in 1865, he acted as salesman 
for a time and then for sixteen years was a 
broker on the Board of Trade, where he both 
made and lost fortunes in the speculations in- 
cident to those times. The next enterprise in 
which he became interested was the purchase 
of the Golden Chariot mine in San Diego coun- 
ty, where approximately $500,000 in gold was 
taken out in only two years. 

On the closing out of the mine Mr. Whitney 
went to New York City and assisted in organ- 
izing the New York Mining Board, with which 
he remained for a year or more, he being chosen 
chairman of the stock list committee. Soon 
afterward he went to Colorado as manager of 
the Champion Mining Company's works in Gil- 
pin county, where he continued in charge for 
two years. At the expiration of that time the 
mines were sold to a syndicate of English cap- 
italists for $100,000. With a change in own- 
ership of the mine Mr. Whitney resigned his 
position and went to Qiicago, where he bought 
a meinbership in the Chicago Board of Trade 
and continued for a short time. Soon, how- 
ever, he went to the republic of Honduras in 
South America as manager of an old mine that 
had been abandoned three hundred years before. 
To him was given the difficult task of bringing 
the mine into working condition after a lapse 
of so many years, and he succeeded to a de- 
gree bevond expectations. \'Vhen the develop- 
ing of the mine was taken up, he resigned and 





A 



s 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ni 



returned to the United States, where his next 
undertaking was tlie opening of coal mines in 
Michigan. Later he was chosen manager of 
the Belmont property in Nevada. On coming to 
California he took charge of liie Crescent mill 
and mine propert}- at Crescent Mills, where he 
sunk a shaft four hundred feet deep in an ex- 
tension from the old shaft of only eighty feet. 
About 1890 he purchased one thousand acres 
of ranch land, of which seven hundred and 
three acres are in the Indian valley, and the 
balance is mainly in timber. Upon this large 
tract he has conducted stock-raising, and at this 
writing has thirty-five driving and draft horses, 
as well as some fine specimens of Uerkshire 
hogs and Durham cattle. 

For many years Mr. ^\'hitney has been a 
widower, his wife, Mary Louise McDonald, 
whom he married in 1867, and who was born, 
reared and educated in Kentucky, having died 
in 1870; the only child of their union died in 
infancy. Though a stanch Republican and al- 
ways interested in political matters, Mr. Whit- 
ney has never cared to accept office, but always 
has been prompt to aid such of his friends as 
were candidates for public positions. During 
his eventful life he has traveled widely, made 
many friends, been connected with various un- 
dertakings that represented immense amounts 
of money, and has had his share of successes 
and reverses in mining and speculating on die 
Board of Trade, but now, after all these ardu- 
ous experiences, he is living quietly at Crescer.t 
Mills, into which locality his interests have 
gradually been centered. 



LYMAN COLLINS STILES. In common 
with the majority of the early settlers of Cali- 
fornia Mr. Stiles endured hartlships, surmounted 
obstacles and battled with discouragements ; yet 
in the niitlst of adverse conditions he remained 
undaunted by reverses, even when, as during 
the severe winter of 1873-74, he lost almost his 
entire herd of stock and was forced to begin 
anew in the world. The competency which the 
family now enjo_\s is the fruit of his arduous 



labors protracted through a long period of busy 
years. To a gratifying degree success rewarded 
his exertions and he surrounded his family with 
the comforts of life, their home being one of the 
comfortable and suljstantial residences of Su.san- 
ville. 

A pioneer of 1854 in California, .Mr. Stiles was 
a native of Illinois and of New England and 
Scotch parentage. His father, Aaron, who was 
born and reared in X'ermont, where he practiced 
medicine, became a pioneer of Illinois in 1826, 
improving a farm in Calhoun county, where he 
later followed his profession. Before any large 
measure of success had crowned his efforts he 
was called from this world, his death occurring 
September 20, 1836, just four years after the 
demise of his wife, Nancy (Collins) Stiles. Of 
their union three sons were born, Lyman Collins 
being the younger of the two now living. His 
older brother. Oscar, accompanied him to Cali- 
fornia, but fifteen years afterward he returned 
to Iowa, where he now lives retired from active 
business cares. Lyman C, Stiles was born in 
Calhoun county, 111., August 25, 1832, and was 
orphaned at an age too young to bring him any 
sense of realization of his loss. During boy- 
hood years he was under the supervision of a 
half-brother, Henry G. Stiles, whom he aided 
in the lumber business. It was not possible for 
him to attend school regularly, but when he could 
be spared from home he was sent to a neighbor- 
ing school, held in a log house with seats of 
slabs and floor of puncheon. The course of in- 
struction was as primitive as the building itself, 
yet the knowledge acquired under these sur- 
roundings by the ambitious student was often 
thorough and broad. 

.A.fter having spent a part of two years in 
Grant county, Wis., during the spring of 1854 
Mr. Stiles went to New York City and there 
took passage on the ship Northern Light, which 
took him to Greytown. Following the Nicara- 
gua route he crossed to the Pacific ocean and 
there sailed on the Cortez for San Francisco, 
where he landed on the 4th of March. For a 
time he tried his luck at Rabbit creek in the 
mines of Morristown, Plumas county, and dur- 
ing 1856 visited Indian valley for the first time. 



712 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Until 1859 he continued to spend the winter 
months at Morristown, after which he settled on 
a farm in Indian valley and save his attention to 
buying, selling and raising cattle. With his herd 
in 1864 he came to Honey Lake valley, where he 
bought a claim and remained for five years. For 
a long period afterward he devoted his attention 
to driving cattle from southern Oregon to Lassen 
county and upon his retirement from that occu- 
pation he came to Susanville. where he estab- 
lished his home. Prior to his death, December 
15, 1905, he disposed of his property in Big Val- 
ley. 

The marriage of Mr. Stiles occurred in 
Quincy, Plumas county, March 10, 1864. and 
united him with Miss Anna M. Goumaz, who 
was born in Switzerland, and at ten years of age 
came to the United States, settling in \'andalia, 
Fayette county. 111. In 1863 she came to Cali- 
fornia, where she has since resided. Born of 
their union were five children, as follows : Alice, 
who is the wife of Oakley Glass, of Texas ; 
Laura, wife of Hillman Willard, who is engaged 
in the sheep business in Tehama county, Cal. ; 
Stella, a graduate of the Chico Normal and a 
teacher in Oakland, this state ; Marietta, who also 
is a graduate of Chico Normal and is now the 
wife of A. J. Hall, of Long Valley, Lassen 
county; and Lyman G., who is a merchant at 
Constantia, Cal. Politically Mr. Stiles supported 
the measures of the Republican party. After 
coming to this locality he was made a Mason in 
Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. M., of which he 
served as treasurer for many years. In addition 
he held membership in Lassen Chapter No. 47, 
R. A. M., Lassen Commandery No. 13, K. T., 
and with his wife affiliated with the Order of the 
Eastern Star. 



WILLIAM F. PASETTA. Among the high- 
ly respected residents of Johnsville, Plumas 
covmty, is William F. Pasetta, proprietor of a 
hotel that if, favorably known and well patron- 
ized by the traveling public. Immigrating to 
this country from a foreign land, he arrived here 
poor in pocket, but with a courageous heart and 
willing hands, and by close application, untiring 



energy and diligent use of his faculties and op- 
portunities, he li;is steadily climbed the ladder 
of success, and is proving himself a most useful 
and worthy citizen of his adopted town. An 
Austrian by birth, he was born July 19, 1859, in 
Dalmatia, v^diere he grew to man's estate. 

In 1880 Mr. Pasetta left the scenes of child- 
hood, coming lo America in search of fortune. 
Locating in Johnsville, Cal., he turned his atten- 
tion to mining jjursv.its, and in the following ten 
years met with a fair amount of success. Estab- 
lishing himself tlien as the keeper of a public 
house, he has since been actively employed in 
the hotel business. Like other men. he has met 
with reverses, having been burned out once, thus 
losing much of his property. Nothing daunted, 
however, he rebuilt his present hostelry, which 
he has since managed to the satisfaction of his 
numerous patrons, proving himself a genial and 
popular host. He is also interested in placer 
mining, owning a part of the Morning Star 
mine on Nelson creek and the Bluenose mine. 

Politically Mr. Pasetta is actively identified 
with the Democratic party, and has served as 
delegate to county and state conventions. Fra- 
ternally he is a member of Mohawk Lodge No. 
292, I. O. O. F., and of Slavonia Lodge, both of 
johnsville. 



WILLIAM JOHNSON. Numbered among 
the capable, intelligent and progressive business 
men of Plumas county is William Johnson, who 
owns and occupies a valuable ranch in Indian 
valley, not far from Taylorsville. Beginning life 
for himself when young, he developed in a re- 
markable degree the energy and push that have 
been such important factors in winning for him 
success in his active career, and giving him high 
rank among the self-made men of our times. 

A native of England, Mr. Johnson was born 
in Yorkshire, August 14, 1866. He spent his 
earlier years on the home farm, obtaining a lim- 
ited education in the common schools. When 
about twelve years old, his father meeting with 
financial reverses, he was practically thrown 
upon his own resources, and since that time has 
not only been self-supporting, but has gladly 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGKAI'l I iCAI. RFX-ORD. 



713 



given material aid to his parents. Immigrating 
to America a year or two before attaining his 
majority, he spent two years in Toronto, Can- 
ada, working on a farm. Coming from there to 
Marysville, Cal., he worked for wages for about 
three years, and then established himself in the 
wood business, which he managed successfully 
for twelve years, the latter part of the time also 
being engaged in farming on a ranch which he 
had leased. Selling out his wood business in 
1901, he located in Plumas county, buying his 
present fami, known as the old '"Blood" ranch. 
It contains five hundred and thirty-seven and 
one-half acres of land, four hundred and sixty 
acres being in the valley. The remainder is tim- 
ber land, and part of it is very valuable, contain- 
ing a good spring and a charming building spot. 
June 16, 1901, Mr. Johnson married Dora 
Johnson. She is a native of Plumas county, hav- 
ing been born in American valley, a daughter of 
William Johnson. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are 
the parents of three children, namely : Helen, 
Lee Gilbert and Marie. In national politics Mr. 
Johnson is a straightforward Republican, but in 
local afTairs he is independent, voting for the 
best men and measures. 



JAMES W. COTTINGHAM. In his high 
standing as a public official and his public spirit 
as a citizen the late J. W. Cottingham demon- 
strated the possession of qualities that bring to a 
man the confidence of associates and the prestige 
of success. At the hands of his Democratic 
friends, by whom he was universally known as 
"Jim," he received the nomination as county as- 
sessor in 1894 and in January of the following 
year took his official seat, the election at that 
time giving him a majority of ninety-one votes, 
while the Republican majority in the county 
was one hundred and sixty-one. At his re-elec- 
tions to the office which followed in 1898 and 
1902 his luajorities were one hundred and 
eighty-five and two hundred and ninety-two, re- 
spectively, while those of the opposing party 
were one hundred and sixteen and one lumdred 
and seventv-two in the order named. 



A native of Illinois, Mr. Cottingham was born 
in Coles county, May 5, 1859, ^ ^o" °^ James and 
Eliza (Bellj Cottingham, natives of Indiana and 
North Carolina respectively. During young 
manhood James Cottingham removed from the 
Hoosier state and settled on a farm in Illinois, 
making it his home until 1864. Selling out his 
holdings and outfitting for the journey during 
the year just mentioned, with his family, he 
made the overland trip to California with a 
horse-team, coming direct to Plumas county. 
Upon the land which he then settled in Indian 
valley he spent the remainder of his life, dying 
at the age of seventy-five years. Politically he 
favored Democratic principles, although at no 
time was he active in party affairs. During her 
girlhood Mrs. Cottingham located in Illinois, 
and it was there that her marriage and the birth 
of her children occurred. Upon the ranch in In- 
dian valley, to which she came with her husband, 
she died at the age of seventy-two years, having 
become the mother of nine children, six of whom 
are now living, and of whom five are residents 
of Plumas county. In order of birth the children 
comprising the parental family are as follows : 
Levi, who died at the age of fifteen years : Will- 
iam M., a farmer in Indian valley ; Abigail, who 
died at the age of fifty-five ; Mary, the wife of 
John Stark, a farmer in this vicinity ; Laura 
Anna, the wife of W. Price Anderson of Shasta 
county, Cal. ; Ella, wife of J. C. Young, a mer- 
chant of Taylorsville, Plumas county ; Julia, the 
widow of William Hardgrave and a resident of 
Taylorsville ; James W. ; and Sadie, the wife of 
J. S. Church, who is a blacksmith in Taylors- 
ville. 

James W. Cottingham was a small child when 
his parents brought the family to California, and 
until he was twenty-two years old he shared in 
the duties that fall to the lot of farmers' sons. 
He then started farming on his own account, 
renting a ranch in the vicinity of the old home 
for ten years, after which he purchased the ranch 
now occupied by his family, which consists of 
two hundred and forty acres in Indian valley. 
From the time of purchase until shortly before 
his death Mr. Cottingham had charge of its cul- 
tivation, but two years ago, on account of ill 



71i 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



health, he leased it to a tenant. He died August 
27, 1905, at the home of his brother, William M. 
May 7, 1885, he was married to Miss Alice Bar- 
ker, who was born in Plumas county, and three 
children were born to them : Leslie, Frank and 
Mabel, all of whom are at home with their moth- 
er. Mr. Cottingham was a member of but one fra- 
ternal order, the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men. He was well known for his uprightness, 
sincerity and unselfishness, and for an optimistic 
nature which saw the best side of life, the world 
and his friends 



ANTONE BACHER. In the development 
of the agricultural and industrial resources of the 
Pacific coast states, California, especially, is 
deeply indebted to its citizens of foreign birth and 
breeding, men who have brought to this newer 
country those habits of industry, economy and 
thrift that stand for success in any calling. 
Prominent for many years among these good 
citizens was the late Antone Bacher, who locat- 
ed in Plumas county nearly forty-five years ago, 
and from that time until his death was actively 
identified with its farming interests, owning and 
occupying a valuable ranch in Indian Valley. 

A native of Germany, Antone Bacher was 
born January 6, 1832, in Baden, where he was 
reared and educated. Learning the baker's trade 
when young, he followed it for a time in the 
Fatherland. Marrying in 1853, he crossed the 
ocean with his bride, coming to the United States 
and locating in Susquehanna county. Pa., where 
he worked by the day for three years. Going to 
Iowa as a pioneer in 1856, he bought a small 
tract of timber, and having cleared a part of it 
engaged in farming for himself on a small scale, 
at the same time working for wages as oppor- 
tunity presented itself. Four or five years later 
he traded his ranch for a cow, and in the spring 
of 1861, with two yoke of oxen and a yoke of 
cows, came across the plains to California, bring- 
ing with him his wife and their three children. 
Arriving in Plumas county in September, 1861, 
he located in Indian Valley, and for two years 
thereafter carried on farming on rented land. 
In the latter part of 1863 he bought eighty acres 



of land included in the home estate, and success- 
fully continued his agricultural labors. From 
time to time he invested in other land, increasing 
the acreage of his home ranch until it contained 
two hundred and eighty acres of valley land, and 
one hundred and sixty acres of hill and timber 
land. He also bought valley land near Taylorsville, 
becoming owner of a fine grain and dairy ranch 
of three hundred and twenty-one acres there, and 
likewise obtaining title to five hundred and sixty 
acres of summer grazing land in Clover valley. 
In his operations Mr. Bacher exercised rare 
good judgment, and until his death, which oc- 
curred March 5, 1894, was numbered among the 
most prosperous and progressive farmers of the 
county, and held an assured position among its 
most respected and esteemed citizens. 

In 1853, in Wittenberg, Germany, Mr. Bacher 
married Elizabeth Wishing, who was born and 
reared in that place, her birth occurring January 
8, 1829. Of their union seven children were 
born, namely : Frank Joseph, engaged in mer- 
cantile pursuits at Crescent Mills, this county ; 
Andrew Walter, engaged in the livery business 
at Quincy, Cal. ; Sarah Jane, of Crescent Mills, 
widow of the late Dr. G. S. Carter ; Albert, who 
was born in 1859, and died in 1901 ; Frank Rob- 
ert, a resident of California : Levi Theodore, 
living with his mother ; and George H., a car- 
penter and builder in Quincy, Cal. In his political 
affiliations Mr. Bacher was a stanch Republican, 
but has never sought office. Much of his success 
was due to the able assistance of his wife, who 
since his death has managed the affairs of the 
homestead with judgment and discretion. In 
1906 she and her son rented their ranch and 
moved to Crescent Mills, where they are now 
making their home. 



JAMES FEE. Few of the men now i)romi- 
nent in the agricultural development of Modoc 
county have been identified with its history for 
a longer period than has Mr. Fee, who is a 
pioneer of 1867. During the spring of that 
year he came to Surprise valley and bought a 
claim near Fort Bidwell, also pre-empted a claim 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



715 



adjacent thereto. As the years passed he added 
to his possessions from time to time until now 
he is the owner of about sixteen hundred acres 
of land, all in Surprise valle}-. The land was 
totally destitute of improvements at the time of 
its purchase, and everything in the nature of an 
improvement now noticeable on the property is 
tlie result of his unaided enert^y and untiring 
labors. A portion of the tract is under alfalfa, 
but the larger part is in hay and meadow, stock- 
raising being the owner's specialty. 

Near Belfast, Ireland, in the county of Antrim, 
James Fee was born July 23, 1837, and there he 
received a fair education in the national schools. 
At the age of sixteen years he crossed the ocean 
to New York City and from there traveled to 
Van Buren county, Iowa, but soon removed to 
Pennsylvania, where he was employed as a 
laborer for one and one-half years. Returning 
from Pennsylvania to Iowa, from there in the 
spring of 1863 he went to New York City and 
took passage for the Isthmus of Panama, thence 
journeyed up the Pacific to San Francisco. For 
several weeks he remained near Petaluma with 
friends, and then proceeded to Nevada, where 
he engaged in teaming in and near Virginia City. 
In the spring of 1867 he left Nevada and came to 
the Surprise valley, where in the early days he 
had many experiences with hostile Indians. 

The marriage of Mr. Fee took place in Iowa 
in 1861 and united him with ]\Iartha Combes, a 
native of that state. When he came to Cali- 
fornia she remained in Iowa, but in 1864 crossed 
the plains to join her husband, bringing with 
her their infant son of nine months. The trip 
was severe and trying. For eighteen nights and 
days she remained in stage coaches, hastening 
over plains, across streams and over mountains 
where the rough and rugged roads proved almost 
too much for the strength of the eleven passen- 
gers. At one time the stage turned over and 
Mrs. Fee was struck on the head with such force 
that she was stunned, although not otherwise 
injured. One morning they passed a camp 
where the tents were still standing, but the people 
lay dead on the ground, having been killed by 
Indians during the night. Mrs. Fee w'as born 
in Jefferson count}-, Iowa, whither had come in 



an earl)- day her parents, Samuel and Delilah 
(Wiley) Combes, natives of Kentucky. After 
the death of her father, which occurred in Jeffer- 
son county, her mother came west and settled in 
Oregon, where she died at the age of ninety 
years, nine months and nine days. Six children 
were born to the union of Mr. and Mrs. Fee, 
but two died in infancy and Frank was killed 
by a horse in early life. Anna married L. S. 
Billups and now makes her home near_Fort Bid- 
well, her family consisting of two daughters, 
Alma and Cecile. The younger daughter, Agie, 
married R. L. Mason, of Fort Bidwell, Cal., and 
they have two children. Fay and Neva. Ernest, 
the only surviving son, married Grace Herron, 
by whom he has a son, James Laurence, and 
they now reside on the home ranch with his pa- 
rents. In politics Mr. Fee has always voted the 
Republican ticket ever since he became of age, 
but he takes no part whatever in politics aside 
from voting the ticket of his party, and at no 
time has he been prevailed upon to accept a nom- 
ination for office. 



BERNARD SCHNEIDER. Born Septem- 
ber 26, 1859, in Meadow valley, Plumas county, 
Bernard Schneider, is a successful druggist of 
Ouincy. He is the son of Bernard Schneider, 
Sr., who was born in Germany, where he was 
reared and learned the butcher's trade. Prior to 
the Mexican war he came to the United States 
and when our struggle began with Mexico he 
enlisted as a private and served through the war. 
In 1849, when the gold excitement was at its 
height, he crossed the iilains with oxen to Cali- 
fornia and located in Plumas county, where he 
engaged in prospecting and mining for several 
years, meeting with fair success. With his ac- 
cumulated earnings he purchased a ranch in 
Meadow valley, where he followed farming until 
his death, when he was about sixty-five years of 
age. His wife was also a native of Germany, 
where she was reared, and married, her death 
occurring in Plumas county. 

Bernard Schneider received his education in 
the public schools of his native county and when 



716 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



seventeen years of age came to Quincy and se- 
cured employment as clerk in a general mer- 
chandise store, remaining so engaged until 1885, 
when he and Edward Huskinson purchased the 
drug store which Mr. Schneider now owns. Aft- 
er four or five years he bought his partner's in- 
terest and has since carried on the business alone. 
Besides his store building he owns a comforta- 
ble residence in the town. In 1901 he built the 
electric light plant in Quincy, and operated it un- 
til it was sold to the present owners. 

In September, 1896, Mr. Schneider was mar- 
ried to Miss Abbie Huskinson, a native of Eng- 
land, who came with her mother to America 
when fifteen years of age. Fraternally Mr. 
Schneider is a member of the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen and in politics supports the 
Republican platform, though his tastes and qui- 
et disposition never inclined him to desire pub- 
lic office. He is a self-made and successful busi- 
ness man, having started with no means at his 
disposal, and by his industry and perseverance 
has won for himself and family financial suc- 
cess. Thqugh quiet in disposition, he is warm 
and loyal in his friendships, and is respected and 
esteemed by all who know him. 



ASA D. HALLSTED. To Asa D. Hallsted 
belongs the distinction of being one of the oldest 
miners in Plumas county, his identification with 
the county dating as far back as the year 1855. 
In the interim he has experienced the ups and 
downs which with few exceptions make up the 
history of every miner's life, but in the main 
he has been successful and has acquired consid- 
erable property. The Hallsted quartz mine of 
which he is the owner lies about nine miles north 
from Spanish Ranch, on Rich gulch. 

Mr. Hallsted is a native of Ohio, and was 
born in Brown county, April 17, 1831, the son of 
a farmer and miller. He assisted his father in 
the saw and grist mill and also shared the duties 
of the farm, until he reached an age when he 
was at liberty to select a business more in ac- 
cordance with his tastes and liking. The reports 
from the gold fields in California fired his ambi- 



tion to try his luck in the mines, and according- 
ly he and his brother Joseph left New York City 
November 13, 1854, making the trip to the west 
by way of the Nicaragua route. In December 
they debarked in San Francisco, and after five 
days of sight seeing in that metropolis they went 
to Butte county and spent the remainder of the 
winter on the south fork of the Feather river. 
The spring of 1855 found the brothers in Plumas 
county, where they soon resumed mining opera- 
tions on the east branch of the north fork of 
Feather river. During the same year, 1855, they 
were joined by another brother, Alanson Allison, 
and since that time the three have been mutually 
associated in various mines and prospects, the 
brother last mentioned also owning and manag- 
ing the hotel at Spanish Ranch. Both of the 
other brothers. Asa D. and Joseph, are bachelors 
and give their time almost exclusively to the op- 
eration of their mine. Although they have made 
considerable money since coming to the west 
they have given of their means with a lavish 
hand and consequently have not accumulated the 
wealth that might otherwise have been theirs. 

A Republican in his political views, Asa D, 
Hallsted was elected on that ticket to the office 
of assessor of Plumas county, serving two terms, 
from 1863 to 1867, and if the wishes of his con- 
stituents had been carried out he would have 
been retained in office. His refusal to again be- 
come a candidate for re-election, however, made 
it necessary to select another candidate for the 
office. Fraternally he is a charter member of 
Plumas Lodge No. 88, I. O. O. F., of Quincy, 
the lodge having bee'n organized about 1866. He 
was initiated into the order when a young man 
of twenty-one years and while still a resident of 
Ohio, and upon coming to the west took an act- 
ive part in organizing Plumas Lodge, of which 
he is now the onh' living charter member. 



JOHN FRANKLIN SPOONER. An enter- 
prising, practical and successful business man of 
Quincy, John F. Spooner, the jiresent treasurer 
of Plumas county, is a typical representative of 
the self-made men of our time. He has labored 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ri7 



hard from his carHcst days, and, notwilhstand- 
iiig reverses and losses that would discourage 
one of less pluck and grit, he has steadily pushed 
his way toward the front, by sheer persistency 
and earnestness of purpose winning a large 
measure of success. The Spooner faiuily is of 
English origin and in 1632 became established in 
New England, where the family has since flour- 
ished and is still well known. 

In Fort Fairfield, Aroostook county. Me., 
John V. Spooner was born September 16, 1858, 
a son of John Parsons Spooner, also a native of 
Maine. The father was not blessed with robust 
health and several }ears prior to his death when 
only forty-two years of age, had been an invalid. 
By trade he was a mechanic, and before the fail- 
ure of his health engaged in the manufacture of 
spinning wheels. John F. Spooner remained at 
home until his father's death, when, at twelve 
years of age, he was obliged to assist in the 
maintenance of the family. For about six years 
he worked as a farm hand near his home, but 
when he reached his eighteenth year he went to 
Massachusetts, where for two or three years he 
clerked in a grocery store. Going to Minnesota 
at the end of this time he was induced to learn 
the shirt cutter's trade and in about ten months 
had mastered it completely and was qualified to 
accept a position. Coming to California at this 
time, in the fall of 1885 he worked as a shirt- 
cutter in that city until coming to Plumas coun- 
ty in 1889. Locating near Quincy, he engaged ni 
mining for a short time, later clerked in the 
Plumas house in Quincy for two years, subse- 
quently clerking in a grocery store for several 
years. Upon his election to the office of county 
treasurer in 1903 he resigned his position in the 
store to devote his entire attention to the duties 
of his office, which he is filling to the entire sat- 
isfaction of his fellow-citizens. His tenn will 
expire in 1907. 

Mr. Spooner's marriage united him with Miss 
Ida Barker, who was born in Iowa and came to 
Plumas county, Cal., with her parents when a 
child of only three years. By their marriage 
Mr. and Mrs. Spooner have become the parents 
of two children, John Franklin, Jr., and Martha 
M. Mr. Spooner has served as a member of the 



school board for the last two years and some time 
prior to this had served on the same board for a 
term of three years. Politically he is an earnest 
supporter of the principles of the Republican 
party. Fraternally he is identified with Plumas 
Lodge No. 60, F. & A. M., and with Plumas 
Lodge No. 88, I. O. O. F., and is now deputy 
grand master of this district. No. 41. He is a 
self-made man in the best sense of the term and 
may well be proud of the success which has at- 
tended his efforts since making his home in the 
Golden state. 



ABBOTT M. GREEN. Among the well- 
known and highly esteemed residents of Lookout, 
Modoc county, Abbott M. Green holds a note- 
worthy position. A man of ability, talent and 
much force of character, he has acquired a place 
of considerable influence in social and business 
circles, and as junior member of the firm of Pot- 
ter & Green deals in real estate, and does much 
of the surveying and civil engineering required in 
this part of the state. A son of Abbott Green, 
he was born, December 29. 1864, in Meigs countv, 
Ohio, where his paternal grandfather, William 
Green, was an early pioneer. 

Abbott Green spent the larger part of his life 
in Ohio, being esteemed and respected as a man 
and a citizen. Patriotic and iniblic spirited, he 
offered his services to his country on the breaking 
out of the Civil war, enlisting as a private in the 
Eighteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which 
he was connected until his death, at Camp Qnase, 
Columbus, CTliio. He married Julia Crowell. a 
daughter of Benjamin Crowell, a soldier in the 
War of 1812. She survived him. and is now 
living in Kansas. 

At the age of sixteen years, .\bbott M. Green 
went with his mother to Kansas, where he com- 
pleted his education, entering the college at ]\Ian- 
hattan in 1882, taking a scientific course, and 
being graduated in 1886. He subsequently taught 
school a year, and then came to southern Cali- 
fornia, where he began life as a civil engineer. 
Locating at Big \'alley, Lassen county, in 1888, 
he continued there as a general surveyor until 
1903. while thus employed obtaining a thorough 



718 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



knowledge of the topography of the county. 
Forming then a copartnership with John J. Pot- 
ter, Mr. Green settled at Lookout, where as a 
member of the firm of Potter & Green he is carry- 
ing on a substantial business as a civil engineer 
and a real estate dealer. A man of industry, pro- 
gressive and capable, he has achieved success in 
his chosen occupation, and has acquired title to 
property of value, having a homestead claim of 
one hundred and sixty acres at Big Valley, Las- 
sen county, and owning the fine residence in 
which he lives. 

In Big Valley, Cal., Mr. Green married Rachel 
Crowley, and they are the parents of three chil- 
dren, namely : Max, Julia and Fred. Politically 
Mr. Green is an earnest adherent of the Repub- 
lican party, and fraternally he belongs to Look- 
out Lodge No. 211, A. O. U. W. 



DONALD WILLIAM McKENZIE. One 
of the important industries of Plumas county is 
tlije Greenville soda and bottling works, which 
under the keen oversight of the proprietor, Mr. 
McKenzie, furnishes soda water to the people 
of Greenville, Quincy, Taylorsville and Crescent 
Mills, Plumas county, and Susanville, Lassen 
county, the whole forming a business extensive 
in output and far-reaching in trade. The pro- 
prietor of the plant is a son of parents who came 
to America from the highlands of Scotland and 
settled in Ontario, Canada, where he was born 
January lo, 1848. On the home farm he early 
learned lessons of usefulness a?id industry. 
When only fourteen years of age he became self- 
supporting through his work as a farm hand and 
in the woods, remaining in Canada until 1870, 
when he crossed into the States and worked in the 
Wisconsin woods. For two years or more he 
was employed principally in rafting logs, after 
which he took up the same business in Canada. 

On coming from Canada to California in 1875, 
Mr. McKenzie settled in Mendocino county and 
secured work in the timber camp in the red- 
woods, where he remained during one summer. 
From there he came to Greenville, where he 
worked as a teamster around the mines. Dur- 



ing 1880 he went to Montana and for one sum- 
mer worked in a sash and door factory, after 
which he enjoyed a visit of three months with 
old Canadian associates. On his return to Green- 
ville in the spring of 1881 he engaged in teaming 
with an outfit of horses and wagons which he 
had purchased, and for a considerable period he 
followed freighting profitably, but in October of 
1887 he sold the team and bought the plant 
which he has since continuously operated. Be- 
sides acquiring the ownership of the factory, 
he owns a home in Greenville, his property rep- 
resenting the results of his work in California, 
for he had no capital when he came to the west. 
In addition to the plant first mentioned, Mr. 
McKenzie also runs a general merchandise 
store in Greenville. 

Loyal to his adopted country and stanch in 
allegiance to the Republican party, Mr. McKen- 
zie is a progressive citizen and a man of large 
public spirit. In i8gi he married Miss Alice 
Forbes, who was born in Ontario, Canada, and 
came to California about two years before her 
marriage. Their comfortable home is bright- 
ened by the presence of three daughters. Anna, 
Lillie and Viola, who are receiving the best ad- 
vantages the schools of Greenville can ofifer. 
Both Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie are active members 
of the Eastern Star, and his Alasonic connec- 
tions likewise include membership in Sincerity 
Lodge No. 136, F. & A. M., at Greenville; Las- 
sen Chapter No. 47, R. A. M., and Lassen Com- 
mandery No. 13, K. T., both of Susanville. 



ALONZO B. HUNTLEY. Prominent among 
the pioneer settlers of the Sierra valley was the 
late Alonzo B. Huntley, who took up land about 
ten miles southeast of Beckwith nearly forty 
years ago, and from that time until his death 
was an active factor in developing and advanc- 
ing the agricultural prosperity of this region. 
During his long residence here he witnessed 
wonderful changes in the country, taking great 
pride and pleasure in the grand transformation 
wrought by the sturdy and persistent labor of the 
people. By dint of toil and perseverance he im- 



HISTORICAL AND BlOCiUAPlIICAL RECORD. 



ri!) 



proved a valuable ranch, which he managed in 
a systematic and methodical manner, reaping 
good returns for his arduous work. .\ native of 
New York, he was born, Novemlier 20. 1X3,5, ''i 
Plainfield, Otsego county. 

When he was a small boy Alonzo B. Huntley 
removed with his parents to West Winfield, 
Herkimer county, N. Y., where he was brought 
up on a farm, receiving his education in the pub- 
lic schools and the village seminary. On attain- 
ing his majority, in 1854, he went to Whitewater, 
Wis., where he remained several years, teaching 
school on Sugar creek during the long winter 
terms, and farming in the summer seasons. In 
1861 he went to Pike's Peak, and the summer 
following he spent in Colorado. Returning to 
Wisconsin, he staid there until the spring of 
1862, when he came with his own four-horse 
team to California, locating at ( jrand Island, Co- 
lusa county. In the fall he went back to his old 
home, taking the Panama route, and in the 
spring of 1863 again came overland to the Pa- 
cific coast, driving a four-horse team. Locating 
on Grand Island he remained one year and then 
operated a sawmill for the same length of time. 
Subsequently he located at Sierraville, purchas- 
ing a ranch, which he operated for a while. Dis- 
posing of that in 1867 he came to Plumas coun- 
ty, and homesteaded and pre-empted three hun- 
dred and twenty acres of land, from which he 
improved the ranch on which he subsequently re- 
sided. He was a man of great enterprise and 
excellent judgment, keen to take advantage of 
all favorable opportunities for advancing his 
finances. For two or three years he made an- 
nual trips to Oregon, where he purchased cattle, 
which he brought back to his range, fattened 
and sold for beef, deriving good profit in his un- 
dertakings. He subsequently devoted himself to 
general ranching and dairying, keeping some- 
times as many as thirty-five cows, but in the later 
years of life he discontinued this industry, con- 
fining himself entirely to general farming until 
his death, which occurred at his home, Septem- 
ber 4, 1905. 

November 3, i860, ^Ir. Huntley married Julia 
Ferris, who was born in Yates county, N. Y., 
April 8, 1836, but was reared in Wisconsin, 
20 



where her parents settled when she was si.x 
years of age. She joined her husband in Califor- 
nia in 1869, and has since made her home on the 
ranch that she now owns and occupies. Two 
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Huntley, 
namely : Camilla, wife of R. C. Mercer, who car- 
ries on the home ranch for }klrs. Huntley; and 
Herbert H., of Loyalton, Sierra county. Polit- 
ically Mr. Huntley was a stanch adherent of the 
Republican party, and was active in the man- 
agement of local affairs, for one term serving as 
supervisor. 



JOSEPH S. PECK. Removed from tlie 
strife and stress of the business world, quietly 
pursuing the work of a farmer and stock raiser, 
Mr. Peck has passed the active years of life and 
has entered into an old age blessed by content- 
ment, health and a competency sufficient to meet 
his needs. During all the long years since 1857 
he has made his home on a ranch near Green- 
ville in the Indian valley and has devoted him- 
self to the improvement of the property in the 
raising of crops and stock and the building of 
substantial farm structures. Every year since 
1857 he has operated a threshing machine and in 
that long period has worn out and replaced sev- 
eral separators, his present one being of the most 
modern mechanism and capacity. 

Concerning his ancestry Mr. Peck has no de- 
tailed information, for his father. Warren, who 
was a native of New York state, died in Ohio 
during the infancy of the son ; hence the latter 
had no opportunity of learning the family his- 
tory-. He was born in Lorain county, Ohio, Julv 
7, 1832, and was taken in infancy to Missouri by 
his mother, who first settled in Jackson county 
and later moved to Caldwell count\-, but soon re- 
moved to the vicinity of Quincy, 111., and later 
went forty miles north to the neighborhood of 
Carthage, Hancock county. 111. From there in 
1847 li's mother moved to L'tah. but he later 
went to DeKalb county and worked on farms 
there until 1853, when he hired out to drive six 
yoke of oxen across the plains to Salt Lake. Aft- 
er spending one winter in Utah he came through 
to California in the spring of 1854 and settled 



•li) 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



in riumas county, where he was employed by 
the month as a ranch hand. For three years he 
worked for others and meanwhile saved his 
earnings with the utmost frugality. At the ex- 
piration of that time, in 1857, he bought eighty 
acres in Indian valley and took up the work of 
independent farming. Subsequent thereto he 
bought one hundred and ten acres of timber 
adjoining and in addition he bought a quarter 
section in the neighborhood, which afterward 
he deeded to one of his sons. 

During the early period of his residence in 
Plumas county Mr. Peck served as a school trus- 
tee and accomplished much toward raising the 
standard of the free schools. Stanchly devoted 
to Republican principles, he has, however, taken 
no active part in politics and has never been a 
candidate for political offices, preferring to con- 
centrate his attention upon his private agricult- 
ural affairs. On New Year's day of 1863 he 
was united in marriage with Miss Mahala Ann 
Hickerson, who was born in Illinois and during 
the fall of 1859 arrived in California with her 
parents, settling in the locality where since she 
lias made her home. Of their union eleven chil- 
dren were born, but four of the number have 
passed away. Those now living are named as 
follows: Lawrence Grant, N. S., Elmer Mon- 
roe, Joseph Benjamin, Forrest W., Eden Myrtle 
(wife of William Schieser) and George W. 



EDWARD HUSKINSON. The interests 
with which Mr. Huskinson is identified are of a 
varied nature and indicate his adaptability to dif- 
ferent enterprises and the resourcefulness of his 
mind. As vice president of the Plumas County 
Bank at Ouincy he is closely connected with the 
financial interests of Plumas county ; while his 
prominence and influence in the Republican 
party have been recognized in his nomination 
and election as one of the county supervisors. In 
addition he owns considerable property and 
mining interests. 

Bom in Bingham, England, February 16, 
1859, Edward Huskinson was a lad of fourteen 
vears when he came to America to make his 



home with his aunt, Mrs. Jane Edwards, who 
was then residing in Quincy, Plumas county, 
Cal. To the education which he acquired in the 
public schools of this city he later added by a 
course in Heald's Business College, San Fran- 
cisco, and at the age of twenty his school and col- 
lege days were over, which in other words meant 
that his business life had begun. Entering the 
employ of his aunt, who was the proprietor of a 
hotel in Quincy, he kept the books for about five 
years, or until 1884, in which year he and Bar- 
ney Schneider became associated in the owner- 
ship of a drug store here. The business proved 
a profitable undertaking and the partnership re- 
lations were congenial and all that could be de- 
sired, but after five years of association Mr. 
Huskinson disposed of his interest to his partner 
in order to obtain the means with which to take 
his mother back to her native land, .\fter spend- 
ing about a year in England among scenes with 
which he was familiar in his early childhood, he 
returned to Quincy, thoroughly satisfied with the 
United States as a field for ambitious and enter- 
prising young men, and particularly satisfied 
with this portion of it as a place of residence. 

In 1890 Mr. Huskinson was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Jennie Yeates, who was born in 
Plumas county, a daughter of "Uncle Jimmy" 
Yeates, who became well known in this locality 
through his services as county sherifif and as one 
of the early pioneers of the county. His eartli 
life came to a close in 1895, at which time he 
was mourned by a large circle of friends and 
acquaintances who had become attached to him 
during his long and useful life. The marriage 
of Mr. and IMrs. Huskinson has been blessed by 
the birth of two children, Edwin Barratt and 
Gladys Reed, both of whom are at home. Ever 
since his voting days began Mr. Huskinson has 
favored the plans and principles of the Repub- 
lican party, but at no time in his career has he 
been desirous of holding public office, hence his 
election as supervisor in the fall of 1904 was 
entirelv against his wishes. His real estate hold- 
ings in Ouincy include one of the principal busi- 
ness blocks in town, containing five stores, and 
he also has mining interests of considerable 
value. He was one of the enterprising citizens 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



721 



who agitated the organization of a- bank in this 
locahty and when the Plumas County llank was 
an assured fact he was one of the stockhoklers 
and the first vice president, hraternally he is 
affiHated with but one organization, hokhng 
membership in Plumas Lodge No. 88, I. O. O. F. 



THADDEUS STEVENS STOVER. To 
the people of Plumas county the name of T. S. 
Stover is familiar as tliat of a man progressive 
in undertakings and capable in agriculture. The 
ranch which he owns and occupies comprises 
four hundred and twenty acres on the north fork 
of the Feather river, a part of which was ac- 
quired by purchase, and the balance under the 
homestead laws. In addition to managing his 
own estate he leases thousands of acres adjoin- 
ing, including Indian lands and the Gould estate, 
and this large tract furnishes range for his stock, 
which consists of about fifteen horses, thirty 
milch cows and from one hundred and sixty-five 
to two hundred head of cattle and calves. At 
one time he had a dairy of fifty cows, but this 
number has been reduced largely, although he 
still makes a specialty of the dairy business. l>y 
means of a separator he secures an abundance of 
warm milk for the calves, while the cream thus 
separated is churned into butter by the aid of a 
steam engine. Indeed, the entire equi])ment is 
modern and calculated to reduce the labor of pro- 
duction to the minimum. 

In Center county. Pa., ^Ir. Stover was born 
October 31, 1836. being a son of Jacob H. and 
Rebecca (Hess) Stover, also natives of the Key- 
stone state. The maternal grandfather, George 
Hess, was a native of Pennsylvania and traced 
his ancestry to an ancient family of Germany. 
The paternal grandfather was likewise of Ger- 
man extraction and probably also was a native 
of Pennsylvania. During 1839 Jacob H. Stover 
took his family to Iowa, where he bought a large 
tract of land at an Indian trading post and en- 
gaged in farming for two \ears. At the ex- 
piration of that time he leased his lands and 
entered upon a business career. In Iowa City, 
of which he was one of the founders, he de- 



voted his time to buying and selling property, 
■ erected a grist and saw mill and a store, also 
built the largest residence in the place. Dur- 
ing the entire period of his residence there he 
served as county supervisor. 

Coming to California overland in 1850 with 
his two sons, Thaddcns S. and Reuben, and trav- 
eling with horses and mules, Jacob H. Stover 
safely reached Sacramento and a month later 
went to Bidwell's Bar, but meeting with little 
luck he returned to Sacramento. The failure of 
his health led him to remove to Marysville, 
where he was ill all winter, his sons caring for 
him with the greatest devotion. At that time 
milk was $1 a quart and all the other necessities 
for an invalid were equally expensive. After 
growing stronger in the spring of 1851 he took 
up a ranch one mile below Marysville. The 
crops of the first year were an entire failure, but 
the second year he was more fortunate and sold 
at a profit. In 1853 he returned east via Panama 
to Iowa City, then came back to the coast and 
disposed of his property, after which he settled 
in La Crosse, Wis., where, after several years 
of sickness, he died at sixty-four years, and 
his w-ife also died in that city when alwut sixty- 
eight. 

As a boy in Iowa Thaddeus S. Stover was a 
pupil in private schools. When he was thirteen 
he came to California with his father and his 
brother, Reuben (represented elsewhere in this 
volume). When the father returned east he and 
his brother went to Placer county and engaged 
in prospecting and mining. During 1856 he vis- 
ited the old home in the east and his parents in 
Wisconsin, returning in October of the same 
year and resuming work as a miner in Placer 
county. During the summer of 1858 he and his 
brother mined on Feather river. .Vbout that time 
they received a small amount of money from 
an uncle, and with this the\- bought a drove of 
cattle, came to the Big ^leadows, and secured 
land on the west side of the north fork of Feath- 
er river. Few settlers had ])rcccded them to this 
spot, and they w'ere thus advantageously situated 
for the cattle business. A portion of the proper- 
t\' then secured is now owned b\' the widow of 
Reuben. On the marriage of T. S., October 25, 



72'2 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



1869, it was deemed best to divide the property, 
so they apportioned the stock between them and • 
then T. S. disposed of his interest in the land to 
Reuben, and removed east of the same river, 
where he now resides. In pohtics he is known 
to be a stanch Democrat, interested in party af- 
fairs, but not a candidate for office. His wife, 
formerly Ada Milroy Cooper, was born in Ohio, 
of Scotch-English ancestry, and during 1862 
came to California, where since she has made 
her home. Their family consists of the follow- 
ing sons and daughters: Erank Thaddeus, who 
died at twenty years of age: Nellie Louise, re- 
siding on the ranch with her parents ; Josephine 
M., who married R. A. Costar, a merchant at 
Prattville, Plumas county: Rebecca Belle, wife 
of Claude Cooper of Chico; Callie E., a teacher 
in the Plumas county schools ; Henry Jacob, who 
carries on a blacksmith's shop at Prattville, Plu- 
mas county ; and Corinne, who remains on the 
ranch with her parents. 



WILLIAM T. CRESSLER was born April 
23, 1836, in Cumberland county. Pa., a son of 
Joseph G. and Sophia (Clippinger) Cressler, 
both of whom spent their entire lives in that 
state. He is one of the few men now living in 
the Surprise valley. Modoc county, who have 
remained residents of this section of California 
and watched its growth and development from 
its primitive condition, and he himself has done 
more than any one else to bring about its agri- 
cultural prosperity. He was educated in the 
public schools and the academy of his native 
place. In the fall of 1855 he went to Iowa, 
where he taught school and farmed for two 
years, then clerked in a law office and prepared 
for practice for three years, being admitted to 
the bar in Iowa in 1859. In the spring of i860 
he came to California as an incurable consump- 
tive, walking the entire distance, as he was unable 
to stand the jolting and dust of the wagon ; he ar- 
rived in Red Bluff after a journey of five months, 
lacking exactly four days. After his arrival he 
taught school in Tehama county and teamed for 
a time ; in 1 865 he was elected county superin- 



tendent of schools and served until 1867, in 
which year he came to the Surprise valley, in 
what was then Siskiyou county, with the late 
J. H. Bonner. They engaged in the mercantile 
business in Cedarville and remained partners in 
business until the death of the latter. After 
fourteen years' successful management of their 
business, building it up from a very small be- 
ginning, they embarked in a private banking- 
business, and the firm of Cressler & Bonner be- 
came well known all over northern California. 
In H)03 Mr. Cressler had a very severe illness 
and for several months was incapacitated for 
business, immediately after which Mr. Bonner 
succeeded to the management of their bank, and 
Mr. Cressler engaged in loaning money and in 
the cattle business. Having a firm belief in the 
future prosperity of the valley, he has assisted in 
developing the ranches by loaning money for 
that purpose, ^^'hile increasing his own fortune 
he has done nnich to assist others along the 
pathway of success by his advice and financial 
aid. He has become a large landholder in the 
north, owning over four thousand acres in Ne- 
vada, where for five years he has been building 
reservoirs, now having that land under good ir- 
rigation and devoted to the stock business ex- 
clusively ; over four thousand acres in Oregon, 
also, in good condition : and two thousand acres 
in Surprise valley, which is accounted the best 
in appointments and development of any in the 
north of the state. He is known far and wide as 
a successful stock raiser and dealer, and an ideal 
farmer. 

In 1874 Mr. Cressler was elected to the state 
legislature from Siskiyou county, and on the is- 
sue that Modoc county be created from Siski- 
you, which was done during that session. He 
has been a friend of irrigation, knowing that 
in securing an ample water suppiv the develop- 
ment of the country was assured. In 1905 he 
was a delegate to the National Irrigation Con- 
gress held in Portland, Ore., and took a promi- 
nent part in the workings of that bodv, making 
speeches that attracted wide notice. 

January 3, 1865, he was inn'ted in marriage 
with Miss Ann Augusta Alvord, who was born 
in Iowa and came to California in i860, when 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



72a 



but a child. They have two children, Samuel 
O. Cressler, cashier of the First National Bank 
in Lakevievv, Ore., and also cashier of the sav- 
ings bank there, and Nellie iMae, wife of B. 15. 
Robinson, of Berkeley, an attorney of San Fran- 
cisco. Airs. Robinson is a member of the I'iano 
Club of Oakland and Berkeley, and is an accom- 
plished musician, having completed her musical 
education in Berlin. Mr. Cressler is a liberal 
contributor lo the Methodist Episcopal church 



of his business connections, as many other or- 
ganizations profit by his superior judgment and 
careful reasoning. 

Mr. White was born in Pittsford, Rutland 
count}-, \t., on the last day of the year 1848. 
His boyhood was spent in his parents' home in 
the Green Mountain state, in the subscription 
schools of which state he also received his ear- 
liest knowledge of books. When seventeen 
\ears of age he entered the Episcopal Insti- 



and its societies, and assisted very materially in , tute at Burlington, remaining a student there 



building the edifice in Cedarville. He is a 
member of Surprise Valley Lodge No. 235, F'. 
& A. M., and also of the Eastern Star Chap- 



ter. 



William T. Cressler is a broad minded man, 
liberal in every movement that has for its end 
the development of the country, a firm believer 



for two years, when he returned to the home- 
stead and assisted his parents until 1870. From 
that time forward his life has been associated 
with the west. Locating in Marysville, Yuba 
county, he worked at the butcher business for 
eighteen months, after which he established and 
operated a meat market for alx)ut eight years. 



m the future of Surprise valley, a man of strong Going to Sonora, Tuolumne countN-. in 1880, he 
character, and one who extends a helping hand began speculating in mines and laJids. and such 
to many who are less fortunate than himself, was his success that he continued in business 
and thoroughly devoted to his family and there for about twelve years, or until associat- 
*'''^'^^^- iiig himself with James O'Brien in the purchase 

of the Quincy Mining and Water Company. 

March 5, 1901, Asher B. White was united 
in marriage with Miss Mary E. Hallsted, who 
was born in California, a daughter of one of 
the pioneer miners of Plumas county, Alanson 
Allison Hallsted. of whom more may be learned 
by referring to the sketch of his brother, Asa 
D. Hallsted. given elsewhere in this volume. 
Politically Mr. White is a faithful adherent of 
Republican principles, and at all times exerts 
his influence in favor of his chosen partv, al- 
though he has never been willing to accept office 
at the hands of his party friends. Thoroughly 
devoted to the interests of this part of California 
he is one of those public-spirited citizens whose 
coming fr«m the east has meant so much to the 
development and growth of the state. 



ASHER BURDITT WHITE. Numbered 
among the successful and prominent business 
men of Plumas county A. B. White occupies a 
responsible position as superintendent of the 
Quincy Mining and Water Company, whose 
headquarters are located at Spanish Ranch. The 
company was originally known as the old Plum- 
as Company, but when in 1893 A. B. White and 
James O'Brien purchased it they reorganized 
the company and changed its name to the Quincy 
Mining and Water Compan}-. Up to the year 
1904 the company expended about $150,000 in 
developing claims and improving the water sys- 
tem in ditches and reservoirs. In that year the 
partners sold the business, although Mr. White 
is now superintendent of the company, having 
had full charge of its aiYairs ever since. He 
is also financially interested in the Bunker Hill 
mine, a part of which is located in Plumas coun- 
ty and a part in Sierra county. While it may 
be true that the two lines of business just men- 
tioned occupy tlie greater part of Mr. White's 
attention, they by no means represent the limit 



JOHN McKENZIE. Conspicuous among 
the enterprising, practical and ])rogressive agri- 
culturists of Plumas county is John McKenzie. 
whose fine homestead in the Mohawk valley 
compares favorably in its appointments and 



724 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



equipments with any in the locaHty. That he has 
a thorough understanding of his business and 
exercises good judgment and skill in its manage- 
ment is plainly shown by the neat and thrifty ap- 
pearance of his property. Like many other of 
California's prosperous citizens, he was born on 
foreign soil, his birth having occurred in New 
Brunswick, Canada, June 2, 1852. 

Brought up on a farm and acquiring his early 
education in the district schools, John McKen- 
zie became well versed in the science of agricul- 
ture while working with his father, and remained 
beneath the parental roof tree until twenty-two 
years old. In 1875, ambitious to try the hazard 
of new fortunes, he came to California, and for 
five years thereafter worked in a sawmill in 
Sierra county, being in the employ of the same 
company during that time. After his marriage 
in 1880 he obtained title to a part of his present 
home ranch, homesteading two hundred and for- 
ty acres in that year. Embarking in general 
farming, stock raising and dairying, he met with 
eminent success in his undertakings, and has 
since added by purchase to his original ranch, 
having now nine hundred acres in all. Three 
hundred acres of fertile land comprise his farm, 
which he operates with profit. In company with 
a friend he ran a small sawmill for a few years, 
but in 1904 bought his partner's interest in the 
plant. Moving the mill onto his own ranch, IMr. 
McKenzie has since operated it with his son 
Alex, and has carried on a good business, cutting 
from twenty thousand feet to twenty-five thou- 
sand feet a day when working. 

In June. 1880, Air. McKenzie married Elva 
Colby, who was born in New York state, but 
came with her parents to this state when a young 
girl, and was here brought up and educated. Of 
the union of Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie nine chil- 
dren have been born, namely: Alex B. (associ- 
ated in business with his father). Alma, Leslie, 
John, Louisa, Lee, Ralph, Abbie and Charles. 
Politically l\Ir. McKenzie supports the princi- 
ples of the Republican party at the polls, hut he 
has never sought official honors. Fraternally he 
is a member of Mohawk Lodge No. 292, I. ( ). 
O. F., of Johnsville, and also belongs to the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen. 



WILLIAM THOMAS PETER. Prominent 
among the able and skillful agriculturists of Plu- 
mas county is William Thomas Peter of Indian 
valley, who has been actively employed in his 
present independent occupation for upwards of 
thirty years, and in the prosecution of his calling 
has met with well deserved success. A son of 
John Nelson Peter, he was born June 26, 1837, 
in Sangamon county, 111., and was there reared 
and educated. His grandfather, Zachariah Pe- 
ter, a native of old Virginia, was of German an- 
cestry, and came from one of the influential fam- 
ilies of the south. He lived for a while in Ken- 
tucky, from there going to Illinois, and becoming 
a pioneer of Sangamon county, where he had 
the distinction of serving as the first justice of 
the peace. He lived to a good old age, passing 
away at the age of ninety-two years. 

Born in Kentucky, John Nelson Peter went 
with his parents to Sangamon county when but 
a boy, and there spent many years, being en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits the greater part of 
the time. He removed to Kansas in the early 
'80s and from there went to Oklahoma, where 
he died. He was a Whig in politics, and as a 
patriotic and loyal citizen served in the Black- 
hawk war. He married Emily Wardrup, who . 
was born in Kentucky, the birthplace of her 
father, and died in Illinois, at the age of sixty 
years. She was of Revolutionary stock, her 
grandfather having served as a soldier in the 
great struggle for independence. 

Brought up on the home farm, William Thom- 
as Peter attended the district school as a boy, re- 
maining beneath the parental roof until seven- 
teen years old, when he began working at the 
carpenter's trade, which he followed in his na- 
tive state for five years. In 1859 he came to the 
Pacific coast, taking the overland route, and pay- 
ing his passage in a mule-team train. Locating 
in Plumas county, he here followed his trade and 
worked in the mines for several years, in the 
meantime, in 1868, purchasing one hundred and 
twenty-six acres of unsurve}ed land, a tract that 
is now included in his home ranch. In 1870 he 
went to Santa Barbara, where he was employed 
in carpentering for two years. Taking posses- 
sion of his land in 1872, he at once began its im- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



725 



provement. Prosperous in his undertakings, lie 
made wise investments of the money which he ac- 
cumulated, buying more land from time to time, 
now having a ranch of six hundred and fifty 
acres. Four hundcd acres of this estate is in the 
valley, the remainder being timber land or min- 
ing property, tlie later being pretty well devel- 
oped and yielding considerable <iuartz when 
worked. 

September 20, 1870, Mr. Peter married .Sarah 
Isabelle Evans, who was born in Fayette county, 
111., coming from there to California in 1864. 
She died April 30, 1902, leaving seven children, 
namely : Louis Nelson, district attorney of Plu- 
mas county ; Claude, a well-known horseman 
and butcher of this county; Mabel, wife of Rob- 
ert L. Barham of Lassen county ; Myrtle, wife 
of W. J. Reynolds, of Lassen county ; and Rus- 
sell, Forrest W. and Arthur, at home. Political- 
ly Mr. Peter was formerly affiliated with the Re- 
publican party, but since the first nomination of 
Cleveland as President he has been actively iden- 
tified with the Democrats, but has persistently re- 
fused all official honors. 



HANS HENRY WIENCKE. Corn in the 
province of Holstein, Germany, March 14, 1849, 
Hans Henry Wiencke was reared and educated 
in his native country, and there learned the 
blacksmith's trade. Upon attaining his major- 
ity he came to the United States via New York 
City, whence he started at once for California. 
Locating for a time in Sierra county, following 
his trade and working for miners for wages, 
he was then in Sutter county for a time, and 
afterwards he worked at his trade in several dif- 
ferent counties until 1878. In that year he went 
to Johnstonville, Lassen county, erected a black- 
smith shop and worked at the trade there for 
two vears. Disposing of his property at John- 
stonville, he pre-empted one hundred and sixty 
acres of land south of Lake Leavitt, and after 
remaining there a year, went back to Johnston- 
ville and purchased his old shop and again en- 
gaged in blacksmithing for another two years, 
at the end of which time he again sold out and 



went to Janesville. Going to Plumas county, 
he engaged in mining near Greenville for six 
munths, then went to Prattville, in the same 
county, and after erecting a shop, took up his 
old trade, in which he continued for seven years, 
except during the first winter, when he suffered 
a loss of his home by fire and removed tempo- 
rarily from the town. Selling his property here, 
he went to Susanville and there purchased a 
blacksmith shop which he operated for five 
years, then sold this and moved to his present 
home three miles southeast of Standish. Here 
he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of 
land which he has improved, and upon which he 
erected a comfortable home, barns, etc. He 
raises hay, and is engaged in the cattle business, 
much of his farm Ijeing excellent grazing land. 

December 5, 1875, Mr, Wiencke was married 
to Aliss Cariie Ranker, a native of Butte coun- 
ty, this state, and a daughter of Mrs. .\ppolonia 
Ranker, one of the oldest citizens living in 
Honey Lake valley. She was born November 
I, 1823. in the province of Kur-Hessen and 
came to America with friends in a sail boat 
when she was seventeen years of age. They 
were lost at sea, but after si.x weeks landed at 
New York City. She was married at Louis- 
ville, Ky,, and afterwards came to California via 
the Isthmus of Panama and located in Butte 
count}-. 

Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Wiencke, viz. : Helen, who died at an early age ; 
Harry Otto, who lives near Janesville, and was 
born July 3, 1878; Viola Maude, who was born 
.\ugust 20, 1880, and who married George Die- 
ter ; Carl Norman, born June 22, 1887; Iva Jen- 
esee, born December 14, 1892; Leah Janeta, 
born May 6, 1894; and Esther, born March 23, 
1902. Mr. Wiencke and family are members 
of the Baptist church, and in politics he is a 
stanch supporter of the Republican platform. 



JULIUS E. PAULY. Distinguished as a na- 
tive-born citizen of California, and as the repre- 
sentative of an honored pioneer family of the 
state, Julius E, Pauly of Mohawk is well deserv- 



72t; 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ing of special notice in a work of this character. 
A wide-awake, energetic man, practical and pro- 
gressive, he is one of the leading merchants of 
the Mohawk valley, and stands high among the 
active and substantial business men. A son of 
the late Nicholas O. Pauly, he was born, Decem- 
ber 5, 1874, in Browns valley, Yuba county, Cal., 
of German ancestry on both sides of the house. 

Born, reared and educated in Germany, Nich-_ 
olas O. Pauly immigrated to the United States 
when a young man, and after spending a short 
time in the east went to Missouri, where he re- 
sided a few years. Subsequently coming to Cal- 
ifornia, he worked for a while in the mines, and 
then became mail carrier and express messenger, 
traveling through the mountains from Marys- 
ville to the mines, and receiving twenty-five cents 
for delivering either a letter or a paper. He aft- 
erwards engaged in sheep raising, being located 
in Yuba county winters, and in Plumas county 
during the summer seasons. Desirous then of 
settling permanently in some congenial occupa- 
tion, he opened a store at Nelson Point, Plumas 
county, about 1878, and was there successfully 
engaged in mercantile pursuits until his death. 
September 15, 1903, when seventy-four years of 
age. He was a Democrat in his political views 
and a member of Plumas Lodge Xo. 88, I. O. O. 
F., of Quincy, Cal. He married Katherine 
Toms, who was born in Germany, and is now 
living at Nelson Point, Cal., being fifty-five years 
old. ' 

But an infant when his parents moved to Nel- 
son Point, Julius E. Pauly was there brought up, 
receiving his elementary education in the public 
schools. He subsequently assisted in his father's 
store, driving a team a part of the time, and then 
completed his studies by taking a course at the 
San Jose Business College. On attaining his 
majority he obtained a position in a store in 
Mohawk, and after remaining there as clerk for 
three or four years, purchased the establishment, 
with his father's aid, and has since been most 
prosperously engaged in a general mercantile 
business. 

Politically Mr. Pauly is a loyal Democrat, and 
in igo2 was elected supervisor of the Fifth dis- 
trict on the Democratic ticket, receiving a major- 



ity of thirty-three votes in a district which is a 
Republican stronghold, his election showing his 
popularity with both parties, especially as he was 
made chairman of the board of supervisors, 
which had three Republican members. Frater- 
nally Mr. Pauly is a member of Plumas Lodge 
No. 88, I. O. O. F., of Quincy, and belongs to 
Quincy Parlor No. 31, N. S. G. W. 



JOSIAH STARR CARTER, M. D. While 
the Pacific coast region was still attracting 
thousands of gold-seekers to its bovmdless do- 
mains and while Plumas county was known only 
to a few experienced prospectors, Dr. Carter 
cast in his fortunes with the unknown possi- 
bilities of the county; and, while the mines and 
prospects that first attracted him hither brought 
small returns to his patient labor, in other 
occupations he achieved a signal degree of suc- 
cess, so that at the time of his demise he was 
rated among the financially prosperous men of 
his locality. Of southern family, the son of 
a physician, he was Ixim in Ohio county, W. 
\'a., March 31, 1836, and as a boy attended 
school at Tuscumbia, Ala., and Lexington, Ky. 
The death of his father in 1841 left him an 
orphan in childhood and deprived him of the 
affectionate oversight he otherwise would have 
enjoyed. Perhaps his youth was rendered more 
unsettled thereby ; certain it is that changes 
came to him from year to year while he was 
yet too small to benefit from them. In 1846 he 
accompanied relatives to Missouri and in 1854 
he crossed the plains with some blooded horses 
as a member of a party in whose outfit he owned 
one-fourth interest. 

The close of a dreary but uneventful journey 
was marked by arrival at Downieville about the 
1st of October. Two months were spent in that 
mining camp, after which the young prospector 
went to Alarysville and from there in a few 
months to Butte county. As early as 1855 ^^ 
first visited Plumas county. For one summer he 
worked without success on the north fork of the 
h'eathcr river. While hunting deer in the fall 
of 1856 he made the first discovery of gold on 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



727 



Mosquito creek. During the following .\ugust 
Ik- returned to Missouri, Init after a few months 
among old friends he came back to California 
and .settled near Inskip, lUilte county. After 
having mined in various localities he came to 
I'lumas county as a permanent resident in the 
fall of 1862 and established his home at Cres- 
cent Mills, where the remaining years of his 
life were busily and happily passed. At first he 
had various mining interests and devoted con- 
siderable attention to prospecting, during which 
])eriod, in 1865, he and five others located the 
I'lumas mine. 

From the time of settling at Crescent Mills 
Dr. Carter engaged in the practice of medicine. 
Xot only his regular patients and the families to 
whom he was physician received his skillful 
professional care, but in addition the poor, des- 
titute of the means necessary for medical atten- 
tion, were the recipients of his kindly and 
gratuitous assistance, and many a one had rea- 
son to be grateful to him for help quietly given 
in days of need. Early in the '70s he engaged 
in the mercantile business in Crescent Mills, 
and afterward carried on the store in addition 
to attending to his practice and superintending 
his mine interests. Since his death the store 
has been conducted by his family. All enter- 
prises for the benefit of his county received his 
sympathetic and helpful co-operation, and he 
was public-spirited to an extent seldom sur- 
passed. Elected supervisor in 1870, he served 
for six years and during most of that time acted 
as chairman of the board. While serving in 
that responsible position, he aided vairious 
important measures, none more important than 
the building of the road between Indian and 
American valleys. \'ery early in the period of 
his residence in Plumas county he became asso- 
ciated with Indian \'alley Lodge No. 136. I. O. 
(J. P., and afterward retained an active interest 
in the fraternity. 

Surviving Dr. Carter are his wife and two 
children. Mrs. Carter was bom in Iowa and at 
an earl\- age crossed the plains with her father, 
.\ntone Bacher, whose sketch is presented in 
this volume. The family settled in the Indian 
valley and has since been represented among 



the residents of this part of the county. Sarah 
Jane IJaciier was reared in the valley and here 
became the wife of Dr. Carter, January 27, 
1881, afterward luaking her home in Crescent 
Mills, where she is well known and universally 
honored. To her children she has given excep- 
tional advantages. The daughter, :\laude, is an 
accomplished musician and a graduate of Lick 
School in San Francisco; while the son is a 
graduate of Heald's Business College and 
possesses a thorough commercial education. 



WILLIAM HARRY MAYFIELD is a well- 
known resident of Johnsville, I'lumas county. 
His father, James B. Mayfield, was a native of 
Kentucky, but was reared in Missouri, going 
there with his parents when he was ten years of 
age. He followed the occupation of farming 
and stock raising, in which he made and lost a 
fortune. As a private during the Civil war he 
served faithfuU} and received an honorable dis- 
charge from the .service, dying in Missouri at 
the age of sixty-eight years. He married Miss 
Martha Jane Davis, a native of Missouri. She 
died in 1872, at forty-four years of age. The 
family were members of the Baptist church and 
well respected members of the community in 
which they made their home. 

W. H. Mayfield was born in Laclede county. 
Mo., February 27, 1858, passing his boyhood 
years on the farm. There were no public 
schools in the locality where he lived (owing to 
the disturbed conditions following the warj but 
he was taught the rudiments of education in 
subscription schools, afterwards going on with 
his studies by himself. He fully appreciated the 
value of an education by rea.son of his struggles 
to obtain one, and later he assisted both a broth- 
er and sister younger than himself to obtain 
their education. When he was seventeen years 
of age he began farming for himself, renting a 
jxirtion of his father's farm, and remained at 
home with his parents until his twenty-third 
year. Coming to California in 1880 he went to 
work on a ranch near Chico and remained there 
five years, when he came to Johnsville and for 



728 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



a time was engaged as a teamster. Subsequent- 
ly he worked in the mines around Eureka for 
four years. It was in May, 1894, that he opened 
the meat market which he now conducts, and in 
addition to its management he has mining inter- 
ests in the locaHty, owning a half interest in St. 
Joseph mine, on Squirrel creek, about five miles 
from Johnsville, and operating a four-stamp 
mill. 

October 17, 1888, Mr. Mayfield married Miss 
Emma Penman, a native of the Golden state, 
having been born in Plumas county. They have 
a family of four children : Maude, Blanche, Len 
and Chester, all living at home. In national pol- 
itics Mr. Mayheld is a Democrat, but when it is 
a matter of local issues he is not bound to any 
party, using his own judgment as to the better 
man for the office, without respect to party affil- 
iations. He was appointed deputy tax collector 
and served several years in that capacity in this 
section of the county. He is a member of AIo- 
hawk Lodge No. 292, I. O. O. F., of Johnsville, 
and a member of Ouincy Lodge No. 127, A. O. 
U. W., of Quincy. 



DUNCAN ROBERTSON. The activities 
which for years engaged the attention of Duncan 
Robertson have been gradually relinquished and 
he has now entered upon that honorable retire- 
ment which follows well directed and successful 
efforts. In his home city of Ouincy he occupies 
the position to wliich his industry and high prin- 
ciples of honor entitle him. It is in this locality 
that he laid the foundation of his financial inde- 
pendence, here the greater portion of the years 
of his active manhood was passed, and here in 
the evening of his days he enjoys the fruits of 
his labors of years gone by, retired from active 
cares, yet maintaining a deep and constant in- 
terest in all enterprises for the benefit of his com- 
munity. The parents of Mr. Robertson were na- 
tives of the Scotch Highlands, but after their 
marriage removed to Nova Scotia, where they 
both died, his father when ninety years of age 
and his mother when about eighty-five years. 
After settling in Nova Scotia the father followed 



agricultural pursuits the remainder of his life. 
He was a member of the Presbyterian church, 
practicing the principles of his religious belief in 
his daily living. 

Duncan Robertson was born in Cumberland 
county, Nova Scotia, October 28, 1833, spending 
his boyhood at home on the farm, and there at- 
tending the common schools. Subsequently he 
went to Bath, Me., where he worked at ship- 
building for four years, having learned the trade 
(luring an apprenticeship to a carpenter. In 1854 
he went to Norfolk, Va., where he was employed 
in the navy yard, and the following winter went 
to Portsmouth, where he remained until the next 
spring. In 1855 he returned to Maine and again 
engaged in shipbuilding until December of that 
year, when he started from New York City on 
the steamer George Law for California, via the 
Panama route. Landing in San Francisco Jan- 
uary I, 1856, he came to the American valley, 
Plumas county, and engaged in mining and 
prospecting for a year, afterwards working at 
the carpenter's trade, in which he continued un- 
til retiring from active business. 

He erected the Plumas house, the court house 
and the majority of the houses in the town of 
Quincy during his fifteen years in the contract- 
ing business, which he relinquished upon pur- 
chasing the ranch one mile east of Ouincy. in 
American valley. This consisted of two hun- 
dred and twenty-two acres, all valley land, and 
worth about $10,000. This he improved and op- 
erated until 1863, when he rented it and went to 
Humboldt county, Nev., during the gold excite- 
ment there, remaining two years. Returning to 
Ouincy he operated his ranch until 1903. when 
he sold it and came to the home which he had 
built several years before and where he has since 
remained. 

September 8, 1867, Mr. Robertson was marr 
ried to Miss Katherine F. Yeates, who was born 
in Indiana in 1849, and when a small child was 
brought to this state. The following children 
have been born of this marriage : Alice, who 
married Harry O. Thornton of San Francisco; 
Donald, a carpenter in Quincy ; Susie, wife of 
lohn Hosselkus. a prominent rancher of the 
Genesee valley; Arthur, in San Jose; .'\rchie, re- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



r2it 



siding here; and Frank, who is at home. PoHt- 
ically a Democrat, Mr. Robertson's abihties won 
puWic recognition, when, in 1890, he was elected 
supervisor of this county, serving efficiently in 
that capacity for four years. Though he has 
passed the allotted three score and ten years, he 
is still active and energetic, and has been suc- 
cessful in his combined labors, having won for 
himself and his family a competency by his indi- 
vidual efforts. 



HUGH McCUTCHEON. Although start- 
ing out under circumstances particularly dis- 
couraging and having his own way to make in 
the world, j\lr. McCutcheon has achieved a de- 
gree of success that is gratifying. The nucleus 
of his present estate consisted of three hundred 
acres destitute of improvements, and from that 
beginning he has acquired valuable ranching 
property. The home ranch consists of three 
hundred acres in Indian valley, with one hun- 
dred acres of timber land ; on the grain and hay 
land he raises profitable crops and has made 
important improvements, including a comfort- 
able residence and substantial farm buildings. 
Seventeen miles north of his home place he 
owns the Lone Rock ranch of seven hundred 
acres well adapted for the pasturage of stock ; 
on that ranch he has about fifty cows and oper- 
ates a dairy by the aid of hired help. When it 
is known that he started with an indebtedness of 
$4,000, on which he was obliged to pay one and 
one-half per cent interest per month, his present 
prosperity is evidence of the possession of ex- 
ceptional ability as a ranchman and manager, 
for in addition to his landed estates he owns a 
store building and warehouse in Crescent Mills 
and also loans money to others on farm lands. 

Descended from Scotch ancestry, Mr. Mc- 
Cutcheon was born in Count}- Down, Ire- 
land, March 14. 184J, and remained on a farm 
in his native counl\ until he was about twenty- 
two years of age. During 1864 he crossed the 
ocean to Canada, where he took up farm pur- 
suits and also became owner of a stage line. 
Upon selling out in Canada in 1869 he came 
to California and worked in the building of the 



snow sheds for the railroad company, later go- 
ing to a ranch in Vuba county and then em- 
barking in the wood business at Marysville. 
During one summer he worked in a silver mine 
at Golconda, Nev., after which he came to the 
old Crescent mine and remained employed 
there until the mine was shut down. For one 
season he worked in the New York mine near 
Greenville and was employed as a teamster, 
next spending eight months in the Union mine 
near Greenville. Later he went to a mine at 
Genesee, where he was employed first as a la- 
borer, next as foreman, and eventually as man- 
ager, having charge of a crew of eight or ten 
men. After three years the mine passed into 
the hands of other owners and he then resigned 
and turned his attention to the ranch business, 
securing the nucleus of his present property in 
Indian valley. 

Stanchly Republican in his views, Mr. Mc- 
Cutcheon is not a politician nor specially inter- 
ested in public affairs, but he gives his influence 
to all movements for the benefit of his commu- 
nity and the material development of the county. 
For two terms of four years each he served as 
supervisor, but at the expiration of his second 
ferm, January i, 1905, he declined further serv- 
ice in the position. In 1873 he became a mem- 
ber of Sincerity Lodge No. 132, F. & A. M., 
at Taylorsville, with which he is still connected. 
His marriage occurred October 10, 1874, and 
united him with Miss Christina Mack, who was 
born near Toronto, Canada, March 12, 1845, be- 
ing a daughter of Howland and Sarah (Moore) 
Mack, natives respectively of Canada and 
County Armagh, Ireland. Her mother came to 
America in girlhood and settled in Canada, 
where she died at forty-eight years. Through 
all of her active life she was a member of the 
Church of England. Howland Mack, who died 
in Canada at fifty-four years, was a son of Phil- 
ip and Christina (Kelly) Mack, natives respect- 
ivei\- of German)- and France, the former of 
whom was given a grant for war service. Mrs. 
McCutcheon remained beneath the paternal roof 
until her marriage, which was solemnized in 
Reno, Nev., in consummation of an engage- 
ment entered into prior to Mr. McCutcheon's re- 



730 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



moval to the west. They are the parents of four 
children, namely : John Henry, operating a 
sawmill near Greenville ; Sarah Elizabeth, who 
has a life certificate as a teacher in Plumas coun- 
ty and is now a member of the county board of 
education ; \\'illiam Hugh and Philip Casey, 
who aid their father in the cultivation of the 
home ranch. 



BERNHARD NEUHAUS. Living retired 
from active pursuits in his pleasant home at Su- 
sanville is Bernhard Neuhaus, a fine representa- 
tive of the early pioneers of this section of our 
beautiful country, and a true type of the energetic, 
hardy and enterprising men who have wisely as- 
sisted in the development and advancement of this 
fertile and productive agricultural region. Dur- 
ing his earlier vears of life in this new countr\- 
he labored bravely and cheerfully with the other 
early settlers, and with them will leave foot- 
prints which the coming generations shall follow 
with far less exertion, and with an exceeding 
number of the comforts and luxuries of this 
world. Like many other of our most prosperous 
and thrifty farmers, he is of foreign birth, hav- 
ing been born October 4, 1833, in Bochaldt, West- 
phalia, Prussia. His father, Henry Neuhaus, born 
in the same place, was a farmer by occupation, 
and had an honorable war record, serving in the 
army eight years, and taking part, under Blucher, 
in the Battle of Waterloo. His mother, whose 
maiden name was Mary Roberts, was born in Hol- 
land. She bore her husband six sons, of whom 
Bernhard, the subject of this sketch, is the sole 
survivor. 

Living on the home farm until nineteen years 
of age, Bernhard Neuhaus obtained a practical 
common school education, and a familiar knowl- 
edge of the various branches of agriculture. In 
1852 he came on the sailing vessel Necker to the 
United States, and at once located in Monroe 
county, N. Y., near Rochester, where he worked 
a few years as a farm hand. Sailing from New 
York City in 1858, he went to Melbourne, Aus- 
tralia, and for two years was engaged in min- 
ing in the gold fields of Ballarat and vicinity. 
Not particularly pleased with his success in this 



line, he came to California on a sailing vessel, 
arriving in San Francisco in x\ugust, i860. 
Renting land in Yolo county, he was engaged in 
farming there for four years, when, on account 
of an attack of fever, he left that locality, and in 
the fall of 1864 went to Honey Lake valley. In 
1865 he located a homestead at Willow Creek, 
pre-empted it, and at the upper end of the creek 
improved a good farm from the tract of wild 
land, and for many years carried on a substantial 
business as a raiser of cattle, horses and hogs. 
There he subsequently married Mrs. Murrer, 
and he and his wife together have title to three 
valuable ranches, aggregating over eight hun- 
dred acres of land, all under irrigation, watered 
by Willow Creek. The land is rich and fertile, 
well adapted for raising alfalfa, timothy and 
grain, and for stock raising. Mr. Neuhaus al- 
ways ran a dairy when on the farm, manufac- 
turing and shipping butter. Renting the farms 
in January, 1902, Mr. and Airs. Neuhaus located 
in Susanville, where he has a nice residence. 

April 20, 1879, at Willow Creek, Mr. Neuhaus 
married Mrs. Frances (Flyrler) Murrer, who 
was born in Beckenried, canton of Unterwalden, 
Switzerland, where her parents, Lorenz and 
Frances (Muirrat) Flyrlcr, spent their entire 
lives. Her father was a successful agriculturist, 
owning three farms, and was prominent in pub- 
lic affairs, serving as justice for many years. In 
1858 Frances Flyrler, the only survivor of the 
two children of the parental household, married, 
in Switzerland, Jacob Murrer. Mr. Murrer im- 
migrated to California in 1851 and engaged in 
mining pursuits, being quite successful. In 1857 
he went back to Switzerland, married the follow- 
ing year, and in i860 returned by way of Pana- 
ma to California. Continuing in mining opera- 
tions, he was first located in Siskiyou countv, 
then in the Sierra valley, and later in Indian val- 
ley. Coming to Willow Creek in 1873. he re- 
sided here until his death in 1875. He was a 
man of much enterprise, and in 1870 embarked 
in the hotel business, his house being located on 
the Bieber road, about twenty miles from Susan- 
ville. Of the union of Mr. and Airs. Murrer six 
children were born, namely : Pauline, who died at 
the age of twenty-six. years, in Switzerland; Ja- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



731 



cob, of Willow Creek ; Edward, of the same 
place; Mrs. Emma Eldridge, of Fall River; Mrs. 
Mary Talbot, of Willow Creek ; and Rozella, wife 
of Frederick Bagin, of Susanville. Three chil- 
dren blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Neuhaus, 
only one of whom, William, of Susanville, grew 
to years of maturity. In national politics Mr. 
Neuhaus invariably supports the principles of 
the Democratic party. He takes great interest 
in local matters, and for a number of years ren- 
dered good service as school trustee. Religiously 
he is a Catholic. 



FRANK B. McKAY. Occupying an as- 
sured p>osition among the prosperous agricult- 
urists of Honey Lake valley is Frank B. Mc- 
Kay, who is recognized as one of the intelli- 
gent and thorough-going farmers of Lassen 
county, owning a comfortable homestead of 
one hundred and sixty acres near Standish. 
Here he has lived for about fifteen years dur- 
ing which time he has labored patiently and 
persistently to clear his land, and while thus 
laboring for his own interests has faithfully 
performed his part in promoting the growth and 
prosperity of the young settlement of this local- 
ity. A son of Wyatt and Eliza J. (Montgom- 
ery) McKay, he was bom January g, 1854. in 
Brookfield, Trumbull county, Ohio, where he 
was reared and educated. 

Reared to agricultural pursuits, Frank B. Mc- 
Kay worked on the home farm until nineteen 
years of age, when, on the death of his father, 
with his twin brother, Francis M. McKay, he 
took charge of the parental estate. Having 
been interested in the raising of Merino sheep 
for some time he, with others, organized the 
Mahoning Valley Merino Sheep Breeders' As- 
sociation, which he afterwards served as secre- 
tary for a number of years. Leaving Ohio on 
December 25, 1889, he came west to Washing- 
ton county. Ore., where he worked for wages for 
eighteen months. Coming from there to Cali- 
fornia, he spent one summer at Niles, Alameda 
county, and tlicn went to Merced county. 
Durintr the same winter, about Christmas time. 



1 89 1, he located in Lassen county, taking up a 
homestead claim to the ranch on which he now 
lives. The land was then in its primitive con- 
dition, covered thick with sage brush, and with 
no road within a mile and a half. Building a 
small cabin, he at once began the labor of re- 
deeming a farm, and the present appear- 
ance of his well-kept ranch plainly intimates 
that his efforts have been richly rewarded. He 
has one hundred and thirty-five acres in alfalfa, 
has set out an orchard of small fruits, and in 
1901 erected a conveniently arranged and taste- 
ful residence. In addition to general farming 
he raises some stock, and will eventually enlarge 
his operations in this liranch of agriculture, and 
will likewise pay more attention to fruit grow- 
ing. 

In Ohio, Mr. McKay married Mary Gill- 
mer, who was born and brought up in Newton, 
Tninil)ull county. Ohio. (Jf their union three 
children have been born, namely : Thad, engaged 
in mining in Sierra county : and Jessie Rea and 
Margaret, both at home. Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
Kay are Congregationalists, Mrs. McKay be- 
longing to the Congregational Church at Pacific 
Grove, while his name is still on the list of the 
members of the church at Niles, Cal. 



JOHN C. WERNER. One of the thriving 
industries carried on in Quincy is the brewery 
of which Mr. Werner is the proprietor, and which 
is known as the Bock Horn brewery. When 
he came to the village in 1896 he purchased the 
brewery formerly owned by \\'illiam Chlattcr, 
and since then has met with a fair degree of suc- 
cess in its maintenance. The earliest recollections 
in the life of Mr. Werner take him back in mem- 
ory to Wittenberg, Germany, where he was born. 
May 27, 1863, and in the vicinity of that city 
spent the first eighteen years of his life upon his 
father's farm. As he could see no brilliant pros- 
pects in view in his native land he detemiined to 
see what the new world had to offer in the way 
of advancement to an ambitious young man. .\c- 
cordingly, in March, 1881, when a lad of eigh- 
teen vears, he left his native land and landed in 



(6 



?.9, 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



New York City in due time. From that metrop- 
olis he went at once to West Elizabeth, Alle- 
gheny county, Pa., where an uncle owned and 
operated a large brewery. To this relative Air. 
Werner is indebted for his knowledge of the 
business, for he not only gave him a thorough 
insight into its various departments, but retamed 
him in his employ for thirteen years. 

At the end of this time Mr. \\'erner felt him- 
self qualified to undertake business on his own 
account, and forthwith came to California. Min- 
ing, however, engaged his attention for about a 
year after locating in the state, but it was not 
sufficiently remunerative to justify him in follow- 
ing it permanently, so he very naturally sought 
a line of work with which he was more familiar, 
and which would insure more dependable re- 
turns for labor expended. It was at this time 
that he identified himself with Quincy by the 
purchase of the brewery, as previously stated. 

Mr. Werner takes a commendable interest m 
the welfare of his adopted country, and in his 
political opinions favors the principles of the Re- 
publican party. His name is enrolled among the 
members of several fraternal orders, namely : the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of 
Pvthias and Foresters of America. 



DAVID KNOCK. Noteworthy among the 
more prominent and public-spirited citizens of 
Susanville is the venerable David Knoch. who 
has been a resident of the place for upwards of 
forty years, and is well known throughout the 
town and county for his many interests. A man 
of excellent business ability, he has acquired 
considerable wealth, and is now living practical- 
ly retired from active pursuits, the care of his 
property requiring the most of his time and at- 
tention. Mr. Knoch was born March 14. 1824. 
in Rosenburg, Ober-Silesia, Germany, where his 
parents, Isaac and Adelia Knoch, spent their en- 
tire lives. The father died when a comparative- 
ly young man. leaving two children, but one of 
whom survives. 

Having acquired a good common school edu- 
cation in the public schools of Rosenburg, David 



Knoch was bound out to a tailor at the age of 
fifteen, and after serving an apprenticeship of 
three }'ears worked at his trade in his native 
land for some time. Desirous then of taking ad- 
\'antage of the cipportuntites offered young men 
of industry and thrift on the American continent, 
lie embarked on a sailing vessel, and after a 
wearisome \oyage of sixty-five days landed in 
New York City in March, 1853. Three months lat- 
er he started for California by way of Aspinwall 
and July 4, 1853. arrived in San Francisco, 
coming from Panama on the Yankee Blade. 
The ensuing three years he was employed in 
prospecting and mining, first at Oroville, Butte 
county, and afterward in the Onion valley, 
Plumas county. Not very successful in his oper- 
ations, he changed his occupation, and for a 
number of years was engaged in pack peddling 
to the mines of Plumas, Sierra, Shasta, Nevada 
and Placer counties, his purchasing point being 
Marys ville. 

Locating in Susanville, Lassen county, in Ma\', 
1865, Mr. Knoch opened a store of general mer- 
chandise and for more than a score of vears 
carried on a large and remunerative business. He 
then sold out to John Partridge, and has since 
lived retired, his private interests demanding his 
entire time. He makes a specialty of loaning 
money, and is a large property bolder, owning 
the Knoch and Masonic blocks, both fire-proof 
stone buildings, the former being 35x122 feet, 
while the latter is the largest block in the city. 
Near his residence he has a good orchard, and 
likewise owns two other residences and other 
valuable pieces of property. He is a man of ex- 
cellent judgment, and while improving his own 
finances has done his full share towards the up- 
ijuilding of his adopted city, his services in this 
respect being recognized and appreciated by his 
fellow-men. 

In March, 1852, in Kempen, German \-, Mr. 
Knoch married Fannie Altman, a daughter of 
Hensel and Jennie (Felses) Altman, life-long 
residents of that place. They were the parents 
of nine children, three of whom grew to vears 
of maturity, and two of these are still living. 
In March, 1902, Mr. and Mrs. Knoch celebrated 
the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, rel- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



733 



atives and friends to the number of two hundred 
and fifty assisting in the festivities of the occa- 
sion. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Knoch five 
children were born, and of these three have 
passed to the better world. An infant, the first 
born, died in Oroville; Soloinon and Jennie 
died from scarlet fever in Susanville. their 
deaths occurring the same day. Those living 
are: Isaac, a merchant of Susanville, who mar- 
ried Blanche Hineman, of San Francisco, and 
Mrs. Rachel Alexander, also of Susanville. 
Politically Mr. Knoch is a Democrat. He was 
made a Mason in Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & 
A. M., in 1867, and is still a member; he also 
belongs to Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. M.. 
to Lassen Commandery No. 13, K. T., to Silver 
Star Lodge No. 135, I. O. Q, F., and to the En- 
campment. Both himself and his wife are 
members of Hesperian Lodge No. 112, O. E. S., 
the Order of Amaranths No. i, and the Re- 
bekahs. 



JOHN THEODORE. The thrift and indus- 
try inherited from a long line of Welsh ancestry, 
supplemented by the possession of American en- 
terprise, enabled Mr. Theodore to rise to inde- 
pendence and to become a man of influence 
among Lassen county agriculturists. On com- 
ing to this locality, in the spring of 187 1, he se- 
cured a tract of one hundred and sixty acres in 
Honey Lake valley, about seven miles east of 
Spoonville, and on this place he passed the re- 
maining years of his busy life, engaged in the" 
raising of hay and stock and conducting also 
a small dairy business. From time to time he 
added to his original purchase until he became 
the owner of a ranch of six hundred and fifty 
acres, which is now owned by his heirs and ably 
superintended by his son. 

The early years in the life of John Theodore 
were passed in Wales, where he was born July 
8, 1833. By reason of his environment he was 
unable to gain more than a public school educa- 
tion, yet he gained a broad fund of information 
through observation and habits of reading. 
Seeking a larger field of employment, he came 
to the United States at twenty-two years of age, 



and for six years afterward worked in the whole- 
sale carpet store of W. T. Lewis & Co., in New 
York City. Meanwhile he heard much concern- 
ing the development of the west and his ambi- 
tious spirit was fired with a desire to seek a live- 
lihood in a newer region where possibilities might 
be greater than in the city. Accordingly he took 
passage on a ship for the Isthmus of Panama and 
from there sailed up to San Francisco, where he 
landed in June of 1862, and without delay se- 
cured employment in the town of Stockton. Af- 
ter two years there he went to Virginia City, 
Nev., and worked in the mines, where he met 
with some success during the next six years. 
From there he came to the farm in Lassen coun- 
ty, where afterward he led the quiet life of a 
rancher. 

The marriage of Mr. Theodore occurred 
March 24, 1869, and united him with Miss Annie 
Thomas, then residing at Gold Hill, Nev., but 
a native of Utica, N. Y., whence she came in 
1868 to California by the isthmus route. To their 
union the following children were born : Lettie 
E., who was born at Gold Hill January 12, 1870, 
and became the wife of E. C. Brown, residing in 
Reno, Nev. ; Annie K., who was born January 
16, 1872, and married G. B. Bailey, of Honey 
Lake valley ; John T., who was born November 
23, 1876, and now superintends the old home- 
stead, making his home there with his mother 
and his wife, formerly Hattie Ethel Hartson. 
whom he married December 25, 1899, anch by 
whom he has a son, Judson Leroy, born Decem- 
ber 2, 1900; and Bessie, the youngest of the 
family, who was born September 24. 1881. and is 
now the wife of Frank O. Wemijle, of Spoon- 
ville. All of the children except the eldest were 
born on the Lassen county homestead and all 
were given the best advantages which the means 
of the family permitted, Mr. Theodore being a 
stanch friend of the public-school system and for 
years a member of the board of school trustees 
of his district. 

After becoming a citizen of the United States 
Mr. Theodore supported the principles of the 
Republican party, but never took any part in lo- 
cal politics. During the year 1904 he and his 
wife left home for an extended trip through the 



734 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



east b)- way of the World's Fair at St. Louis. 
After a tour of the Exposition they proceeded to 
the birth-place of Mrs. Theodore, Utica, N. Y., 
and during their visit in that city Mr. Theodore 
accidentally fell downstairs, sustaining injuries 
that resulted in concussion of the brain and 
caused his death January 2, 1905. The body was 
brought back to California by the bereaved wife 
and was buried at Janesville under the auspices 
of the Masonic Order, with which he had been 
identified. 



WALTER B. DEWITT. .\n experience of 
many years with the climate and soil of Lassen 
county has given to Mr. Dewitt a familiar knowl- 
edge of these subjects and made him an author- 
ity in matters pertaining to the products of the 
region. The farm which he now occupies is 
situated on the Spoonville and Hot Springs stage 
line, about four miles west of the last-named 
place, in Lassen county. On this homestead, Jul\ 
I, 1903, through his earnest and energetic ef- 
forts, a postoffice was established named in his 
honor, and he was chosen the first postmaster, 
a position which he still occupies, with his wife 
as assistant. Through wise judgment and untir- 
ing energy he has acquired considerable property. 
Included in his possessions is a one-fourth in- 
terest in the home ranch of six hundred and 
forty acres, where he has thirty acres in alfalfa 
and a large acreage of wild hay, also raises and 
feeds stock cattle and conducts a dairy of twenty- 
five cows, selling the milk to the creamery. Ad- 
joining his home farm on the west lie three hun- 
dred and fifty acres, where he made his home for 
thirteen years and which he still owns ; also he 
owns one-third interest in a stock range in Grass- 
hopper valley embracing some eight hundred 
acres. 

In Lassen county, where his entire life has 
been passed, Mr. Dewitt was born October 22, 
1863, his parents being Franklin and Mary Louisa 
(Wiggins) Dewitt, natives respectively of 
Indiana and Maine. For some years his father 
engaged in farming in Iowa, where he mar- 
ried and whence he came to California 
earlv in the '60s, settling in Honey Lake 



valley near Janesville. In the fall of 1863 
they moved to the ranch now occupied by their 
son, Walter. At that time the land was unim- 
proved and of little value. After working for a 
year in the employ of the owner of the ranch 
Franklin Dewitt left and went to QtIco. Cal., 
wh.ere he worked in the sawmills. His death oc- 
curred in that town in 1 87 1 and he was buried in 
the cemetery there. His wife afterward married 
George Fry, and, now widowed a second time, 
makes her home in San Jose, this state. 

The famil}- of Franklin Dewitt consisted of five 
children, of whom four survive, as follows : Ar- 
thur Franklin, who is employed by G. W. Mapes 
in Lassen county ; Mrs. Carrie E. Whitten, living 
near Janesville, this county ; Walter B., also of 
Lassen coimty ; and George A., living at Mon- 
terey. The ne.xt to the youngest of the sons, 
Walter B. received his education in the school 
near his present home, with the exception of two 
winter terms at Buntingville and Janesville. 
^^'hen his father moved to Chico he remained 
with the owner of the ranch and has since made 
this place his home, with the exception of thir- 
teen years on the adjoining ranch. Dtiring 1886 
he was united in marriage with Miss Jessie N. 
Holmes, an account of whose family is given in 
the sketch of John P. Holmes. They became the 
parents of four children, namely : Walter Frank- 
lin, deceased ; William Henry, Grover Cleveland 
and Ruby Irene. Fraternally Mr. Dewitt is iden- 
tified with Janesville Lodge No. 232, F. & A. M., 
the Knights of the Maccabees, and with the 
Janesville Parlor N. S. G. W. In politics he has 
cast his ballot for the men and measures of the 
Democratic party ever since attaining his ma 
jority. 



JOHN J. POTTER. A capable and enter- 
prising business man, energetic and progres- 
sive, John J. Potter, of Lookout, has been a 
potent factor in advancing the prosperity of this 
part of Modoc county, and is the senior partner 
in the well-known firm of Potter & Green, who 
deal in real estate, and do much of the civil 
engineering of this vicinity. A son of Richard 
R. Potter, he was born, October 9, 1867, in Kal- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



735 



amazoo county. Mich., wlicrc he spent his child- 
hood days. 

Richard R. Potter married Mary Clement, 
and subsequently, in the fall of 1876, came with 
his family to California, locating- first in 
Truckee, Nevada county. From there he re- 
moved to Colusa county, and is now liv- 
ing near Red Bluff, Tehama county, where he 
is extensively employed in raising sheep. 

Having obtained a practical common school 
education, John J. Potter remained at home 
until attaining his majority. Starting then in 
life on his own account, he worked at first in 
the timber, and was afterwards for a number of 
years a contracting logger, carrying on a good 
business. Locating at Big \'alley in 1895, he 
took up eighty acres of land, and in its improve- 
ment was very successful, carrying on general 
farming and stock raising with satisfactory re- 
sults. Forming a partnership with A. M. Crcen 
in 1901, Mr. Potter, under the firm name of 
Potter & Green, has built up a substantial real 
estate business, and the firm has done the great- 
er part of the civil engineering and survey- 
ing in this section of the state. 

In 1893 Mr, Potter married Minnie Adams, 
a native of California, and they are the parents 
of seven children, namely : Gertrude, Alarie, 
Amv, Bessie. Richard, \'elt and Lowell. Polit- 
ically Mr. Potter is a stanch supporter of the 
principles of the Republican party, and frater- 
nally he is a member and past workman of 
Lookout Lodge No. 211, A. O. U. W., and of 
Eagle Cliflf Lodge No, 163, K, of P„ of Duns- 
muir, Cal, 



GEORGE COUNTER, a California pioneer, 
has known the ups and downs of fortune, and in 
spite of all he has passed through can still look 
on life with complacency. Whatever he has ac- 
complished in his life has been through his own 
unaided efforts, combined with a determination 
to succeed. To make fortunes and lose them 
seems to be the fate of some men, and this is 
true of many who came to California in the early 
days. The opportunities for gain were great 
and money was hazarded with a feeling of as- 
21 



surance that if it was lost in one venture it 
could easily be regained in another. 

Mr. Counter's parents were natives of Canada, 
of French extraction, his jiaternal grandfather 
being a colonel in the French Revolution. I'or 
political reasons he found it advisable to seek a 
land where life was more secure and less excit- 
ing, and thus it hap])ened that he liK-atecl in Can- 
ada. George Counter was born in Canada East, 
October 12, 1836, and when he was four years 
old his parents moved to Caledonia county, V't., 
where his early boyhood was passed. Opix>rtu- 
nities for education were limited, and such as 
there were he was denied, never attending school 
a day in his life. Tlie strenuous life began for 
him at the tender age of eleven years, when he 
went to work for $3 a month, working steadily 
for eight months, and losing only two days' time 
during that period, and spending of his earnings 
the sum of fifty cents. From that time on the 
boy was self-suppyorting. Sometimes he worked 
for the neighbors and sometimes he worked at 
home, but he always worked at something. In 
1850, when he was fourteen years old. he left 
home and went to Lyme, N. H., where for a year 
he worked as an errand bo}-. Later he went to 
White River Junction, \'t., and was employed 
as an errand boy two years in the office of a 
large iron manufacturing company, and after- 
wards served part time as apprentice in their 
machine shops. 

In 1855 Mr. Counter started for California, 
traveling via the Nicaragua route, and reaching 
San Francisco November of the same year. From 
San Francisco he went to Marysville and se- 
cured a job setting up an engine, and after it 
was ready to run was engaged as engineer for a 
time. From Marysville he went to Forbestown. 
Butte county, two months later going to Grass 
Valley, where he worked at his trade until the 
Frazer River excitement started him in that di- 
rection. Meeting with no success at the mines 
he went the same year to Sonora. Tuolumne 
county, as engineer in charge of machinery, and 
remained there two years. From there he went 
to Grass Valley, and in i860 to the Com.stock 
mine, Virginia City, Nev,, where he set up and 
ran an engine. Forming a partnership with H. 



736 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



H. Conklin he engaged in the water business, 
and in 1862 they controlled the drinking water 
supply of Virginia City. In the same year he 
bought out his partner's interest in the business 
and continued alone until May. 1864, when he 
sold out, making about $40,000 in the deal. In 
June, 1865, he returned east, and with the in- 
tention of remaining there purchased a farm, but 
after a stay of nine months in the east he came 
back to Virginia City and engaged in speculating 
in mining stocks. This business proved unprofit- 
able, and was the means of his returning to his 
trade. Securing a position as chief engineer of 
the Silver Hill mine, he continued there a num- 
ber of years. Subsequently he constructed the 
Sucker Mining Company's works, and was em- 
ployed at the Alta and Governor Stevenson mine 
as chief engineer until 1889. During all these 
vears he had been successful and had succeeded 
in accumulating quite a fortune, but a turn of 
the tide again found him stranded, and it was 
then that he came to Loyalton and went to work 
for the Roberts Lumber Company. For seven- 
teen years he was- chief engineer in their mill, 
having entire charge of the machinery, and also 
set up the machinery in the big band mill. 

In the meantime, with a view to the future, 
Mr. Counter had built for himself the building 
where, in partnership with his son, Charles R. 
Counter, he carries on his present enterprise, the 
store being opened for business August 15, 1902. 
In Tune, 1904, he resigned his position with the 
lumber company and since that date has given 
his time exclusively to his own business. 

July 15, 1865, Mr. Counter married Miss Ella 
Sanderson, a native of Vermont, who died in 
California. Of their two children, Ella, the eld- 
est, died at two years of age ; Charles R., who 
was born November 18, 1867, lives in Loyalton, 
and besides having charge of the store, owns a 
half interest in the business. Mr. Counter was 
made a Mason in Vermont in 1867, later trans- 
ferring his membership to Amity Lodge No. 54, 
of Silver City, Nev. In politics he is a Repub- 
lican, and though he has never had any ambition 
to bold office, is always ready to help his friends 
who are candidates for office. His knowledge 
of the French language and wide acquaintance 



among mining men have been of great benefit to 
more than one aspiring politician. While Mr. 
Counter has practically retired from active busi- 
ness life, he continues his interest in the affairs 
of the world and keeps abreast of the times in 
which we live. 



WILLIAM A. ODBERT. Holding a posi- 
tion of prominence among the younger business 
men of Lake City, Modoc county, is William A. 
Odbert, who, as head of the Odbert-Berry-Wat- 
(<ins Company, is carrying on a substantial and 
lucrative mercantile trade. Wide-awake, far- 
sighted and progressive, he is meeting with well- 
merited success in his venture, and has alread\' 
won for himself and his partners the good will 
and confidence of the community. A son of the 
late Richard Odbert, he was born February 19, 
1871, in the province of C)ntario, Canada. 

Born and reared in Ireland, Richard Odbert 
emigrated from his native country to Canada 
when a young man, and' was there a resident 
for manv vears. In 1873 he came with his fam- 
ily to California, locating in Goose Lake valley, 
where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. Tak- 
ing up a government claim, he bought adjoining 
land, increasing the size of his ranch to four 
hundred acres, and was there subsequently en- 
gaged in farming and stock raising until his 
death, in 1902. He married, in Canada, Mary 
Sparrow, who was also born in Ireland, and 
when young emigrated with her brother to Can- 
ada. Five children were born of their union, 
namely : Eleanor, wife of Dr. W. W. Shartel, a 
leading dentist of Lake City, Sarah, wife of 
William Toney : William A., the special subject 
of this sketch ; Mary M., wife of John Dawson, 
of Goose Lake valley : and Anna, wife of Oscar 
Hotchkiss, of Lake City. After the death of 
her husband. Mrs. Odbert moved to Lake City, 
where she has since resided. 

Coming with his parents to California when an 
infant, William A. Odbert was here reared and 
educated, remaining at home until 1894. He then 
engaged in farming on his own account, living 
on a rented farm in Goose I,ake valle}- for a 
\ear. He then lx>ught a ranch in the vallev, be- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



737 



coining owner of twn lunidrcd and forty-five 
acres of unimproved land 1> ing two miles north 
of Lake City, and was there engaged in raising 
hay and stock for nearly ten years. Disposing of 
that property in 1904, he rented land lying east 
of the city, and for awhile continued his agri- 
cultural operations. On August 8, 1905, he made 
a complete change of occupation, embarking in 
mercantile business as head of the Odbert-Rerry- 
Watkins Company, which has already established 
a trade that gives rich promise of a brilliant suc- 
cess in the future. Politically Mr. Odbert is 
active in the ranks of the Republican party. He 
is now serving as postmaster of Lake City, the 
postofifice being located in his store. 

In 1894 Mr. Odbert married Mary Nott, a na- 
tive of Nevada, and they are the parents of four 
children, namely : a daughter named Jimmie ; a 
son named William : and twins named Warren 
and Leonore. 



WILLIAM HENRY TROXEL. Numbered 
among the citizens of high repute and good 
standing in Lassen county is William Henry 
Troxel, who is well and widely known as a prac- 
tical and successful farmer of Eagle Lake. His 
ranch, which is one of the largest in the vicin- 
ity, is highly improved, and has a substantial res- 
idence and convenient farm buildings, every- 
thing about the premises indicating the care and 
supervision of an excellent manager, and a 
thoroughgoing and enterprising agriculturist. 
A son of Josiah Troxel, he was born in Coles 
county, 111., September 9, 1850. 

A native of Ohio, Josiah Troxel was there 
reared and educated. In early manhood he fol- 
lowed the march of civilization westward to Coles 
county. 111., where he bought land and improved 
a farm. In 1864 he decided to again try his 
chances in a new country, and came with his 
family across the plains to California, traveling 
by way of Salt Lake, and being six months on 
the route. Coming via Honey Lake to Pjutte 
county, he located near Qiico, on Little Butte 
creek, and was there engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits until his death. His wife, whose maiden 
name was Eva M. Coon, was born in Ohio, and 



died in California. Their family of five sons and 
four daughters are all living. William Henry, 
with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned. l>e- 
ing the oldest child. 

When a lad of thirteen years William Henry 
Troxel came with his parents to the Pacific coast, 
and the following eight years he remained at 
home, assisting his father in the pioneer labor of 
clearing and improving a homestead in I'.utte 
county. On attaining his majority, he began 
farming on his own account, buying one hundred 
and sixty acres of land just south of Chico, where 
he carried on general farming and stock raising 
for several seasons. Coming to Eagle I^ke in 
1885, he purchased the Davis ranch, and resumed 
his former independent occupation. In his oper- 
ations he has met with unquestioned success, and 
is now owner of eight hundred and thirtv-three 
acres of land, with a lake frontage of four miles, 
his farm being twenty-six miles from Susan- 
ville. the county-seat. In addition to raising ex- 
tensive crops of hay and grain, he makes a spe- 
cialty of raising cattle and horses, his brand be- 
ing an MD intertwined. 

On January i. 1872, in Dayton. Butte countv. 
Mr. Troxel married Rosanna Hensley, who was 
born in Yuba county, a daughter of Tobias A. 
Hensley. Her grandfather. Henry Henslev. was 
born in Pennsylvania, but spent the larger part 
of his life in Ohio. Tobias A. Hensley was born 
and reared in Ohio, and there learned the black- 
smith's trade. In 1849 ^e came to California as 
a -soldier, his business being to protect the emi- 
grants of that time. Settling here permanently, 
he followed his trade first at the Humbug mines, 
later in Gridley, and then in Dayton, Butte coun- 
ty. He is now retired from active pursuits, and 
is living at Washougal, Clarke county. Wash. 
He married Mary Kilpatrick. who was born in 
Galena. 111., and came across the i)lains with her 
father to Yuba county in pioneer days. Thev are 
the parents of five children, Mrs. Troxel being 
the oldest. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Troxel 
three children have been born, namely: Charles 
Oliver, of Butte county, with the Sierra Lumber 
Company; Clarence Bertram, of Susanville; and 
Jesse William, on the home ranch. Fraternally 
Mr. Troxel is a member of Chico Lodge, I. O. 



T6S 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



O. F. ; of Qiico Encampment; and both he and 
his wife belong to the Rebekahs. Mrs. Troxel is 
a woman of much force of character, and a con- 
sistent member of the Christian Church. 



ALBERT SMEDLEY WRIGHT. The sec- 
ond of a family of eight sons and one daughter, 
Albert Smedley Wright was born March 4. 1838, 
in Edgar county. 111., where he was reared and 
received his early education. His father, Lemuel 
Wright, was a farmer in Illinois, but subsequent- 
ly removed to Minnesota and located near 
Rochester, where he resumed agricultural pur- 
suits until i860, when he decided to come to 
California. Taking the usual route over moun- 
tain and plain that was followed at that time b}- 
travelers to the western portion of our country, 
he settled at Red Bluff, which he made his home 
until his death. His mother, Hamiah Wright, is 
still living and resides at Bellingham. ^^^ash. 

Until i860 A. S. Wright lived on a farm near 
Rochester, Minn., and in addition to its cultiva- 
tion also worked at the plasterers' and carpen- 
ters' trade. In that year he accompanied his 
family when they came to California. They first 
intended to go to Pike's Peak, and started on the 
journey thither with horse teams on ]March 15. 
Stopping to rest at Council Bluffs. Iowa, they 
there determined to come on to this state. Ar- 
riving in California. Mr. Wright went to Honey 
Lake valley on August 6, i860, spending six 
weeks on the ranch of a i\Ir. Lake. Going from 
there to Long valley, he engaged in farming for 
a time, then erected the Junction house, of which 
he became proprietor, and afterwards went on 
a ranch. After selling this ranch in 1865 he 
came to Susanville, where he engaged in con- 
tracting and building for twelve years, then pur- 
chased his present place, the old Lake ranch, 
from a Mr. Fuller, and a year later located upon 
this ranch of one hvmdred and sixty acres and 
engaged in farming and stock-raising. 

May 6, 1859, Mr. Wright was married to 
Cordelia A. Andreus, near Marion, Minn., a 
native of Wisconsin, having been born near 
Janesville, Rock county. She is the daughter of 



Daniel Andreus, who was born in Genesee coun- 
ty, N. Y., but went to Wisconsin when a young 
man and settled in Rock county, where he im- 
proved and operated a farm. In 1854 he dis- 
posed of his proj>erty in Wisconsin and removed 
to Minnesota, locating near Rochester, where he 
engaged in farming until his death, in March, 
1873. Her mother, formerly Lucy Ann Cum- 
mings, was born in Chautauqua county, N. Y., 
and was the daughter of Thayer Cummings, a 
native of New York, who, in later years, settled 
in Minnesota, where his death occurred. At the 
age of ninety years Mrs. Wright's mother is 
living at Garfield, Minn., where she is a member 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Ten chil- 
dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. .\ndreus, four 
sons and six daughters. Of the two sons and 
five daughters who survive Mrs. Wright is the 
fourth and the only one in California. Three of 
her brothers, Truman, Isaac and Ira, served in 
the Civil war. Mr. Wright was accidentally 
killed in a runaway at Susanville. October 22, 
1883, ^nd since his death Mrs. Wright has con- 
tinued on the farm, upon which she built a new 
residence. Subsequently, in 1903, she sold it to 
her son-in-law, Clinton DeForest. Mrs. Wright 
is the mother of six children, three of whom are 
living, viz. : Madelena A., who is the wife of A. 
J. Eades of Big Valley, this state, and has five 
children: Melanda, who is the wife of N. P. 
Hanson of Fall River Mills, and has one child; 
and Frances, who is the wife of Clinton D. De- 
Forest and lives on the old home place, and has 
three children. Mr. Wright was fraternally con- 
nected with the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men, and in politics was a Republican. He was 
a public-spirited man, and took an active interest 
in whatever pertained to the welfare of his com- 
munity. 



WILLIAM CLINCH. Born in Cornwall, 
England, May 13, 1823, William Clinch was 
there reared and educated. Setting out for the 
United States in 1852 by way of Cape Horn, he 
was shipwrecked off the coast of Chili, and thus 
it happened that he was engaged in mining there 
for two years. Upon reaching California in 1854 



HISTORICAl. AND P.IOnRAPTTTCAI. RECORD. 



739 



he went at once to Nelson's Point on the Feather 
river, and engaged in prospecting and mining. 
From there he went to Gibsonville, and after- 
wards to Richmond Hill and other places, finally 
establishing the family home on a ranch of two 
hundred and sixty acres, which, in partnership 
with his brother John, he purchased, one mile 
east of Quincy, Plumas county, and where he 
spent the remainder of his life. In 1877 the ranch 
was divided, William Clinch's share being one 
hundred and twenty-one acres of valley land, 
which he cleared and improved and upon which 
he engaged in stock-raising and dairying. 

April 7, 1849, ^^^- Clinch married Miss Ann 
Tank, a native of Cornwall, England, who was 
born October 8, 1822, and who was reared and 
educated in her native country. Two children 
were born of this marriage. John, now manager 
of the home place, served an apprenticeship at 
cabinet making four years and six months in 
England, and after coming to this country 
worked in the mines of California until 1876. 
Since that time he has been on the home ranch ; 
Anna Vivian Clinch became the wife of Gus 
Berg, who is now deceased, and she lives in 
Quincy. Mr. Clinch was a very strong man, 
weighing from one hundred and ninety to two 
hundred pounds, and until within two weeks of 
his death was active and hearty. He lived a 
Christian life. In politics he was a strong Re- 
publican, and was elected roadmaster in his dis- 
trict, performing the duties of that office effi- 
ciently during his term of office from 1883 to 
1884. Since his death the widow and her son 
have made their home on the ranch, lately rent- 
ing it for $300 per year. Mrs. Clinch is now in 
her eighty-fourth year of age, but retains all her 
faculties. 



PETER OLSEN. The name Olsen indicates 
the Scandinavian origin of the family. Peter 
Olsen was born in Norway November 8, 1824, 
and as a boy became familiar with the occu- 
pations of farming and fishing, much of his 
early life being spent as a sailor in the sea- 
going fishing crafts for which his coun- 
try is famous. When eighteen years of age, in 



1842, he came to the United States and settled 
in Minnesota, where he worked by the day at 
any honorable employment he could obtain. Dur- 
ing the troubles with the Indians in the north- 
west he enlisted in the regular army in 1846, 
and served about eighteen months, after which 
he resumed the tilling of the soil. With the 
money he frugally hoarded he paid his ex- 
penses back to Norway and brought back to 
the new world his brothers and sisters, all of 
whom settled in the northwest. 

After having inade the long journey across the 
plains in 1S52 with wagons and oxen. Air. Olsen 
to«k up land near Oroville, Butte county, and for 
a time pursued the even tenor of a rancher's 
occupation. Inuring the Eraser river excitement 
he followed the throngs of miners to the new 
camps, but met with no success and soon re- 
turned to the ranch. By degrees stock-raising 
became his specially. It was his custom to keep 
his stock in Paitle county during the winters, 
while every summer he drove the herd up to 
Plumas county, where he camped until autumn. 
In 1859 he drove his stock to Big Meadow val- 
ley, where he filed a claim on heather river, but 
did not clear the land. Until his death, which 
occurred on Qiristmas day of 1892, he continued 
10 raise and sell stock and held a place among 
the hard-working ranchers of Plumas county. 

The marriage of Mr. Olsen occurred Septem- 
ber 6, 1870, and united him with Mrs. Melissa 
( Kocher ) Bailey, who was born in Muskingum 
county, Ohio. December 2, 1838. When she was 
two years of age the family moved to Pennsyl- 
vania, and from there in 1859 migrated west to 
Minnesota, thence in 1859 crossing the plains to 
California with her first husband, Jeremiah F. 
Bailey, a native of Pennsylvania, but reared in 
Wisconsin. After landing in the coast country 
Mr. and Mrs. Bailey took up land on Big Mead- 
ows, in Plumas county, and there he died De- 
cember 5, 1867, leaving his widow with several 
children to support and maintain. In the fall of 
1868 Mrs. Bailey bought the claim and improve- 
ments on one hundred and sixty acres, forming 
the nucleus of her present property. To this she 
added from time to time until she now owns 
three hundred and eightv acres. Of the four 



740 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



children born to her first marriage two are now 
living, namely : Horace Bailey of Chico and 
Frank Bailey, whose home is in Red Blnff, this 
state. There were born to her second marriage 
three sons, namely : George Olsen, who manages 
her ranch ; Nelson and Edgar, who still remain 
at home and assist in the work of the home place. 



GEORGE FOX KELLEY. Prominent among 
the most energetic, capable and progressive 
pioneer settlers of Lassen county was the late 
George Fox Kelley, who did as much, if not 
more, than any other one man in the developing 
and building up of this part of northern Califor- 
nia. By practical experience he proved to the 
unbelieving that the wild lands of Honey Lake 
valley could be reclaimed, and that the vast tracts 
of sage brush could be converted into a good 
agricultural region, abounding in well-cultivated 
and well-stocked farms that should bespeak the 
general prosperity of the people hereabout. A 
native of \'ermont, he was born February 28, 
1826, in Rutland, and among the rugged hills of 
his native state he grew to a sturdy manhood. 

While living in Rutland, George F. Kelley was 
for several years of his early life associated with 
the firm of Kelley Brothers as a salesman. This 
firm carried on an extensive business in getting 
out marble from the quarries and sawing it in 
their mills. In 1859 Mr. Kelley severed his 
connection with the firm, and with his family 
came by way of the Isdimus to California. Set- 
tling first in Oakland, he lived there a year, and 
then located in Sonoma county, about three miles 
from Santa Rosa, where he took up six hundred 
acres of land and began its improvement. Sub- 
sequently this land proved to be a part of an old 
Spanish grant, and for two years he fought it 
in the courts and was the leader of the settlers 
there, even making a trip to Washington, D. C, 
in order to establish his rights, but without 
avail, owing to the assassination of President 
Lincoln, After remaining in that county six 
years he came to Lassen county, and here pre- 
empted one hundred and sixty acres of land, took 
up a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty 



acres, and reclaimed five hundred acres of swamp 
land. In reclaiming this waste land he dug two 
canals, one thirty feet wide, and two miles long, 
and the other ten feet wide, and a mile in length. 
Over two hundred and forty acres he placed un- 
der cultivation^ and for a number of years 
raised large crops of grain. He also carried on 
an e.xtensive cattle business, feeding them for 
market, and was thus engaged until his death. 

Mr. Kelley married, in Rutland, Vt., Emily 
Button, who was torn in that city June 14, 1831, 
and is now living on the home farm, in Lassen 
county. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Kelley 
five children were born, two of whom died in in- 
fancy. Three grew to years of maturity, namely : 
Clarence G., Frank A. and Edgar A. 

Clarence G. Kelley was born in Vermont, but 
was educated in California, attending first the 
common schools, and afterward the high school 
in Petaluma. While in Petaluma he read law 
with William B. Haskell, an attorney of promi- 
nence, with whom, after his admission to the bar, 
he practiced law. Coming from there to 
Lassen county, he was engaged in the prac- 
tice of his profession in Susanville for a number 
of years, being one of the leading attorneys of 
the place until his death, which occurred in 1890. 
He was a popular citizen, much esteemed, and a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows. His wife, whose maiden name was Kate 
Gilman, survives him, and is now a resident of 
Los Angeles. Frank A., the second son, is a 
lawyer of prominence, and until his election as 
county judge of Lassen county was senior mem- 
ber of the law firm of Kelley & Kelley. 

Edgar A. Kelley, the youngest son, was born 
in Lassen county, Cal., October i, i86g. After 
leaving the district schools he completed the 
course of study in the Petaluma high school, re- 
ceiving his diploma in 1890. He subsequently 
entered the Hastings College of Law, from which 
he was graduated in 1893. The following year 
he practiced law with A. P. Van Duzer, and then 
located in Lassen county, becoming a partner of 
his brother, Frank A. Kelley, the firm name be- 
ing Kelley & Kelley. When the brother was 
elected judge the partnership was dissolved, and 
Edgar A. Kelley turned his attention to agri- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ii\ 



culture and stock-raising, this business engag- 
ing Iiis attention for some time. For the past 
three years he has dealt in farm machinery of all 
kinds, introducing into this section modern ma- 
chinery and advanced methods for caring for 
farm productions, in this line of work meeting 
with great success. He is an extensive land- 
holder, owning four hundred acres, which he 
keeps well stocked. He lives with his mother, 
and in addition to caring for his own farm man- 
ages her ranch of three hundred acres, devoting 
it to the raising of hay, grain and fine cattle. 
Like his father and brothers, he is a stanch Re- 
publican in politics and fraternally he is a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd . Fellows. 
The father united with both the Odd Fellows 
and the Masons while living in Vermont, and 
after coming to Lassen county he was identified 
with the Susanville lodges of both organiza- 
tions. 



ERNEST ALBERT JORDAN. Prominently 
identified with the industrial interests of Lassen 
county is Ernest zMbert Jordan, a well-known 
and prosperous agriculturist, ^ living near Con- 
stantia, he having been a resident of Long Val- 
ley since 1905. He was born September 30, 
1858, in Canada, while his mother was there on a 
visit. His parents, William and Jane (Taylor) 
Jordan, were natives of Quebec, and were both 
of substantial English ancestry. After their 
marriage they removed to the United States, lo- 
cating permanently in Maine. 

Receiving but meager educational advantages 
in his Maine home, Ernest Albert Jordan began 
the battle of life on his own account when a lad of 
fifteen years, first driving a four-ox-team in a 
lumber camp. He subsequently worked for 
wages in different New England states, remain- 
ing near the Atlantic coast until 1880. In that 
year he migrated westward, settling in the terri- 
tory of Washington. Taking up his residence in 
Seattle^ which was then a small hamlet, with one 
saw-mill, a boarding house and a few rude dwell- 
ing houses, he remained there eighteen months, 
driving eight-yoke of oxen in a lumber camp. 
Becomin": afflicted with rheumatism he came to 



California in search of a more favorable cli- 
mate, and located at Honey Lake valley, in Las- 
sen county. He subsequently worked as a wage- 
earner for thirteen years, spending nine years of 
the time in Reno. Nev. In 1892 he embarked in 
business on his own account, erecting a mill on 
the mountain south of IMilford and niamifactur- 
ing lumber. His first plant was. unfortunately, 
burned. i)ut he replaced it by a mill with a ca- 
])acity of thirty thousand feet of lumber daily, 
and carried on his work for seven years. Selling 
at an advantage, he ]nirchased a small place in 
the village of Milford, where he was success- 
fully engaged in buying and selling stock for 
some time. In l'"ebruary, 1905, he purchased 
from H. A. Butters his present ranch of five 
hundred and twenty acres. Three hundred and 
twenty acres of it are in timber, the remainder 
being good farm land. Here he raises excellent 
crops of hay and grain, and carries on an ex- 
tensive business in feeding and raising cattle. 
The ranch is irrigated by water from a mountain 
stream, to obtain which he tunneled under the 
mountain back of his house for two hundred feet. 
This ranch was originally owned by Albert Ross, 
who erected the present residence at a cost of 
$14,000. Mr. Butters built an addition to the 
house, and added other improvements to the 
estate, rendering it one of the finest in the val- 
ley. Mr. Jordan has a good orchard, in which 
he raises fruit for his own use. He is a suc- 
cessful business man, and is enjoying life to the 
utmost. Two years ago he made a trip east, 
visiting friends and relatives, and since his re- 
turn from New England is more than ever con- 
teuteil with his California home. 

Mr. Jordan married first, in 1888, Letta How- 
ard, who died a few years later. He was sub- 
sequently married, in Susanville, to Mrs. M. E. 
(Doyle) Bass, a daughter of James Doyle. By 
her first husband, Edward Bass, Mrs. Jordan has 
two children, Grace Bass and Cecil Bass. Of the 
union of Mr. and Mrs. Jordan two children have 
been born. Marian and Margaret. Politicallv 
-Mr. Jordan is a straightforward Republican, de- 
voted to the best interests of his party. Frater- 
nally he is a member of Janesville Lodge No. 223, 
1. 6. O. F. 



742 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



JOHN EDWIN JELLISON. Born and 
reared on a Maine farm where timber is so 
abundant, it was but a natural consequence that 
John Edwin JelHson should be a saw-mill and 
lumber man. His father was also a lumberman, 
and a native of Maine, being; a member of the 
board of selectmen of his town ; his mother. 
Clara Stratton. was a member of an old New 
England family, formerly of Massachusetts. 
Both died in Maine at an advanced age. leaving 
two children, Mr. Jellison's brother, Sylvanus, 
still making his home on the old farm in Maine. 

John E. Jellison was born June i8, 1852, and 
brought up on the home farm in Franklin county. 
Me., where he received a common school educa- 
tion. While still a mere boy he worked in lum- 
ber camps driving ox-teams and logging. Later 
he learned the shoemaker's trade, as well as that 
of the carpenter and builder. When a young 
man of twenty-four years he concluded to try his 
fortune in California, locating in Honey Lake 
valley, where he worked at the carpenter's trade 
for a time, but as he preferred work in the line 
of machinery and milling, in 1890 he built a 
shingle mill about a quarter of a mile from his 
present place and operated this about two years. 
He then purchased one hundred and si.xty acres 
of timber land in Plumas county, six miles from 
Janesville, in '"Last Chance," and two years later 
sold it. Subsequently he built a new steam saw- 
mill at the head of Elysian valley, where he en- 
gaged in the manufacture of lumber, continumg 
here for a number of years, when, in 1898, he 
moved the mill to his present place two and a 
half miles southwest of Janesville, where he 
makes shingles and does a general saw and plan- 
ing mill business. The largest mill in Lassen 
county, it is operated by an eighty horse-power 
steam engine and double circular saws, and has 
a capacity of thirty thousand feet every ten hours. 

Mr. Jellison was married near Janesville to 
Araminta Dunn, who was born in Lassen county, 
the daughter of John R. Dunn, a farmer near 
Janesville, who came across the plains to this 
state in the '50s, and is now living near Spoon- 
ville, engaged in the dairy and stock business. 
Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Jellison, viz. : Edwin Arlaigh, who married 



Georgia Ramsay, and resides at Buntingville ; 
Lottie, who married William H. Grass, of Mil- 
ford ; Cecil C. and Gordon G., who are inter- 
ested in business with their father ; Clara, the 
wife of Theo French ; and Pansy, Leo D. and 
Auburn M., all at home. Mr. Jellison is a man 
of sterling worth, and his abilities have won for 
him public recognition, and his unblemished char- 
acter and integrity hold him secure in public and 
private life. He has been elected justice of the 
peace several times, and served as school trustee 
for many years. Fraternally he is identified with 
tlie Masonic order at Janesville, and both he and 
his wife belong to the Eastern Star. In politics 
he is a stanch Democrat. 



LUCIUS A. BUNNELL. The popular pro- 
prietor of the Prattville hotel at Prattville, 
Plumas county, Cal., is Lucius A. Bunnell, a 
native of New York state, born in Oneida coun- 
ty, March 29, 1870. Left an orphan at an early 
age, he came to California when seven years old 
to live with his uncle, Luther W. Bunnell, a full 
account of whose career will be found elsewhere 
in this volume, and here he was reared and edu- 
cated. After attending the public school for sev- 
eral years he went to Chico, where he attended 
the State Normal for several terms. Leav- 
ing school, in partnership with R. A. Costar, he 
went into the mercantile business, the style of the 
firm name being Costar & Bunnell, an associa- 
tion which continued for four years, when the 
latter disposed of his interest in the business. 
Going to San Francisco, he there engaged in the 
wholesale milk and produce business until his 
health becoming impaired, he was compelled to 
give it up and leave San Francisco. Going on 
a tour for the benefit of his health, he traveled 
through British Columbia and the eastern states 
nearly a year, and upon regaining his health 
returned to Plumas county and opened a meat 
market and cattle business, which he operated 
about a year. At the end of this time he pur- 
chased and improved the hotel, selling it two 
months later, but which he has since continued 
to operate with great success. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPTTICAL RECORD. 



V43 



July 27, 1901, Mr. Piiinncll married Miss Jose- 
phine Flint, a native (laui;liter of California, hav- 
ing been born at Chico, and one child, a son, has 
been born to them, James Wellington. Frater- 
nally Mr. Bunnell is identified with the Masons, 
belonging to the Free and Accepted Masons of 
Greenville, and in politics is a supporter of the 
Republican platform. He was owner of the 
stage line from Seneca to Greenville, this countv. 
for a time, but sold it to good advantage, and is 
now proprietor of a valuable alfalfa ranch in the 
Sacramento valley, in Butte county. This is a por- 
tion of the Gen. John Bidwell estate, fifty acres 
of it producing from ten to twelve tons of hay to 
the acre. Mr. Bunnell trades quite extensively 
in cattle, and has made money in this line of 
business, in fact has been successful in his com- 
bined labors, and is a representative citizen of his 
county. 



DENNIS S. DENEHY. Among the rep- 
resentative men of Modoc county, whose place 
of birth was in the British Isles, and who, with 
the industry and thrift characteristic of the people 
of their native land, are rapidly progressing 
toward that condition of financial wealth and 
prosperity so coveted by all, is Dennis S. Denehy, 
a well-known and successful general merchant 
of Cedarville. A native of Ireland, he was born, 
June 26, 1857, in che city of Cork, hut he was 
brought up and educated in England. 

In 1880 Mr. Denehy came to America, rich in 
ambition, but poor in pocket, and for a while 
remained in the east, working in New York City 
and other places. Migrating to California in 
1885, he was for ten or more years employed as 
a wage earner in Surprise valley, and by means 
of prudence and good management saved some 
money. Embarking then in mercantile pursuits, 
he formed a partnership with James Williams, 
of Bidwell, Cal, with whom he built up an ex- 
tensive and lucrative business, the firm name be- 
ing D. S. Denehy & Co. Under this same firm 
name the business was incorporated in May, 1905, 
with a capital of $25,000. D. S. Denehy & Co. 
have erected a fine brick store at Cedarville, and 
have it stocked with a complete line of dry goods. 



groceries, general merchandise of all kinds, and 
in addition handle farm machinery and imple- 
ments, carrying, in fact, almost everything de- 
manded by the trade. In igor Mr. Denehy mar- 
ried Esther Street, and they have one child. 
Dorothy Denehy. Politically he is a stanch Dem- 
ocrat. 



HANS PETERSON was born in Vordeng- 
borg, Denmark, October 5, i860, son of Peter 
died in Denmark, the former at seventy-two 
years, and the latter at forty-four. Reared on 
a farm in his native country Hans Peterson 
received his education in the common schools 
there. In 1880, when he was twenty years of 
age, he went to Sweden, taking with him his 
young wife, who was formerly Matta Olson, a 
native of that country, and the daughter of 
Ole Anderson, a Swedish farmer. Arriving in 
Sweden he engaged in farming, and during the 
three years thus engaged, saved enough money 
to pay for his transportation to America. March 
of 1883 setting sail, he arrived in California the 
following May, very short of funds, but soon 
obtained employment, working in a dairy until 
June. He then went to Honey Lake valley, where 
he obtained employment in a sawmill, working 
for Peter Wogt for five months. Subsequently 
he was in the employ of William Brockman. 

The following fall, his wife having joined 
him, Mr. Peterson made his home at Janesville, 
but continued working at the sawmill until the 
spring of 1884, when he purchased a lot and 
erected a home upon it. Four years later he 
bought the old Dr. Mazella place and homesteaded 
one hundred and sixty acres of land upon which 
there was little or no improvement, and clearing 
this from sage brush he placed it under cultiva- 
tion. As soon as he had put about one-half 
of his land under cultivation he engaged in the 
stock and dairy business, having about twenty 
cows in his dairy, his brand being HP. In 
1902 he purchased the old Sloss place which 
was considerably run down, but he has rebuilt 
it, erected new barns, etc., placed the land under 
fence, and now it is one of the best places in 
the vicinity. He owns three hundred and 



744 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



seventy-eight acres in all, two hundred being 
under cultivation, fifty acres in alfalfa, and the 
remainder in grain and hay. 

November i, 1880, before going from Den- 
mark to Sweden, j\Ir. Peterson was married to 
Matta Olson, and four children have come to 
bless this union, as follows: Mary (who married 
C. B. Rossi, of Spoonville), Frank Oscar, James 
Theo and Thyra, the three last named at home 
with their parents. Mr. Peterson has a sister, 
Hannah, who makes her home with him, and a 
brother, Lydig, a teacher in Denmark. All of 
the family are members of the Lutheran Oiurch. 
Mr. Peterson belongs to the Fraternal Brother- 
hood and also to Lodge No. 223, I. O. O. F., 
at Janesville. In politics he is a Democrat, and 
is a member of the board of school trustees at 
Janesville. He is successful in his business and 
genial and hospitable in disposition, a worthy 
citizen of the locality in which he laid the 
foundation of his financial independence. 



FREDERICK EUGENE BAGIN. Ener- 
getic, capable and enterprising, Frederick Eu- 
gene Bagin, proprietor of the Honey Lake meat 
market, is numbered among the successful busi- 
ness men of .Susanville, and as a man of sterling 
integrity is held in high esteem. A son of the 
late Patrick Bagin, he was born in Johnstonville, 
Cal., January 14, 1871, of Irish ancestry. 

A native of Ireland, Patrick Bagin left the 
Emerald Isle when a boy, coming across the 
ocean to this countr}-. Leaving the east in the 
early '50s he came across the plains by ox-team 
train to California, and for a few years there- 
after was employed in freighting. Locating in 
Honey Lake valley in 1858, he purchased land, 
and improved what is now known as the Cahlan 
ranch. He subsequently sold that property, and 
afterwards bought other wild land and improved 
two different ranches, continuing in agricultural 
pursuits until his death, which occurred on his 
home farm, about one mile east of Johnstonville. 
In Lassen county he married Lydia Power, who 
was born in the east, came with her father to 
California, and is now a resident of \'entura 



county. She bore her husband four children, 
Frederick Eugene, the subject of this sketch, 
being the second in order of birth. 

Receiving his early education in the public 
schools, Frederick E. Bagin remained on the 
parental homestead until eighteen years of age, 
becoming familiar with farm work, and from 
his boyhood days dealing in horses and cattle. 
In 1895 he opened a meat market in Susanville 
and operated it successfully until 1900, when he 
was burned out. Two years later, locating on 
Main street, he opened the Honc}- Lake meat 
market, which he is managing most satisfactorily 
in every respect. He has it well equipped, hav- 
ing refrigerators, ice-houses and all the needed 
furnishings for carrying on his extensive trade. 
He has likewise other interests of value, owning 
the Hot Springs stage line, which extends from 
Susanville to Hot Springs, a distance of twenty- 
five miles, making the round trip each day, the 
time required being ten hours. 

In Reno, Nev., Mr. Bagin married Rosella 
Jackson, who was born at Willow Creek, Cal. 
Politically Mr. Bagin is a loyal adherent of the 
Democratic party, and, although he has never 
mixed prominently with public affairs, takes 
genuine interest in local matters. 



POMPEO JOHN LOMBARDI. On com- 
ing to Sierra county in 1889 Mr. Lombardi had 
very little capital with which to engage in inde- 
pendent enterprises, but he had a thorough 
knowledge of dairving and an abundance of 
energ}', and these two qualifications proved in- 
valuable in aiding him to place his affairs upon 
a substantial basis. Through his unaided exer- 
tions he has acquired the ownership of seven- 
teen hundred and sixty-five acres divided into 
two ranches with two sets of buildings, the en- 
tire tract lying in one body two miles west of 
Loyalton. About six hundred acres are devoted 
to the raising of grain and hay, while the bal- 
ance furnishes an abundance of pasturage for 
his stock, comprising one hundred and fifty head 
of stock cattle and upwards of sixty cows. The 
dairv industry has been his specialty, the milk 



HISTORICAL AXD BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



745 



being sold in the xillacjc of i^ovalton. Tliroui;h 
painstaking' care lie has built up a milk business 
that has proved profitable, although recpiiring on 
his part the utmost care, untiring energy and 
constant oversight. 

Switzerland is Mr. Lombardi"s native coun- 
try and June 13, 1861, the date of his birth. 
The care-free days of boyhood he passed in the 
Swiss mountains, where his father conducted a 
dairy in the summer, and during the winter re- 
ceived pay from the government for aiding tour- 
ists who were caught in the severe storms of the 
mountains. Elarly in life he gained a thorough 
knowledge of dairying as conducted in his na- 
tive land and proved a valuable assistant on the 
home place, but he was not satisfied to remain 
in the midst of the discouraging outlook ofifered 
there, so decided to seek a home in the United 
States. After landing in New York City, March 
I, 1884, he proceeded direct to San Francisco, 
where for two years he was employed in a dairy 
and for a similar period drove a milk wagon. 
Following this came a few months in the employ 
of the California Wire Works Company at North 
Beach and a year as cheese-maker on ranches 
in Santa Cruz and Alameda counties, whence in 
1889 he came to^ Sierra county. For a few 
months he worked as a laborer and then secured 
the title to three hundred and sixty acres fomi- 
ing a part of his present homestead. As he 
had little means, it was necessary to incur a 
heavy indebtedness, and for years he struggled 
with the burden of debt, but eventually secured 
a clear title to the property and then began to 
enlarge his holdings. From the first he has 
been interested in dairying and from a herd of 
ten cows has built up a dairy of almost sixty 
head of the finest breeds. 

Since becoming a citizen of the United States 
Mr. Lombardi has \oted the Republican ticket 
and has maintained a constant interest in public 
affairs, but has at no time sought office, pre- 
ferring to concentrate his attention upon the 
management of his ranch interests. During tlie 
year of his arrival in California Miss .\ngelina 
Romilli, a native of Switzerland, also settled in 
this state and became a resident of the Sierra 
valley, and January 12, 1886, they were united 



in marriage at her home. Four children bless 
their union, all still at home. They are named 
as follows : Caesar P., Attilio A., Louis and 
Mary C. The family have a high standing 
among the people of the valley and are respected 
for the attributes that form the highest tyjje of 
citizenship. 



OLOF HERMAN ENHORNING. Con- 
spicuously identified with the industrial interests 
of Lassen county is Olof Herman Enhorning of 
Susanville, one of the proprietors of the Diamond 
Mountain Lumber Company, and a well-known 
contractor and builder. Industrious and thrifty, 
he has started out in life with bright prospects 
for a prosperous future, his energy, ability and 
sound judgment bidding fair to place him ere 
long among the prominent business men of this 
part of the state. A son of Hendrick Enhorning, 
he was born December 19, 1865, near Orebro, 
Sweden. .\ native of the same town, Hendrick 
Enhorning spent his entire life there, being suc- 
cessfully employed in agricultural pursuits. He 
was a man of upright principles, and a member 
of the Lutheran Church. He was twice married, 
his first wife passing away in early womanhood, 
leaving one child, a daughter. His second wife 
was Marie Louise Udden, who was born in 
Cumbla, a daughter of Rev. Air. Udden, pastor 
of the Lutheran Church of that place. She sur- 
vived her husband, and is now living in Upsala, 
Sweden. Her six children, three sons and three 
daughters, are all living, Olof Hennan, the sub- 
ject of this sketch, being the eldest child, and 
the only one in the United States. 

Spending his earlier years in Sodermannland, 
Olof Herman Enhorning attended the common 
schools when a boy, completing his education at 
the high school in Strengniis. Going then to 
Stockholm, he worked for two seasons as a 
plasterer and bricklayer, and was afterwards em- 
ployed as a clerk in that city. Immigrating to 
California in 1885, Mr. Enhorning spent three 
or four years in Plumas county, following min- 
ing or carpentering. In 1889 he locatetl at Su- 
sanville, and for four years was employed at the 
carpenter's trade. Succeeding well, he embarked 



746 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



in business on his own account as a contractor 
and builder in 1893, and also engaged in manu- 
facturing lumber, becoming head of the firm of 
Enhorning, Odette & Harrison, now known as 
the Diamond ^Mountain Lumber Company. This 
company has erected a steam sawmill on Gold 
Run, seven miles south of Susanville, and is ex- 
tensively and profitably engaged in manufactur- 
ing lumber and shingles, the cajiacity of the plant 
being fifteen thousand feet of lumber per day. 
The firm also carry on a substantial building 
business, being well and favorably known 
throughout this section, and have the contract 
for erecting the new high-school building at 
Susanville, where Mr. Enhorning has already 
built a fine residence for himself and family. 

In Lassen county, near Susanville, Mr. En- 
horning married Sophia Harrison, a native of 
this place, being a daughter of George and 
Sophia Harrison. Her father was one of the 
pioneer settlers of Susanville, and is now en- 
gaged in bee raising near Janesville, where he 
has obtained distinction as a successful apiarist. 
Mrs. Enhorning died in 1900, leaving one child, 
Winnie Marie. Politically Mr. Enhorning en- 
dorses the principles of the Republican party 
and fraternally he belongs to Lassen Lodge No. 
149, F. & A. M. In his religious belief he is 
a Lutheran. 



JOHN WAYNE MARCUS. On account of 
his natural business capacities and his integrity 
of character, John Wayne Marcus is numbered 
among the representative men of Modoc county, 
where he has filled town and county offices, and 
is now giving satisfactory service as postmaster 
of Lookout. For a quarter of a century he was 
intimately associated with the agricultural inter- 
ests of Big Valley, contributing actively towards 
its advancement. He holds a place of distinction 
not only as a representative and trustworthy citi- 
zen, but as one having to his credit an unblem- 
ished war record. A native of Missouri, he was 
born, March 24, 1838, in Wayne county. Sub- 
sequently his parents removed to the south cen- 
tral part of the state, where he was reared and 
educated until fifteen years of age, then removed 



to Newton county, growing to man's estate on 
the parental homestead. 

April I, 1859, bidding good-bye tO' home and 
friends, John W. Marcus started westward in 
quest of fortune. Crossing the plains, he ar- 
rived at Honey Lake valley, Lassen county, July 
27, 1859, having been nearly four months en 
route. Going to Plumas county, he was engaged 
in mining until the spring of 1863, when he 
went to Nevada, where he was engaged in min- 
ing and stock speculating for nearly eighteen 
months. In September, 1864, volunteering his 
services to his country, he enlisted in Company 
E, First Nevada Cavalry, as a private, for a term 
of three years, or until the close of the war. His 
company was ordered east, but the Indians be- 
coming troublesome the order was counter- 
manded, and he and his companions were de- 
tailed to take charge of aff^airs in that part of 
the west in which the Indians were making them- 
selves so feared. For bravely performing his 
duties as a soldier, he was promoted to the rank 
of corporal, in which he served until receiving 
his honorable discharge, in October, 1865. 

Returning then to Virginia City, Nev., Mr. 
Alarcus worked for a while as a miner, and at 
the trade of a carpenter, which he had previously 
learned. In September, 1867, he located at Wood- 
land, Yolo county, Cal., where he followed his 
trade successfully for six years. Coming to Big 
\'ailey in 1873, '""s settled one and one-half milas 
south of the village of Lookout, in Modoc county, 
bu\ing one hundred and sixty acres of land 
which was practically in its primitive wildness. 
With true pioneer pluck and energy, he began 
its improvement, placing a large part of it under 
cultivation, and was there prosperously employed 
in general farming for nearly twenty-five years. 
He was one of the first householders of that sec- 
tion, locating there when the vallev was but 
sparsely populated, and none of the land was 
fenced. He was one of the first to erect a sub- 
stantial set of farm buildings in the community, 
and during his residence there was one of the 
leading men, and took a prominent part in public 
affairs, serving as justice of the peace twelve 
years, as constable six years, and as deputy sher- 
iflf of Modoc county many terms. In 1897 he 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



747 



moved to Lookout, erected a fine residence, and 
has since served as postmaster, having previously 
sold his ranch at an advantasjeous price. 

At Woodland, Cal., in 1870, Mr. Marcus mar- 
ried Mar}- Louise Derby, who was born in Oii- 
cago. 111., in 1853, and when but six weeks old 
was brought across the plains to California by 
her parents. Of the children born of the union 
of Mr. and Mrs. Marcus, five are living: James 
Edwin, of Lookout, married Olive Cousins, by 
whom he has one child, Claude Edwin ; Katie 
Irene, wife of Grayson D. Myers, of Adin, has 
three children, Clarence, Reta Irene and Wayne; 
Claude Albert is ne.xt in order of birth ; Florence 
Edith, wife of Stephen Fulcher, living in Look- 
out, has one child, Catherine ; and Eula May is 
the wife of Clarence Steiger, of Bieber. Politi- 
cally Mr. Marcus is an active supporter of the 
principles of the Republican party, and belongs 
to the Modoc County Republican Central Com- 
mittee. Before the discontinuation of the Adin 
Post, G. A. R., he was one of its most faithful 
members, and now draws a pension from the gov- 
ernment for his services in the Civil war. Fra- 
ternally he is a member of Lookout Lodge No. 
211, A. O. U. W., in which he has passed all 
the chairs. 



JOSEPH R. ENSCOE. The name of Enscoe 
is a familiar one to all old residents of this 
section of the country, for some member of the 
family has represented the name since the early 
days of Sierra county. Joseph R. Enscoe is a 
native of this county, born at Downieville, .\u- 
gust 8, 1862, and in this vicinity has spent his 
entire life. His father, Joseph Enscoe, was the 
first merchant in the valley, and in connection 
with William Arms was at the head of nearly all 
of the early improvements and industries estab- 
lished in the Sierra valley. A native of Birming- 
ham, England, and an engraver by trade, he was 
a young man when he came to the United States 
and went to work at his trade in New York. 
In 1858 he came to California, making the jour- 
ney by way of Panama, and settling at Downie- 
ville, engaged in mining for a time, then opened 
a store in Ladies Canyon, later conducting one 



in Downieville. In the spring of 1863 he be- 
came manager of the store at Sierraville owned 
by William Arms, and later, in partnership with 
Mr. Arms, engaged in various enterprises 
throughout the surrounding country, dealing in 
merchandise, lumber and ranch projDerty, carry- 
ing on a successful business for a number of 
years. In 1867 Mr. Enscoe sold his interest in 
the store and bought a ranch consisting of one 
hundred and sixty acres three miles west of 
Loyalton, where he had a good range and en- 
gaged in stock-raising imtil 1872, when he sold 
the ranch and engaged in a general merchandise 
business in Loyalton, continuing this until his 
death. He was an active Republican in politics 
and held several local offices. In fraternal rela- 
tions he was one of tlie charter members of 
Sierra Valley Lodge, I. O. O. F. His wife 
was a Miss Lenora Thompson, a native 
of Cape Town, Africa, who made several trips 
to California in the early days before she settled 
here and was married to Mr. Enscoe in 1861. 
She died August 15, 1888. 

Of a family of eight children Joseph R. Ens- 
coe is the only surviving member. He passed his 
boyhood years at home, attended the public 
schools until 1878, and then spent one year at the 
California Military Academy at ( )akland, com- 
pleting his education with one term at Heald"s 
Business College in .San Francisco. lie then 
went to work at the agricultural works at IJenicia, 
Cal., and served an apprenticeship of three years 
at the machinist trade. Returning home, he 
went to work in his father's store, and in 1885 
became manager of his father's store at Beck- 
with, which he afterwards bought, continuing 
the business for himself until 1898, when it was 
destroyed by fire and he lost everything but the 
insurance. When his father died he was ap- 
pointed administrator of the estate and he carried 
on the business until the estate was settled and 
the store sold to its present owners, the Sierra- 
ville Mercantile Company. Besides this he owned 
and conducted the Loyalton Hotel, and in 1901 
opened a drug store. In 1902 he sold the hotel 
and disposed of the drug business February 20, 
IQ06. In 1903 he built a two story brick build- 
ing 54x30 feet, occupying the lower floor as a 



m 



748 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



drug store and renting tlie upper floor for offices. 
As early as 1887 he had become interested in the 
undertaking business anil is now giving it his 
time exclusively. 

December 20, 1885, Mr. Enscoe married Miss 
Jennie Parish, a native of California, born at 
Beckwith. They have a family of three chil- 
dren : Leonora May, Robert E. and Lucy, all at 
home. Mr. Enscoe is a Republican in politics. 
He is, however, inclined to be liberal in matters, 
of local politics, voting for the man he considers 
best fitted for the office without reference to 
political tendencies. He has been mayor of Loy- 
alton since 1902, having been appointed to fill 
a vacancy. He is a member of Loyalton Lodge 
No. 359, F. & A. M., a charter member of Gran- 
ite Chapter, R. A. M., a member of Loyalton 
Lodge No. 22, K. P., Loyalton Parlor No. 22G, 
N. S. G. W., a charter member of Eastern Star 
Lodge No. 224, and also belongs to the Modern 
Woodmen. 



STEPHEN SHORE BASS. Among the suc- 
cessful farmers and stockmen of Lassen county 
is Stephen S. Bass, who resides two and one-half 
miles west of Janesville. His father, Richard 
Bass, was a native of Kentucky, but was reared 
in Missouri, to which state his parents removed 
when he was a small child, and in 1853 came to 
California via the Beckwith Pass route, consum- 
ing over four months in the journey from Mis- 
souri. He finally located in Elysian valley, in 
Lassen county, where he became a successful 
rancher and cattleman and a large land owner. 
During the Me.xican war he served in the 
mounted infantry a few months. He died No- 
vember II, 1904. His wife, fonnerly Mary 
Ann Carlyon, was a native of Cornwall, Eng- 
land, and is the daughter of Pliilip Carlyon, also 
a native of Cornwall, but who came to America 
and settled as a pioneer in Washington county. 
Mo. 

Stephen Shore Bass was born January 9, 1857, 
and was brought up on the home farm in Ely- 
sian valley, obtaining his education in the public 
schools of Janesville, Johnstonville and Susan- 
ville. He remained at home until twenty-three 



years of age, then started out for himself in the 
stock business on a ranch of his father's, three 
miles west of Janesville, upon which he has since 
resided, and upon which he has made the im- 
provements, erecting a residence, barns, etc. 
There are three hundred and five acres in this 
ranch, nearly all of which is under cultivation, 
and upon which he raises hay and grain prin- 
cipally. He also owns a ranch in Lost Chance 
valley, in Plumas county, twenty miles away 
from his home place, and he and his brother, 
Rowland, own twelve hundred and eighty acres 
of meadow land upon which they keep their cat- 
tle five months of each year. Mr. Bass owns a 
fine herd of cattle of the Durham breed, and in 
his dairy he has thirty cows. His brand is GO 
on the left hip. 

Mr. Bass was married in Janesville to Kate 
Haley, who was born at Johnstonville, and is 
the daughter of Nelson Haley, an early settler 
of the county. Eight children have been born 
to them, viz., Ernest, Floyd, Mattie, Richard, 
Grover, Ralph, William and Jay, all of whom 
are at home. Mr. Bass was school trustee in his 
county for nineteen years, from 1886 until 1905; 
and was elected supervisor of the second district 
by two majority in a strong Republican district, 
though he himself is a stanch Democrat. He en- 
tered the office in 1899, and in 1902 was re- 
nominated and elected on the Democratic ticket 
by thirty-three majority, to serve until 1907. 
In 1904 he was chairman of the board of direct- 
ors. His abilities have won for him public rec- 
ognition, and his integrity has held him secure 
in both public and private life. Fraternally he 
is identified with the Masonic order, belonging 
to Lodge No. 232, F. & A. M., at Janesville. 
Mr. Bass is a public-spirited man, taking an act- 
ive interest in any movement pertaining to the 
welfare and upbuilding of his community. 



JACOB RANDRUP. Born in Shelland, N. 
Y., Jacob Randrup is the son of German par- 
ents. His father. Christian Randrup, was born 
in Mecklenburg, Germany, but in later years re- 
moved to Denmark, where he engaged in the 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



74'J 



dairy and coopering business. He married Wil- 
helmina Wolf, a native of Kiel, Germany, and 
eleven children were born to them, nine of whom 
grew to manhood and womanhood, but before 
the family came to. the United States the wife 
died in Denmark. Upon coming to America the 
family settled in the state of New York, and 
some time afterwards the father took passage on 
a sailing vessel for San Francisco, in which city 
all trace of him disappeared, and his fate has 
never been learned. 

Jacob Randrup was born June 27, 1847, ''"cl '^ 
the only one of the family of eleven children liv- 
ing. He was reared on a farm in Denmark and 
there learned dairying and coopering, which he 
followed for a time. May 10, 1883, he came to 
California and located in Janesville, where he 
worked for a time on a farm, then erected a 
cooper shop in the village and worked at his 
trade, manufacturing butter tubs, at which he 
was very successful. In April of 1893 he was 
burned out, but instead of being discouraged by 
this piece of ill fortune, he at once homesteaded 
one hundred and twenty acres of sage brush 
land, erected a house upon it, cleared ninety 
acres, which he put in alfalfa and grain and 
engaged in farming and dairying. Later he pur- 
chased four hundred and twenty acres of land 
adjoining, now owning five hundred and forty 
acres in all. One hundred and fifty acres of the 
latter purchase were under cultivation and this 
he put in alfalfa. He has a fine residence and 
outbuildings .upon his farm, thirty-five cows in 
the large dairy, principally the Short-horn and 
Durham breed of cows, and uses a separator. 
His brand is JR for cattle, and for horses the 
figure 2 on right shoulder with a straight bar 
on top. 

In Susanville Mr. Randrup was married to 
Lienor Jensen, who is a native of Sweden, and 
six children have been born to them, whose 
names are as follows : George, Qiarles, Minnie, 
Emma. Esther and Helen. In politics Mr. Rand- 
rup is a Democrat, supporting that platform 
with stanch fidelity; for three years he was a 
member of the board of school trustees, and is 
a member of the Lutheran Oiurch. He has rea- 
son to be proud of what he has accomplished in 



the way of making a fruitful farm out of sage 
brush fields, and of the perfection to which he 
has brought his dairying business. 



(;E0RGE henry herring, a success- 
ful rancher and dairyman residing near Taylors- 
ville, Plumas county, is George Henry Herring, 
a native of Tennessee and the son of Bryant and 
Percy (.Millard) Herring, both of whom were 
born in North Carolina. His father was reared 
and educated in his native state, but when a 
young man went to Tennessee, where he worked 
at the tanner's trade and manufactured lumber 
by hand, using a whipsaw. .About 1843 he re- 
moved to Yell county, Ark., where he purchased 
a claim and followed farming and stock raising 
until his death, which occurred when he was six- 
ty-five years of age. He was the son of an old 
southern planter, also a native of North Caro- 
lina, who died when seventy years of age. Fif- 
teen children were bom to Mr. and Mrs. Her- 
ring, one of whom was sheriff during the Civil 
war. 

The tliird in order of birth in the parental fam- 
ily, George Henrj' Herring was born June 13, 
1833, and was reared and educated in his native 
state, remaining at home with his parents on the 
farm until twenty-four years of age. In 1859 he 
drove an ox team overland to California, work- 
ing his way, and upon reaching this state, came 
to Indian valley, where he secured employment 
on a ranch, working by the month. W'ith his ac- 
cumulated earnings he purchased a small ranch 
consisting of eighty acres, and after operating 
this about three years sold it and purchased his 
present farm of two hundred and forty-six 
acres. Two hundred and twenty acres are in the 
valley, while the remainder is in timber and hill 
land. Here he has since engaged in farming and 
dairying, having about twenty-five cows in the 
dairy. 

January 8, 1873. Mr. Herring was married to 
Miss Silva Johnson, who was born in Davis 
county, Iowa, where she remained until her mar- 
riage, after which .she came to California. Seven 
children have come to bless this union, viz., 



750 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Stella, the wife of Robert Keswick, living at 
Taylorsville ; Ada, who married D. J. Robert- 
son of Quincy, Cal. ; and Charles, Marcus, Earl, 
Dell and Grover, all at home. In politics Mr. 
Herring has the same views as his father had 
befor^ him, and is a stanch supporter of the 
Democratic platform, though his quiet disposi- 
tion and domestic habits never inclined him to 
desire public office. Both Mr. Herring and his 
wife are consistent members of the Methodist 
church, of which Mr. Herring was trustee for 
several years. A self-made man, having started 
out in life with no means at his disposal, he has 
won a competency for himself and family, and 
though he has been the victim of ill health for 
the past few years, attends strictly to business. 
having a valuable farm and a profitable dairy 
business. 



THOMAS McCLUER. A worthy and hon- 
ored representative of the early pioneers of Mo- 
doc county, Thomas McCluer is a true type of 
the energetic, hardy and courageous men who 
actively assisted in the development of Round 
Valley, where thirty-five or more years ago he 
took up a tract of wild land, on which he has 
since resided, respected and esteemed by all. He 
came here when there were very few dwellings 
in this region, being the seventh householder, 
locating in this valley ere the red man and the 
wild animals had fled before the advancing steps 
of civilization. In the rapid development of the 
community in which he settled, Mr. McCluer 
took an important part, and while contributing 
to the welfare of his adopted state has been en- 
abled to accumulate a comfortable fortune for 
himself. A son of Staley Durham McQuer, he 
was born, August 12, 1828, in Wabash county, 
111., where he was reared and educated. 

A native of Marjdand, Staley Durham Mc- 
Cluer spent the days of his early manhood in 
Kentucky, being engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits. He was venturesome and daring, and as 
a soldier under Gen. Anthony Wayne fought the 
Indians. He lived to the venerable age of eighty- 
si.x years, dying in 1861. He married, in Ken- 
tucky, Elizabeth Arnold, who was born in that 



state, near Boone Fort, and they soon afterward 
settled in Illinois, his bride being the first white 
woman to cross the Wabash into Wabash county. 
She preceded him to the better world, passing 
away in 1856, at the age of seventy years. 

Following the independent occupation in which 
he was reared, Thomas McCluer was engaged in 
agricultural pursuits in his native county imtil 
1865, when, on February 2"/, he started across 
the plains with his famil}', arriving at the foot 
hills, in the Willamette valley, Linn county. Ore., 
on October 8. Three years later he came to 
Modoc county, Cal., on September 4, 1869, locat- 
ing in Round Valley, which had at that time 
very few inhabitants. Taking up a homestead 
claim of one hundred and sixtv acres, he began 
clearing it, and in the course of time rendered 
it one of the most productive ranches in this part 
of the state, its improvements being many and 
valuable. He carried on general farming dur- 
ing his active life, raising grain and stock, in 
his undertakings meeting with well-merited suc- 
cess. 

In 1853 Mr. McCluer married Elizabeth Kel- 
ler, who was born August 10, 1835. in Knox 
county, Ind., a daughter of Charles and Christina 
(Decker) Kelley. Thirteen children were born 
of the union of Mr. and Mrs. McQuer, seven of 
whom are living, namely : Staley D., Charles 
Wesley, Amanda M., Thomas Jefferson, William 
Oliver, Minerva and Martha. Staley D., resid- 
ing near the home ranch, married Samantha Mc- 
Cluer, and thev have three cliildren, Lula, Ar- 
nold and Monroe. Charles W. lives at home. 
Amanda married Barney Pack, of Chico. 
Thomas J. is a resident of the Sacramento val- 
ley. William O. is at home. Minerva is the 
wife of Claude Williams, of Round Valley, and 
they have five children : Maude, Vetelene, Claude, 
Leora and Ruby. Mr. Williams was born April 
21, 1857, in Livingston county, Mo., a son of 
Charles G. and Martha (Guill) Williams, both 
of whom were natives of Virginia, early settlers 
of Missouri, and came in i860 to Butte county, 
Cal., where they passed their remaining years. 
In 1885 Mr. Williams located on Madeline 
Plains, Lassen county, where he pre-empted, 
homesteaded and timber-claimed land amounting 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



751 



to l\u\-c huiulrcd and sixty acres, vvliicli Ik- im- 
proved, and subsequently sold. In 189s lie re- 
moved to Shasta county, and after staying there 
seven years, in 1902 came to Round \allev, where 
he rents land, and is now prosperously employed 
in fanning and stock-raisin.g. Martha McQuer, 
the youngest living child of Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
Cluer, married Thomas J. Nelson, of Round \ al- 
ley, and they have seven children, Ira, I'earl, 
Luke, Irene, Kelley, Mattie and Walter. Polit- 
ically Mr. McQuer has uniformly supported the 
principles of the Democratic party, and while liv- 
ing in Illinois served as justice of the peace and 
constable, and in 1874 was county supervisor of 
.Modoc countv. 



THORNTON FLEMMING BATTELLE. 
All men take a just pride in being descended 
from a line of worthy ancestors, though the in- 
dividual may be neither better nor worse for it. 
But it is true, that in living up to the traditions 
of a family each member feels a certain respon- 
sibilit}- to maintain and to keep the record as 
clean as possible, and if by any chance he can 
add luster to an honorable name, it is an added 
personal gratification to be able to do so. The 
founder of the Battelle family in .America emi- 
grated from England and settled in Massachu- 
setts in the colonial days. His son, El^enezer 
Battelle, was born in New England, and became 
one of the first settlers of Newport, Ohio. He 
was a farmer, a fairly prosperous man for the 
day and generation in which he lived. His wife 
was a Miss Greene, a relative of the distinguished 
General Greene, of Revolutionary fame. If 
length of days vouch for a life well lived, this 
worthy couple was blessed with righteousness. 
They lived long past the allotted three-score- 
years and ten of man's span of life and were 
very near to the century mark when they peace- 
fully passed away. 

Thomas S. Battelle. son of Ebenezer Battelle, 
was born at Newport, Ohio, and lived on a farm 
until he was of age. when he engaged in mer- 
cantile business at Clarksburg. W. Ya. In 1840 
he removed to Muscatine, Iowa, and kept a hotel 
there for nine years. When he sold his hotel 
22 



business he purchased and operated a steamer 
on the Mississippi river, making trips between 
St. I^uis, Mo., and Rock Island, 111., following 
that occupation three years, or until 1852, when 
the steamer sank. In the same year he out- 
fitted with an ox-team, and with his family 
crossed the plains to California. They first lo- 
cated at Marysville, remaining there about one 
year, and in 1854 moved into the Sierra valley 
antl settled near where the village of Sierraville 
now stands. A few other families came and 
settled there during the summer months, but the 
l'>attelle family was the onl\- one to remain the 
.\ear through. They lived on this ranch eight 
years, raising stock, hay, dairying and, as there 
werejio wagon roads, engaged in packing freight 
on mules. Thomas S. Battelle was an active and 
enthusiastic member of the Republican party 
from its beginning, prior to which time he was 
a Whig, having taken a deep interest in political 
matters all of his life. Before coming to Cali- 
fornia he was county treasurer of Muscatine 
county, Iowa, and was a member of the Califor- 
nia state legislature one term, during the winter 
of 1864-65. In 1880 he removed to Los An- 
geles, and four years later, in 1884, he died, at 
the age of eighty-four years. His wife, whose 
maiden name was Grace Flemining, was a na- 
tive of Uniontovvn, Pa. She was a member of 
a prominent southern family, the daughter of 
Rev. Thornton Flemming, a Methwlist Episco- 
pal clergyman and a native of West Virginia, 
who died in Pennsylvania at about seventy years 
of age. Mrs. Battelle died of cholera at Musca- 
tine, Iowa, aged thirty-eight years. She became 
the mother of eight children, three of them still 
living : Mary, widow of P.. F. Lemmon. of Car- 
son City. Nev. ; George L., of Sacramento, Cal. ; 
and Thomton P., of Loyalton. 

Thornton Flemming Battelle was born at 
Uniontown, Pa., November 26, 1834. His earlv 
toyhood home was at Muscatine, Iowa, where he 
attended a private school and assisted his father 
in his business until he was eighteen years of 
age. He has experienced the hardships of pio- 
neer life, for he was a well grown up vouth 
when his father crossed the plains to California, 
and can remember the early davs of the Golden 



752 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



State and the excitements of life in a new min- 
ing country. And yet in the midst of it all his 
life has been placid and uneventful. He lived 
on the ranch with his father until 1872, when 
he engaged as a clerk in the general store of 
Joseph Enscoe, near Loyalton, the only store 
anywhere in the vicinity at that time. He was 
a valuable and trusted employe for twenty-five 
years, and when Mr. Enscoe died he continued 
in the employ of his son, who carried on the 
business until 1901, when he sold out. Mr. Bat- 
telle then secured a position with the Roberts 
Lumber Company as timekeeper and has re- 
mained in their employ since that date. 

May I, 1866, Mr. Battelle married Miss Corol- 
lyn Parker, a native of St. Lawrence co»nty, 
N. Y., who came to California in 1864 and lived 
at Sierraville until her marriage. They have a 
family of two children : Grace F., wife of Prof. 
W. O. Pierce, of Susanville, Cal. ; and Thomas 
Albert, known as "Bert," a sawyer in the Rob- 
erts mill. Mr. Battelle is a Republican in poli- 
tics. In the early days he was elected a justice 
of the peace and served one temi. He is now 
town clerk, having held the office since Loyalton 
was incorporated in 1901. His long residence in 
the community has made him well known, and 
the fact that wherever he is known he is re- 
spected, speaks for his character as a man and a 
citizen. 



STILLMAN SAMUEL TAYLOR. For 
nearly thirty-five years Stillman S. Taylor car- 
ried on mining operations along Spanish creek, 
not far from Spanish Ranch, but in 1901 dis- 
posed of his interests and has since lived re- 
tired. During the course of his long and active 
life his business aiifairs have taken him into a 
number of the eastern states, and even to Eng- 
land and Australia, but nowhere has he experi- 
enced the freedom and joy of living that have 
come to him since taking up his home in Cali- 
fornia. 

Mr. Taylor was born in Milford, N. H., Au- 
gust 7, 1832, but when three years old his par- 
ents left the Granite state and settled in New 
York. They made their home in that state for 



three years, but in the meantime the father died 
and the mother took the children to Massa- 
chusetts to the home of her parents. Until six- 
teen years old Mr. Taylor worked on his grand- 
father's farm and attended school alternately, 
but at tliat age became an apprentice to the 
machinist's trade at Lawrence, Mass. Three 
years later he was qualified to work at the 
trade, and in the spring of 1852 he went to 
Hartford, Conn., and accepted a position with 
Col. Samuel Colt, manufacturer of the world- 
famed Colt revolver. In the fall of that year 
Colonel Colt fitted up a company of sixteen of 
his most promising employes and sent them to 
London, England, with tools and machinery for 
the purpose of starting a revolver factory there. 
Mr. Taylor was fortunate in being chosen as 
one of the company and remained in London 
two years and one month, during which time he 
was employed in making revolvers for the Brit- 
ish government for use in the Crimean war. 
All of the hands in the factory were piece work- 
ers, that is, were paid according to the amount 
of work accomplished instead of receiving a 
stated salary per week or month, and during the 
time Mr. Taylor was in tlie company's employ 
he averaged $5.40 per day. 

During the year 1854 Mr. Taylor was at- 
tracted to Australia by the finding of gold there 
and for eight years followed mining with vari- 
ous degrees of success. In 1862 he became in- 
terested in affairs in the United States on ac- 
count of the Cariboo excitement, but he ar- 
rived too late in the season to accomplish any- 
thing so spent the winter in ^Martinez, Contra 
Costa county. In the spring of 1863 he be- 
came interested in the copper and quicksilver 
mines of Mount Diablo, and such was his suc- 
cess that he was warranted in remaining there 
until 1868. From that year until the present 
time his interests have been centered in Plum- 
as county. Upon locating in the county lie be- 
gan mining near Spanish Ranch, on Spanish 
creek, where he owned several mines and pros- 
pects, which netted him an income above that 
of the average miner. In 1901 he sold out his 
interests in both mines and prospects to W. P. 
Hammon and has since lived retired. Mr. Tay- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



753 



lor has never married and makes his home in 
Spanish Ranch. 

Politically Mr. Taylor is a Republican, and 
on the ticket of his chosen party was a candi- 
date for county assessor in 1894, receiving the 
nomination over seven other candidates, a fact 
which speaks well for his popularit\- among 
those who have known him long and intimate- 
ly. At the time of the Coluniliian Exposition, 
which was held in Chicago, III, in 1893, Mr. 
Taylor had charge of a mineral exhibit there 
for six months. The material for the exhibit 
had been collected entirely by Mr. Taylor anil 
consisted of ores mined in IMumas county on)}', 
for which he was awarded the bronze medal. 
I-'rom there he took the display to the Mid- 
Winter Fair which was held in .San Francisco 
in 1894, and there also he received medals for 
superiority of minerals displayed, besides receiv- 
ing a medal for a private collection of gold spec- 
imens. .\lthough Mr. Taylor is now well ad- 
vanced in years he is still quite active and 
keeps in touch with events and happenings in 
the world in general, and especially with such 
as affect his home localitv. 



JOSEPH SCHIESER. The elements enter- 
ing into the population of California are some- 
what cosmopolitan! The thrift of the Scot, the 
sanguine disposition of the Irish, the forceful- 
ness of the English and the persevering industry 
of the German have united to form the typical 
Californian. ever loyal to the land of his adop- 
tion and contributing to its material development 
1)y the e.xercise of his natural endowments. 
Among the Germans who have settled in the 
northern part of the state mention belongs to Jo- 
se]>h Schieser, who for years has been identified 
with the stock and farm interests of Plumas 
county and makes his home in the Indian valley 
near the postoffice of Greenville, owning here 
one of the fine farms for which the valley is 
noted. 

Rom in Bavaria. Germany, .\ugust 10, 1830, 
Mr. .Schieser grew to manhood on a Bavarian 
farm. Upon leaving home to make a livelihood 



for himself he sought the United States as offer- 
ing greater inducements than his native country, 
and in 1848 landed at Columbus, Ohio, where he 
learned and followed the trade of a blacksmith. 
Starting for the Pacific coast, May i, 1855, he 
came via the Panama route, and after leaving the 
ship at San Francisco came direct to Plumas 
county. For six months he worked in the mines 
at Twelve-Mile Bar, after which he prospected 
for himself, and in 1873 sold his claims in that 
vicinity for $4,000. With the money thus se- 
cured he came to the Indian valley and bought 
one hundred and ninety-five acres containing 
only few improvements. Since the original pur- 
chase he has added fifty acres of valley land and 
eighty acres of timber, the whole forming a fine 
ranch adapted for the stock and dairy business, 
which he successfully conducts. Since becoming 
a citizen of the United States he has voted the 
Democratic ticket, but has never been active in 
politics. 

After having saved enough to justify him in 
establishing a home of his own, in July of 1862 
Mr. Schieser took a vacation and returned to 
Ohio, where on New Year's of 1863 he married 
Miss Mary Lauber, a native of Switzerland, born 
August 24. 1843, '^"t a resident of Columbus, 
Ohio, from early childhood. The wedding trip of 
the couple was a journey to California, where 
they began housekeeping in Plumas county. A 
number of years later they removed to the In- 
dian valley ranch, and here Mrs. Schieser 
passed away October 26, 1891. firm in the faith 
of the Roman Catholic church. Nine children 
had been born of their union, but two of these 
died at an early age. and Joseph Theodore was 
only ten when taken by death, while Ivy Maude 
died May 11. 1905. at the age of twenty-one 
years. The five now living are nametl as fol- 
lows: Josephine, wife of .Asa E. Hunt, a ranch- 
er near the home place: Frederick W. (known 
as Will) and Mary Amelia, who have rented the 
Schieser homestead for three \ears : Clara, who 
is an invalid and remains with her father ; and 
.A.ntoine Joseph, owner of adjacent property. 
The family are commimicants of the Roman 
Catholic church, to which Mr. Schieser has al- 
ways been a faithful adherent. 



754 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



JOHN C. YOUNG. A leading citizen of 
Taylors ville, Plumas county, Gal., a merchant, 
rancher and hotel man, is John C. Young, a na- 
tive of Canada, born June 3, 1840. His father, 
George Young, was born in Scotland, but re- 
moved to Canada, where he engaged in farming 
and where he spent the remainder of his life, dy- 
ing when sixty years of age. His wife, formerly 
Nancy Murray, was also a native of Scotland, 
and when a small child came to Canada, where 
her death occurred at the advanced age of 
eighty-five years. Both husband and wife were 
consistent members of the Presbyterian church. 

Until about eighteen years of age Mr. Young 
spent his life on the home farm in Canada, 
where he received his education in the common 
schools. Afterwards he taught several terms in 
the public schools, then for two years served as 
clerk in a general merchandise store. Upon leav- 
ing this store, in partnership with his brother, he 
went into the mercantile business, remaining 
thus associated until 1863, at which time he came 
to California and engaged in mining in Indian 
valley two and a half years. In i86fi he left In- 
dian valley and mined in the mountains until the 
fall of that year, when he went to .Silver City. 
Idaho, remaining for three years. During the 
White Pine excitement he went there and 
worked in the mines until 1874, then returned to 
Indian valley and engaged in the mercantile bus- 
iness at Taylorsville, where for twent}-five years 
he has served as postmaster. The home ranch 
comprises about four hundred acres of land near 
here, three hundred and seventy-five of which 
lies in the valley, the remainder being timber 
land. In 1898 he added dairying and the stock 
business to his interests, having a dairy of about 
forty cows, and making a specialty of raising 
Durham cattle. He also purchased and remod- 
eled the hotel which he conducts. 

October 29. 1879, Mr. Young was married to 
Miss Ella Cottingham. a native of Coles county, 
111., who came to California with her family in 
1864, and for whose family history the reader 
is referred to sketch of her brother, J. W. Cot- 
tingham, which appears elsewhere in this vol- 
ume. Mr. and Mrs. Young are the parents of 
three children, viz. : ^Marion, who is at home ; 



Claude, who is a civil engineer associated with 
William Watson, surveyor of Plumas county ; 
and Stanley, who is also at home. In politics Mr. 
Young is a stanch Republican, and served as a 
supervisor from 1888 until 1892, proving an effi- 
cient officer, his integrity holding him secure in 
both public and private life, and his abilities win- 
ning for him public recognition. He is success- 
ful in his combined labors, and was one of the or- 
ganizers and stockholders of the Taylorsville 
Creamery. He is a leading citizen of this sec- 
tion of the country, distinguished among the 
man}- who know him by a cordial and kindly na- 
ture, which makes him popular among his 
friends. 



ELIAS B. JACKS. Prominent among the 
early settlers and mining men of California was 
Elias B. Jacks, called by his intimate friends 
Lisle. He was born in Howard county. Mo., Oc- 
tober 25, 1833, but spent the greater portion of 
his boyhood on a farm in Platte county, that 
state, receiving his primary education in the 
common schools. Stories of the discovery of 
gold in California and the news of the fabulous 
sums taken from the rich mines in this state had 
fired the ambition of the young man for three or 
four years prior to attaining his majority, and in 
the spring of 1854 he determined to seek his for- 
tune in the golden west. Coming via the Pan- 
ama route he located in Plumas county, where 
he followed mining, later purchasing the Badger 
Hill mines, which he operated for a great many 
vears. These mines are about three miles from 
where the town of Ouincy now stands and are 
worth several thousand dollars. 

December 8, 1870, Mr. Jacks was married to 
Miss Minnie Buxton, who is a native of Maine, 
where she was reared and educated. In 1868 she 
came to California, and two years later her mar- 
riage took place. Two children were born to 
them, as follows : Arthur, who is a mining man 
in this state ; and Garnet N., who is the wife of 
James E. Nail, a rancher in this county. Mr. 
Jacks' health becoming impaired, he leased his 
mining property to his son, Arthur, for several 
years. For nine years or more prior to his 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



755 



death, which occurred March 17, 1903, .Mr. 
Jacks was in very poor liealth, and could attend 
to business but Httle of the time. He was a 
stanch supporter of the Democratic ticket, and 
was for several years on the board of school 
trustees. Since the death of her husband Mrs. 
Jacks has bonded the mining propertv and ex- 
pects to sell it at a good profit. Its estimated 
value at present is $6,000, and aside from this 
Mr. Jacks left to his widow twelve acres of ex- 
cellent land in Meadow valley, where Mrs. Jacks 
now resides. 



JEROME CHURCHILL. The business ac- 
tivity of Siskiyou county, Cal., has felt the mas- 
ter hand of Jerome Churchill, who has been 
prominent in public affairs of this section since 
June, 1852, and who has ably demonstrated his 
ability as a leader in the development and up- 
building of a western statehood. He is a native 
of Essex county, N. Y., and was born I'-ebruarA- 
II, 1826. His parents, Jesse and Martha ( Mc- 
Cauley) Churchill, were also natives of the same 
locality in New York state, where the father en- 
gaged for many years as a farmer. He eventually 
removed to Chicago, where he and his wife both 
died. Jerome Churchill received his education 
in the schools of his native state, where he re- 
mained until 1839. ^ resident of the paternal 
home. Locating in Chicago in the last named 
year, he engaged in teaming for ten years, when, 
in famous '49, lie crossed the plains by team to 
California. Upon his arrival he located in Sacra- 
mento, where he remained until the following 
spring, after which he engaged in mining for 
three or four months. In June, 1852, he came to 
Siskiyou county, and in Yreka established a pack- 
train whose route lay between this city and Red- 
ding, Shasta county, and also included Sacra- 
mento and PortlancJ, Ore. He continued success- 
fully in this work for the period of ten years, 
when, with his accumulated earnings, he estab- 
lished a general mercantile enterprise in Yreka. 

Mr. Guirchill is one of the oldest settlers of 
this city, as at that time there were but few 
people throughout the entire county, to whose 
upbuilding he gave liberal efifort, personally as 



well as along financial lines. For many years he 
loaned money to the early settlers seeking to 
establish homes in this then sparsely settled re- 
gion, and subsequently established the Siskiyou 
County Bank, of which he has served as presi- 
dent ever since its organization. He was also 
active in the building of the Yreka Railroad, and 
has also acted as president since its organization. 
He has manifested his faith in the permanency 
of the growth of this section by investing his 
means in real estate, now owning two large 
ranches and several smaller ones, all located in 
the Butte creek valley, and operated by himself 
and sons. Mr. anirchill also served as president 
of the Siskiyou Light & Power Company, and 
for many years acted as town trustee. He has 
not only been successful along personal lines in 
the accumulation of means, but has as well won 
the esteem and confidence of fellow citizens 
throughout the entire section, holding a high 
jilace among its representative men. 

In 1862 Mr. Churchill was united in marriage 
with Julia Patterson, a native of Illinois, their 
marriage occurring in Chicago. They are the 
parents of two sons, Jerome, Jr., who married 
and is now living on the largest of his father's 
ranches in Butte creek valley ; and Jesse, who is 
interested in the Yreka Light & Power Corn- 
pan}. Mrs. Churchill is a member of the Epis- 
copal church. In his political convictions Mr. 
Cliurchill is an adherent of the principles advo- 
cated in the platform of the Republican partv. 
Included in the city property owned by Mr. 
Qiurchill is a handsome residence, where he and 
his wife make their home. 



CLARENCE EUGENE DAKIN. An en- 
terprising, practical and progressive agriculturist 
of Lassen county, Clarence Eugene Dakin is 
busily engaged in the prosecution of his chosen 
calling upon his highly inijiroved ranch, which 
is most favorably located in Honey Lake valley. 
near the village of Dewitt. He is recognized as 
a man of good financial and executive ability, 
and in the respect and consideration of his fel- 
low-citizens occupies an honorable position. He 



756 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



is a native of Lassen county, having been born 
near Janesville, April lo, 1868, a son of H. H. 
Dakin. 

Until about twenty years of age Clarence E. 
Dakin remained at home, receiving his early edu- 
cation in the district schools, while during his 
vacations he assisted his father. Before attain- 
ing his majority he began learning the miller's 
trade, and for six years was employed in the mill 
at Janesville. In 1894, his health becoming im- 
paired, he decided to try outdoor life, which has 
proved very beneficial to him, and with the ex- 
ception of one year, when he returned to the 
Janesville mill as head miller, he has since been 
actively engaged in farming. He first purchased 
one hundred and sixty acres of his home ranch, 
erected' a fine house and substantial barns and 
outbuildings, and began the improvement of his 
estate. He has since bought another tract of 
land containing one hundred and sixty acres, and 
in the management of his farm has been success- 
ful. He has all of his land under irrigation, one 
hundred acres of it being devoted to alfalfa, and 
is carrying on a thriving business as a stockman 
and dairyman, his dairy containing twenty cows. 
In the management of his place he takes genuine 
pleasure, laboring wisely and well, his farm, with 
the excellent improvements that he has placed 
upon it, invariably eliciting words of praise from 
his neighbors and friends. 

March 20, 1892, Mr. Dakin married Elsie 
Hartson, a daughter of Charles Hartson, and 
they have one child. Sarah Leota, born August 
II, 1901. Politically Mr. Dakin is a Democrat, and 
fraternally he belongs to Janesville Lodge, I. O. 
O. F., and to Honey Lake Parlor, N. S. G. W., 
of Janesville. In the latter organization he is 
quite prominent, having served as its president, 
and in 1892 having attended the Grand Lodge 
of Native Sons at Santa Cruz. Both Mr. and 
Mrs. Dakin are members of the Janesville Lodge 
of Rebekahs. 



ADAM E. RINEHART. Nordieast of Ce- 
darville, lying about one and one-half miles dis- 
tant from the town, may be seen the improved 
hay, grain and stock ranch of about three hundred 



acres which Mr. Rinehart owns and occupies and 
which is said to be one of the best ranches in 
Surprise valle\-. The owner of the farm is a Vir- 
ginian by birth and ancestry and was born Jan- 
uary 9, 1848, being a son of David and Elizabeth 
(Erleywine) Rinehart, also natives of the Old 
Dominion. When he was still a small child he 
was taken to Ohio, the family settling upon a 
farm in Ross county, where the mother subse- 
quently died: the father still survives and con- 
tinues to make Ohio his home. 

From the age of twelve years Adam E. Rine- 
hart has been self-supporting. In 1866 he en- 
listed in the Second Heavy Artillery of United 
States Regulars and during the same year he 
was ordered west, coming via New York City, 
the Isthmus of Panama and San Francisco, and 
thence to Alaska, where their ship was wrecked 
off the rockbound coast in a storm. Wliile still 
in Alaska he was honorably discharged in 1869. 
During two years of his service he was stationed 
in the quartermaster's department and had 
charge of the teamsters. After resigning he re- 
turned to San Francisco and three months later 
proceeded to Yreka, Siskiyou county, where he 
not only farmed, but also engaged in hauling 
freight. On coming to the Surprise valley for 
the first time in 1875 he rented a tract of land 
and engaged in general ranching, but after five 
years removed to Nevada, where he engaged in 
the stock business for twelve years. On his 
return to the Surprise valley in 1899 h^ P"''" 
chased the ranch near Cedarville, where he has 
since engaged in raising stock, grain and hay. 

The marriage of Mr. Rinehart took place in 
Siskiyou county April 26, 1874, and united him 
with Miss Margaret Best, who was born in Wis- 
consin and was educated in that state and Cali- 
fornia. Her parents, John C. and Annetta (Lar- 
son) Best, were natives, respectively, of Ohio 
and Norway, and lived for some years upon a 
Wisconsin farm, but in 1863 crossed the plains 
as members of a train comprising some sixty 
wagons. On their arrival in the west they first 
settled near Carson, Nev., but a few years later 
moved to Stanislaus county, Cal., and settled on 
a farm near Modesto, where for years Mr. Best 
engaged in farming with a fair degree of sue- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



751 



cess. Some years ago he retired from agricult- 
ural cares and now he makes his home in Seat- 
tle, Wash., and is ([uitc robust for a man of 
eighty-seven years. His wife is also living and 
has attained seventy-five years. The family of 
Mr. and Mrs. Rinehart comjirised six children, 
of whom the fifth died in infancw Those now 
living are named as follows : William, who mar- 
ried Miss Maude White and lives in Xevada : 
Harry, who married Eva Larson, has two chil- 
dren (Victor and Dorothy) and resides on a 
farm adjoining that owned by his father ; Effie, 
who is with her parents ; Grace, who married E. 
J. Beebe, has one son (Vancile) and lives near 
Cedarville ; and Marion, the youngest .son of 
the family, and still remaining on the home 
ranch. Aside from voting the Republican 
ticket Mr. Rinehart takes no part whatever in 
politics, while in fraternal matters he holds 
membership with the Cedarville lodge of Odd 
Fellows and has the office of past noble grand 
in the organization. 



JOHN THOMAS LONG. In the early days 
of California's history as a state and while min- 
ing was still the principal occupation of the peo- 
ple, William B. Long crossed the plains with a 
party of pioneers. Previous to that memorable 
trip there had been little of adventure or excite- 
ment in his life. By birth a Kentuckian and 
descended from an old southern family, he had 
married in .Arkansas and remained there until 
led to cast in his fortunes with the newer west. 
After he had established himself he sent for his 
family and they joined him in 1856. Meanwhile 
he had tried his luck in the mines of Plumas and 
Butte counties and had ventured into the stock 
business in Humbug valley, where in 1857 he 
bought a tract of land for the pasturage of his 
herds. With Gen. Allen Wood as a partner he 
built a hotel and rebuilt the structure after it had 
been destroyed by fire. Gradually a settlement 
was built up around the hotel, and the place took 
the name of Longville, a tribute to his citizenship. 
On his removal to Honey Lake valley in 1862 
he rented a log cabin and turned it into a hotel, 



but in 1863 he removed to Mountain Meadows. 
During 1865 he bought a squatter's claim just 
northwest of Susanville and there improved a 
stock ranch where he still makes his home. 

The marriage of William B. Long united him 
with Miss Mary E. Wood, a native of Kentucky 
and a daughter of Gen. Allen Wood, who served 
in the Mexican war at the head of a regiment. 
When General Wood crossed the plains in 1856 
he brought with him his daughter, Mrs. William 
l'>. Long, and her son, John Thomas. After an 
uneventful journey of six months they arrived in 
northern California. The following year the 
general joined his son-in-law in securing prop- 
erty in Humbug valley, and ten years later dis- 
posed of the land and removed to Susanville, 
where he died at seventy-six years. During his 
residence in this city he served several years as 
receiver of the United States land office. In the 
family of \\ illiam B. and Mary E. Long there 
were si.x children, namely : John Thomas, one 
of the most successful stockmen in Lassen 
county : George B., who has charge of the Horse 
Lake ranch ; Allen J., living at Beckwith, Plumas 
county ; .\rthur, who died at seven years ; Edith, 
who married George Raker and lives near Mil- 
ford ; and Margaret, who married John Phillips 
and makes her home in Arkansas. 

The eldest of the si.x children, John Thomas, 
was born near Eureka Springs, Ark., June 15, 
1853, and was nine years of age when the fam- 
ily settled on the ranch in the outskirts of Su- 
sanville. During the absence of his father in 
Idaho from 1866 to 1868, he had charge of thg 
home ranch; and again from 1869 to 1870, when 
his father drove with horses to Arkansas. In 
1 87 1 he accompanied his father to Texas with a 
herd of cattle, and in 1873 returned to California, 
his father remaining in Te.xas for some years 
afterward to carry on his stock interests. Mean- 
while, under his supervision, with the aid of his 
mother, the property was made more valuable, 
larger herds brought increased revenues, and for 
fourteen years he engaged in the sheep business, 
meanwhile experiencing the successes and re- 
verses incident to such work. When eventually 
the sheep were sold, he rented the ranch he now 
owns at Horse Lake, and there put his small herd 



758 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



of cattle, turning them loose with the brand ot 
a double bar on the left thigh. Isaac Hall of San 
Francisco became his partner and furnished suf- 
ficient capital to enable them to increase their 
holdings materially, so that a large business was 
built up in the buying and shipping of cattle. 
Later they bought the Horse lake ranch ot 
twenty-one hundred and sixty acres and two 
ranches at Standish of three hundred and twenty 
acres. On the death of Mr. Hall in 1900 Mr. 
Long purchased his interest in lands and stock 
and has since continued the business alone. By 
the purchase of adjacent property he has in- 
creased his Horse Lake ranch to thirty-eight hun- 
dred and sixty acres, watered by springs and 
lake. In addition he has about two thousand 
acres of meadow land, from which he cuts hay 
or in other seasons uses for grazing purposes. 
At the time of the purchase of the Standish 
property sixty acres were in alfalfa, while the 
remainder was sage brush, but under his ener- 
getic supervision the brush has been cleared and 
two hundred and sixty acres are in alfalfa with 
adequate irrigation facilities. The old home 
ranch one-half mile northwest of Susanville is 
now owned by him and made his headquarters, 
the same embracing four hundred and twenty 
acres of meadow land and range. 

The necessity of linding a suitable place for 
the disposal of his stock led Mr. Long in igoi 
to embark in the wholesale butcher business with 
A. Knierr of San Francisco, whose interest he 
bought later and now conducts the business 
alone. On the various ranches about twenty- 
five hundred head of cattle are kept and from 
four hundred to five hundred head of horses, 
his specialty being English Shire draft horses, 
which he breaks on the ranches. During the 
busy seasons as many as thirty men are em- 
ployed in the care of the stock and the harvest- 
ing of the crops. All of these responsibilities 
give him little leisure for participation in out- 
side matters, yet w-e find him a progressive citi- 
zen, a generous contributor to all movements of 
undoubted value to his coiTimunity, and a dis- 
tinct addition to the citizenship of Lassen county. 
In national politics he votes with the Demo- 
crats, but in local elections he gives less atten- 



tion to political allegiance than to the merits 
of the candidates in question. When the Farm- 
ers & Merchants Bank of Reno was organized 
he was financially interested in the enterprise, 
and has since remained a stockholder. At this 
writing he is a member of the Butchers' Board 
of Trade in San Francisco. 

In Susanville Mr. Long married Miss Maggie 
E. Owens, who was born in Missouri. Her 
father, James Owens, a pioneer of California, 
engaged in mining in Siskiyou county, this state, 
and later became interested in the stock indus- 
try in Klamath county. Ore., where he died. In 
the family of Mr. and Mrs. Long there were 
seven children, namely : Maude, who married 
Creorge L. Tomb, county clerk of Lassen county 
and a resident of Susanville ; James O. ; Fannie, 
who died at twenty-five years of age; William, 
Carl, \'erna and Mary, who reside with their 
parents and grandparents on the home ranch. 
Among the people of northeastern California Mr. 
Long has a reputation as an expert judge of 
cattle. The utmost confidence is reposed in his 
opinions as to the merits of a herd of stock, and 
events usually prove his estimates to be correct. 
Xo brand is more familiar to the people of Las- 
sen county than Bar D, which is to be found on 
all of his cattle on the various ranches, and no 
stockman has been more successful in building up 
a large and fine herd than Mr. Long, whose wise 
judgment and thorough knowledge of the busi- 
ness have brought him financial gain as well as 
the utmost confidence of all dealers in stock. 



ROBERT HAMILTON LONGWILL. Mo- 
doc county is especially fortunate in having been 
settled up by. men of intelligence and enterprise, 
who evidently came here to stay, and from the 
first were identified with the interests and prog- 
ress of this part of the state. Particularly is this 
true of Robert H. Longwill, who has been a resi- 
dent of Goose Lake valley since 1879, and is now 
one of its most respected citizens and thrifty 
agriculturists. Beginning life at the age of six- 
teen \ears, without other endowments than strong 
hands, willing heart and an active brain, he may 



HISTOWCAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



759 



properly be numbered among the self-made men 
of California, who, by the exercise of their na- 
tive resolution and industry, have attained an 
honorable position among their fellow-men. He 
was born, January 17, 1855, in Wells county, 
Ind., where he obtained a limited common-school 
education. Going to Macon county. 111., at the 
age of sixteen years, he worked as a farm lalxjrer 
until 1879, when he came to Goose Lake valle\-, 
JModoc county, which has since been his home. 

After settling near Davis Creek, Mr. Long- 
will worked for wages until 1894. acquiring in 
the meantime a thorough knowledge of agri- 
culture as carried on in California, especially in 
the northern part. Embarking in farming on his 
own account in 1894. he leased the farm that he 
now owns and occupies for a term of five years, 
and also rented the Ross ranch, both of which he 
bought in 1900. He has now in his farm three 
hundred and twenty-five acres of land, a part of 
which is under irrigation, being watered by 
springs that are on the ranch. He raises cattle, 
hay and grain, and has a small orchard, which 
now produces some fruit, although it was run 
down when he took possession of it. 

In 1894 Mr. Longwil! married Ella Taylor, a 
native of Nevada, and they are the parents of 
three children, namely : Adelbert, Mary Eleanor 
and Percy Gilbert. Politically Mr. Longwill is 
a straight-forward Republican, but has never 
been induced to accept any public office excepting 
that of school trustee. 



JOHN McELROY. A man of varied ex- 
perience in life, energetic, intelligent and enter- 
prising, John McElroy is now engaged in ranch- 
ing at Grub Flat, near Meadow \'alley, Plumas 
county. .Although misfortune has sometimes fol- 
lowed him he has pursued the even tenor of his 
way unfalteringly, by courageous perseverance 
conquering all obstacles, and is now enjoying to 
the utmost the reward gained by his years of 
faithful and intelligent toil. \\'herever he has 
lived he has been prominent in public affairs and 
has rendered noteworthy service to his fellow- 
citizens. 



lioni in Mansfield, Richland countv, Ohio, 
October 24, 1829, John McElroy is a son of Abra- 
ham McElroy, who in early manhood had learned 
the tanner's trade, which he first followed in his 
native state, Pennsylvania. While still young he 
went to ChiUicothe, Ohio, and there he also car- 
ried on his trade for a time, later going to Mans- 
field, same state, where he operated a tannery 
until well advanced in years, passing away when 
m his seventy-first year. His wife, formerly 
Elizabeth Piper, was born in Ohio, and she too 
died when well along in years. John McElroy 
remained at home with his parents until sixteen 
years of age, and during these years he not only 
secured a good education in the public schools, 
but also fitted himself for the business world by 
learning the tanner's trade of his father, who 
was an expert in his line. When he was sixteen 
years old he was orphaned b\- the death of his 
father, a circumstance which made it necessary 
for him to strike out in the world in his own be- 
half, but as he was armed with a good trade the 
world did not seem as cheerless to him as it might 
have under other circumstances. After fol- 
lowing his trade in various places throughout 
Ohio for a number of years, in 1852 he joined a 
party of forty men who had planned to niake the 
trip to California with ox-teams. Tlieir journey 
was exceptionally free from accidents and trouble 
with the Indians, and in due time they arrived in 
Placerville. The next day Mr. McElroy went to 
Auburn, also in Placer county, where his first 
winter in the state was spent in mining. Subse- 
quently he came to what is now Plumas county, 
and for two years was engaged in mining at Rich 
Bar, leaving there to go to the mines at the Fraser 
river, which were said to be fabulously rich in 
gold ore. Such did not prove to he the case so 
far as Mr. McElroy was concerned, and he soon 
afterward returned to Plumas county. His all- 
around fitness as a public officer had in the mean- 
time been recognized by his fellow-citizens, and 
about this time he was appointed deputy sheriff, 
a position which he filled successfully for eight 
years, one of his duties being the collection of 
taxes. Upon coming to Meadow Valley he took 
up his present homestead, improving the same as 
his time would permit, but die most of his atten- 



760 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



tion was given to the management of the meat 
market which he had estabhshed upon locating 
here. For several years he carried on a very 
remunerative business in preparing and delivering 
packed meats to the different mining camps in 
this vicinity, but finally gave this up in order to 
devote his time and attention to his ranch. While 
he carries on general farming to some extent, he 
makes a specialty of raising hay, having about 
twenty acres in the valley especially adapted to 
raising this commodit\-. 

In 1865 Miss Elizabeth Miller, a native of Ger- 
many, became the wife of Mr. !\IcElroy, and five 
children blessed their union, as follows: Liz- 
zie, who with her husband, Ed Hard, lives in 
Meadow Valley ; Frank, who is foreman of the 
Plumas Mining and Water Company, of this 
county ; Mattie, who died at the age of twenty- 
one years ; and Philip and William, both of whom 
are at home with their parents. Besides filling 
the office of deputy sheriff Mr. McElroy also 
served as school trustee for a great many years. 
In national elections he invariably votes for Dem- 
ocratic candidates, but in local matters he gives 
his ballot to the man whose qualifications are 
best suited to the position in question, irrespective 
of party name. 



ISAAC ALONZO TITHERINGTON. 
Among the young men of promise in Lassen 
county is Isaac Alonzo Titherington, who began 
life for himself poor in pocket, but rich in energy 
and ambition, and with sturdy industry and 
judicious toil has already made good progress 
along the pathway of success. Choosing for his 
life work that independent and honorable occu- 
pation upon which the wealth and prosperity of 
our great nation so largely depends, he obtained 
a practical knowledge of agriculture while work- 
ing for others, and is now farming on his own 
account, renting land for the purpose. He is a 
native-born citizen of Lassen county, having been 
bom in Honey Lake valley, November 11, 1881, 
a son of Albert A. and Janette (Dean) Tither- 
ington. 

Brought up in Lassen county, Isaac Alonzo 



Titherington attended the public schools as a 
boy, remaining at home until twenty years old. 
Starting then for himself, he worked as a farm 
hand for several years, every season saving some 
of his earnings. Having accumulated means 
enough to warrant him in so doing, he started 
in business for himself. Locating near Standish, 
he rented the ranch on which he is living, and in 
its management is meeting with most satisfactory 
success. He has sixty-five of its eighty acres in 
alfalfa, and runs a small dairy, which he finds 
profitable. 

May 5. 1902, Mr. Titherington married Jo- 
sephine Rector, who was born in Mendocino 
county, Cal., a daughter of Charles and Frankie 
Rector. Although Mr. Titherington takes no 
active part in politics, he is interested in local and 
general affairs, and sustains the principles of the 
Republican party. 



JACOB ALLEN FORKNER. On becoming 
established in America the Forkner family were 
for a time residents of North Carolina, but Sam- 
uel Forkner, a man of pioneer spirit, removed 
from that state to Virginia and then settled 
among the earliest farmers of Grundy county. 
Mo., whence in 1849 1''^ rnade a trip across the 
plains to the then remote and unknown west. 
On his return to Missouri he remained a short 
time only. In 1853 he again endured the vicis- 
situdes of a long journey to California and 
searched for gold in the mines, but the result 
being unsatisfactory, soon he turned his atten- 
tion to the stock industry. When an aged man, 
remote from the scenes of his boyhood on a far- 
distant southern plantation, he died at Paradise, 
Butte county, and thus passed from earth a man 
of genuine pioneer ardor, to whom the wilder- 
ness and the frontier had no terrors, but charmed 
him by their unknown possibilities. 

Among the children of Samuel Forkner was 
a son, Alexander B., who was born in North 
Carolina, grew to manhood in \^irginia, removed 
to Missouri, and there married Amanda J. Mc- 
Granahan, a \'irginian by birth. Three children 
were born of their union, of whom two survive. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



7(51 



Jacob A., of Lassen county, and Albert, of Los 
Angeles. The wife and mother died at the old 
homestead in Butte county when thirty-two years 
of age. The father, after crossing the plains 
with ox-teams in 1853, took up unimproved land 
on Dry creek in Butte county and there improved 
a homestead of three hundred and twenty acres, 
where he engaged in stock-raising. On that place 
his death occurred about 1867, when he was 
forty-seven years of age. Fraternally he was a 
Master Mason. In local affairs he held a prom- 
u;ent place, served efficiently as justice of the 
peace and supervisor, and was a contributor of 
time, influence and means to all movements for 
the development of his county. 

An uncle of die subject of this narrative is 
numbered among the pioneers of Lassen county, 
where he now lives near Buntingville. George 
B. McGranahan was born in Tazewell county, 
V'a., June 26, 1828, and at eighteen years of age 
became a pioneer farmer of Missouri. During 
1850 he came west as far as Nevada City, where 
he engaged in mining for two years and then 
went back east via San Francisco, Isthmus of 
Panama, New Orleans and the Mississippi river. 
The following year he again came west with ox- 
teams, this time settling near Oroville, Cal., and 
from there in 1864 he went to Grant county. Ore., 
but in eight montlis he returned to California. 
After a sojourn of some years in Butte county, 
in 1871 he came to Honey Lake valley, purchased 
one hundred head of cattle, and later sold these 
and bought sheep, which industry he followed for 
ten years, meanwhile making Milford his head- 
quarters. After selling his sheep he carried on 
a hotel at Buntingville for a year as a renter and 
tlien started a similar business of his own. Ten 
years later he sold out and moved to his present 
homestead of eight}' acres. By his marriage he 
had six children, but onl_\' three survive, Cynthia 
Margaret, Henry and James; and he also has a 
step-daughter, who is married and living at 
Janesville. In politics he votes with the Demo- 
cratic party, and fraternally has been connected 
with the Independent Urder of Odd Fellows at 
Janesville for tliirty years. 

On the family homestead in Butte county, Cal., 
Jacob Allen Forkner was born December 29, 



1853- The death of his father when he was still 
a mere Ix)y (fourteen years of agej left him an 
orphan and hnuit^hi ni>..n him the necessity of 
earning his livelihofid. Though deprived of 
many pleasures through his homeless condition, 
yet he had the recompense of acquiring traits of 
independence and self-reliance that have been of 
inestimable value to him in his life work. For a 
time he tried to remain at the old farm, but the 
debris ruined the land and he abandoned further 
effort at its cultivation. In 1875 he came to 
Honey Lake valley and secured employment at 
Milford in lumbering. During the season of 
1876 he was employed as a rough rider in the 
California troop that formed a part of the Wild 
West show exhibited at the Centennial. 

On his return to Honey Lake valley Mr. Fork- 
ner entered the employ of J. D. Byers as vaquero 
and the following year was placed in charge of 
the stock and vaqueros, remaining there until 
1880, when he embarked in the livery business 
at Greenville. In the spring of 1882 he became 
superintendent of the Byers ranch and later was 
made manager, which position he still retains, 
besides which, by the provision of the will, he 
acted as executor and administrator of the Byers 
estate. The ranch comprises three different 
farms, the headquarters being three miles east of 
Standish, where the estate has three thousand 
acres of grazing and hay land, from which about 
eighteen hundred tons of hay are cut each year. 
Tlie range at Eagle lake is utilized for the stock 
in summer, and there are also in the estate three 
ranches at Janesville aggregating eight hundred 
acres. During the busy season employment is 
furnished to about thirty hands. Horses are 
raised on these farms, and cattle of the Durham 
and Hereford breeds, the brands being J.I.M., 
M.C., and D.L. Under the able supervision of 
the manager the stock are kept a continuous 
source of profit and fair returns are received 
from the landed interests of the estate. 

Near Janesville, Lassen county. December 7, 
1881, Mr. Forkner married Miss Ella McQel- 
land, a native of Pennsylvania and the eldest 
daughter of William M. and Sarah A. (Mer- 
chant) McClelland, of Susanville. The only 
child of their union is a daughter, Gussie T., who 



762 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



is a graduate of the Atkinson Business College 
at Reno, Nev., class of 1905. The family attend 
the Methodist Episcopal church and are warmly 
interested in religious affairs, as well as in all 
other movements of a beneficial nature. Politi- 
cally Mr. Forkner has always given the Demo- 
cratic party his influence and vote, while in mat- 
ters fraternal he associates with Janesville 
Lodge No. 135, A. O. U. W., and Lassen Parlor 
No. 99, N. S. G. W., at Susanville. 



ROBERT STEWART. As the name would 
indicate, the Stewart family is of Scotch origin, 
and the branch to which Robert Stewart belongs 
became identified with America when his father, 
also Robert Stewart, settled in Canada during 
his young manhood. By trade he was a cabinet- 
maker, and with this useful trade at his com- 
mand he had no difliculty in finding employment 
upon landing in the new world, following it as 
his life calling. He was a man of deep con- 
victions, and was an active worker in the Pres- 
byterian church, and often filled the pulpit in 
tlmt denomination. At his death, which oc- 
curred in 1869, he was comparatively a young 
man, passing away at the age of fifty-six years. 
His wife, who in her maidenhood was known as 
Jane Owens, was also born in Scotland, settling 
in Canada during her girlhood. Her marriage 
to Mr. Stewart occurred in Canada, and that re- 
mained the family home until after his death, 
when, in 1870, the widow came to California, 
where two of her sons by a former marriage, 
with a Mr. McFadden, were residing. Her 
earth life came to a close at Chico, Cal., in 1877. 
She too was a firm believer in Presbyterian doc- 
trines, and held membership in the church of 
that denomination. 

Robert Stewart was born in Aurora, Ontario, 
Canada, May 5, 1864, and was therefore only 
five years of age when orphaned by the death 
of his father. As his mother brought him to 
California soon afterward he has little or no 
recollection of his Canadian home, his life from 
that time on being associated almost entirely 
with the west. For about two and a half years 



he attended school in Hydesville, Humboldt 
county, going from there to San Francisco, 
where he also studied for two years. In 1881 
he went to Chico, where during the summer 
months he worked at whatever he could find to 
do that would not only pay his current expenses, 
but also contribute to a fund which he was ac- 
cumulating to defray his expenses during the 
winter term of school. After four seasons of 
working and attending school he was a student 
in the LIniversity of California for one year, and 
thereafter took a two-year course in the New 
York College of Dental Surger}-. After his 
graduation in 1886 he returned to California and 
for about eleven years carried on a very success- 
ful practice in Colusa, later going to Oiico, and 
from there coming to Quincy in 1898. Since 
establishing his office here he has met with en- 
couragement and success in his profession far 
beyond his most sanguine expectations and easily 
takes rank among the first dentists in this part of 
the state. Politically Dr. Stewart is a Repub- 
lican, and fraternally holds membership in Plu- 
mas Lodge No. 60, F. & A. M. : and Plumas 
Lodge No. 131, I. O. O. P., both of Quincy. 



FRANCIS MARION AND NEWTON B. 
ELLEDGE. Two prominent citizens of Lassen 
county, Cal., are the Elledge brothers, sons of 
Adam D. Elledge, a full account of whose career 
will be found elsewhere in this volume. Tlie 
elder of the brothers, Francis Marion, was born 
in Pike county. 111., January 15, 1850, and has 
made his home with his parents all his life, never 
having married. After coming to California he 
learned the carpenter's trade in Lassen county, 
and since then has devoted his time and attention 
to his trade and to sheep-shearing. Though he 
came to this state with his parents he came to 
Lassen county before tliey did, arriving here in 
1863. Mr. Elledge is of a quiet, though ener- 
getic disposition, and in politics is a stanch sup- 
porter of the Republican party. 

Xewton B. Elledge is a native son of this state, 
having been born in Yuba county. May 22. 1872, 
and when six years of age was brought by his 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPTTTr AT, RECORD. 



703 



parents to Lassen county, where he has since re- 
sided and where he received his education, with 
the exception of one year, during which he at- 
tended the San Francisco Business College, 
learning shorthand and bookkeeping. Until 1895 
he remained at home with his parents, but in the 
meantime worked for wages, and operated his 
mother's farm one year, afterwards renting dif- 
ferent ranches for a number of years. In 1901- 
02 he drove from Susanville, I_^ssen countv, to 
Hot Springs, and the following year, in Decem- 
ber, he came to die ranch which he now^ operates, 
and which he has leased for three years. This 
ranch consists of one hundred and sixty acres of 
good land, upon which he raises alfalfa and oper- 
ates a dairy, in which he has twenty cows, send- 
ing his milk to the creamery. 

March 15, 1896, N. B. Elledge was married 
to Miss Edna Laniger, who is a native daughter 
of this state, having been born in Modoc county, 
the daughter of Adam Freeman Laniger, who 
lives near Clinton Post, Lassen county. Mr. and 
Mrs. Elledge are the parents of three children, 
viz., Elmer Douglas, Frederick David and Cor- 
nelia. Mrs. Elledge is a consistent member of 
the Methodist Episcopal church, and a devoted 
wife and mother. In politics Mr. Elledge has 
similar views to those of his brother, and votes 
the Republican ticket. He is fraternally identi- 
fied with the Native Sons of the Golden West at 
Susanville, and his tastes incline him to outdoor 
country life and agricultural pursuits, to which 
he has devoted his whole life. 



BASIL HOMER TALBOTT. A successful 
farmer and stock-raiser of Willow Creek valley, 
Lassen county, is B. H. Tallxitt. who resides 
near Susanville. He is the son of Kinsey Tal- 
bott, a native of Iowa, who came to this state 
the year following the discovery of gold in 
California, traveling across plain and mountain 
with .slow ox-teams. He located in the Sac- 
ramento valley, where he remained until about 
1857, when he came to Susanville and followed 
his trade of millwright until his death, in 1864. 
His wife, formerly Elizabeth Haines, was born 



in Iowa, and survived her husband sixteen vears. 
Three children were bom to them. onl\ one of 
whom, B. H., is now living. 

Basil Homer Talbott is a native son of this 
state, having been born in Susanville June 26, 
1863, and here he was reared and received what 
education he could obtain in the public schools 
before he was ten years of age. He was onlv 
one year old when his father died, and die 
tinancial circumstances of the famil\- rendered 
it neces.sary for him to make his own livelihood 
as soon as he was large enough to do so. When 
but ten years of age he was employed as driver 
of a team, hauling wood from the mountains, 
and later was in a livery stable in Greenville, 
six years. Thereafter he followed logging for 
two years, then returned to Susanville, where 
he was employed on a cattle ranch for some 
time, and afterwards engaged in the blacksmith 
business in .\medee, Lassen county, for a couple 
of years. Returning to Susanville once more, 
in January, 1893, he became proprietor of the 
Johnston house, which was burned out the fol- 
lowing July. This misfortune left him in debt 
$2,600, but instead of being discouraged, he at 
once looked around for an opening, and almost 
iinmediately obtained employment on the Shank- 
lin ranch. A year later he returned to Susan- 
ville and rented the Johnston house and the 
old Cottage hotel, in the management of which 
he was very successful. Later disposing of 
these interests, he engaged in mining in Lights 
Caiion. Plumas county, being associated with 
J. M. Fulton, Charles Taylor and Perry Stout. 
Through mismanagement, however, the venture 
was not a success and the partnership was dis- 
solved. Going to Smoke Creek. Neb.. Mr. Tal- 
bott became manager of the Flanagan & Dunn 
ranches, a portion of the time having as many 
as five ranches under his control. Returning 
to Willow Creek in 1902 he engaged in farm- 
ing and stock raising, operating the Benjamin 
Neuhaus ranch of eight hundred acres. Aside 
from this ranch he also rents and operates the 
.^an Francisco ranch of five thousand eight hun- 
dred acres, and engages very extensively in the 
cattle business, the combined ranches averaging 
alx)ut ten hundred head a vear. He has about a 



76-t 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



thousand acres in meadow, and the remainder 
in grain and liay, and operates the Wayside Inn 
to entertain the pubhc. 

In Susanville, Mr. Talliott was married to 
Mary Mtirrer, a native daughter of Cahfornia, 
the daughter of Mrs. Frances (Murrer) Neu- 
haus. Four children have been born to them, 
whose names are as follows : Hattie, Alfred, 
Guy and Carmelita, all at home. Fraternally 
Mr. Talbott belongs to Lassen Lodge No. 149. 
F. & A. M., Silver Star Lodge. I. O. O. F., 
Lassen Parlor No. 99, N. S. G. W., and both he 
and his wife belong to the Rebekahs. In politics 
Mr. Talbott is a stanch Republican and is clerk 
of the board of school trustees of the Willow 
Creek district. He is distinguished among the 
many who know him by a cordial and kindly 
nature and bv a warm-hearted loyalty to his 
'friends, and though he has had reverses, his in- 
domitable courage and spirit brought him tri- 
umphantly through it all, and he is to-day one of 
the wealthv citizens of the countv. 



GEORGE W. BENNETT. Many stirring 
scenes have come under the personal supervision 
of George W. Bennett in the early days of the 
west, his life as a pioneer beginning in childhood 
and continuing up to the full and complete devel- 
opment of California's best resources. He is a 
native of Quincy, 111., born February 22. 1847, 
being the second in a family of four children 
born to his parents. His father, Moses Robert 
Bennett, was a brick manufacturer in Quincy, in 
which city his death occurred when his son was 
but four years old. His widow (in maidenhood 
Abigail Jones, a native of Missouri) married A. 
M. Hollingshead. who in 1852 brought his fam- 
ilv as far west as Salt Lake City, where he en- 
gaged in farming and also acted as Indian agent 
for the government. He became prominent in 
public afTairs in that section and was active with 
Gen. Joseph Johnston in ferreting out the mur- 
ders perpetrated by the Mormons. The latter 
v.'ere verv bitter against Mr. Hollingshead and 
but for the protection of the Indians (whose en- 
tire confidence and afifection he had won because 



of the universal kindness with which he treated 
them) he might have perished at their hands. As 
it was the Indians declared if the Mormons 
harmed Shindad (the name they had given the 
government agent) they would never cease fight- 
ing them. In 1859. when Mr. Hollingshead 
started to California, General Johnston furnished 
him an escort of one hundred and fifty soldiers 
and even with this guard the Mormons made one 
attempt to capture him. Failing, however, they 
were forced to return for re-inforcements and 
Mr. Hollingshead thus escaped them, although a 
stout guard was maintained every night until 
thev were well out of the state. Upon his arrival 
in California Mr. Hollingshead located at Wheat- 
land. Yuba countv, where he purchased a farm, 
and up to the time of his retirement, which oc- 
curred a few years ago. he engaged in general 
agricultural pursuits and stock-raising. His 
wife also survives and with her husband is en- 
ioving the fruits of their earlv industry and en- 
ergv. Thev have reared a family of five chil- 
dren, of whom four are living, while three of 
Mrs. Hollingshead's children by her first mar- 
riaee also survive. 

Georpe W. Bennett was five years old when 
he was taken bv his stepfather and mother to 
I'tah, and the troubles and dangers experienced 
during their seven vears' residence there were in- 
deliblv impressed upon his memorv. His educa- 
tion was received in the common schools of Yuba 
countv after their location there, while at the 
same time he acquired a practical training along 
aericultural lines. He remained at home until 
nearlv twentv-one, when he took up the stock 
business independently, locating in Sacramento 
countv, where he remained for two years. At the 
>?xpiration of this time he went to Reno, Nev., 
and there engaeed in the dairv business, being a 
resident of the location before the first house was 
built. He was successful in his operations and 
continued to follow this pursuit for about five 
vears, when he disposed of his interests and the 
two vears following prospected and mined in 
the Salt lak-e countrv. With the proceeds of his 
work he returned to Wheatland and purchased a 
steam threshing outfit, and hv combining the 
operation of the same with farming pursuits in 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



765 



Browns valley he acquired considerable means in 
the ansuing years. 

During his residence in Reno Mr. Bennett had 
made several trips through Honey Lake valley, 
Lassen county, and since 1869 had maintained 
more or less interest in the development of this 
section. In 1891 he came to Lassen county with, 
his steam thresher and a year later located his 
family here permanently, at the present writing 
t)perating the Ripley farm, consisting of four 
hundred and fifty acres on the Susan river. He 
devotes his time largely to the raising of cattle 
and horses, the brand for the former being S. 
i'). and the latter several circles on the left jaw, 
a G. B. on the shoulder, or a B lying flat witli 
S under it, on the thigh. He has a thoroughbred 
Norfolk stallion and breeds the best stock. His 
dairy, consisting of twenty to twenty-five cows, 
is also a source of no small income. He has just 
closed his fifth year in this location and has with- 
out question won a position of importance among 
the farmers and stockmen of Lassen county. 

In Alarysville Mr. Bennett was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Ruth Colton, a native oi Forbes- 
town, Cal., and they became the parents of seven 
children, of whom the eldest, ]\Iary, Mrs. Peter- 
sen, is a resident of Corning, Cal., while the 
others, James, Sidney, Robert, Elmer, Georgie 
and William, are all at home. The family sup- 
port the Baptist Church, which they attend. In 
politics Mr. Bennett is an adherent of the prin- 
ciples advocated in the platform of the Demo- 
cratic party. He is a citizen of worth and prom- 
inence and stands high in the esteem of all who 
know him, honored alike for the business abil- 
ities which he has displayed during his residence 
m Lassen county and the qualities of his citizen- 
ship. 



PLUMMER R. WELSH, proprietor of the 
Longville hotel in the town of that name, owner 
of a valuable dairy and stock ranch in the Hum- 
bug valley, and owner and manager of the saw- 
mill in Longville, is a member of a southern 
family identified with the United States through 
several generations. How-ever. owing to the 
early death of his father, Philip, he has little in- 



formation concerning the ancestral history aside 
from the fact of their long identification with 
American history. Himself a native of Anne 
Arundel county, Md., born February 10. 1828. 
he was quite a small child when the family re- 
moved to Ohio and there he lost his father by 
death. When he was about ten years of age he 
accompanied his mother to Illinois and settled 
on a farm, but the death of his mother three 
years later broke up the family circle and threw 
him upon his own resources for a livelihood. 
For a time he was employed as a farm hand at 
$5 per month and board, but later his wages were 
raised to $8, which in those days was considered 
a fair salary. Not satisfied, however, with pros- 
pects in that locality, he soon went to Jackson 
county and secured work by the month, saving 
his earnings with frugal care in view of his ap- 
proaching settlement to domestic ties. Subse- 
quent to his marriage in 1848 be took up a tract 
of government land in Jackson county, Iowa, 
and at once began to prepare the place for the 
raising of crops, a work in which he met with 
some degree of success. 

Tlie removal of the Welsh family to the west 
occurred in iSrio, when they traveled across the 
plains with horses and ox-tearns and settled in 
Sutter county near Yuba City. For twelve 
years Mr. Welsh carried on a stock ranch in 
that neighborhood. During the latter part of 
1871 he came to Plumas county and bought 
about thirteen hundred acres, principallv sit- 
uated in Humbug valley, where he built a small 
sawmill and also erected a hotel for the enter- 
tainment of summer guests. Though not an 
oflfice-seeker nor interested actively in politics, 
he is a stanch Republican and gives his influence 
to his party and to such of his friends as are 
candidates for local positions. By his marriage 
to Miss Sarah Daniels, a native of Pennsylva- 
nia, he has six children, namely: John W., a 
rancher residing in Butte county; Columbus, 
who also follows ranching; Melissa, widow of 
John McCalpine. of Sutter county: Gara, wife 
of W. A. Ward, and a resident of Oroville, this 
state; Tenie. Mrs. James Walch. a widows ; and 
Webster, who makes his home with his parents 
in Humbug vallev. 



766 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



DENIS WOOD. Aniong the enterprising 
and progressive business men of Susanville 
Denis Wood holds a substantial position. As 
junior member of the well-known firm of Hun- 
singer & Wood he is carrying on an extensive 
trade in meats of all kinds, and is one oi the lead- 
ing stock buyers and dealers of Lassen coitnty. 
A son of the late Jeremiah Wood, he was bom 
December 25, 1852, in Cherokee, twelve miles 
north of Nevada City, being the second white 
male child born in Nevada county. 

Born in Ireland in 1812, Jeremiah Wood spent 
his boyhood days in the old country. When old 
enough to begin life on his own account he im- 
migrated to America, locating first in New York 
state. In 1849 ^"2 joined the band of emigrants 
seeking for gold in the western fields, and tak- 
ing the Panama route came to the Pacific coast. 
Locating in Nevada county, he was there for 
several years employed in placer and h\draulic 
mining. In 1887 he took up his residence in 
Susanville, and remained here until his death, 
in 1889. In 1 85 1 he married .\nn Clifford, who 
was born in Ireland, and died in San Francisco, 
Cal. Of the five sons and one daughter born of 
their union, all are living with the exception of 
one son. Those besides Denis, the subject of this 
sketch, are: J. C, engaged in stock-raising in 
Weiser, Idaho; Mrs. Katie O'Neill, of Nevada 
City ; and T. F. and J. H., stockmen at The 
Dalles, Ore. 

Brought up in Nevada county. Denis Wood 
obtained his early education in the common 
schools, subsequently acquiring some knowledge 
of farming and stock-raising. In 1872, with his 
brother, J. C. Wood, he came to Susanville, and 
as a member of the fim: of Wood Brothers 
opened a meat market and engaged in the 
butchering business, at the same time buying a 
farm at Willow Creek, where he engaged ex- 
tensively in stock-raising. His shop was sub- 
sequently burned, and afterward he was for a 
time in business with J. R. Cain. In 1888 Mr. 
Wood was elected county sherifif of Lassen coun- 
ty, and for two years, from January, 1889, until 
January, 1891, rendered e.xcellent service in that 
capacity. Continuing the butcher business, Mr. 
Wood was for a time in partnership with John 



Long, but has since been a member of the firm 
of Hunsinger & Wood. 

January 9, 1880, in Susanville, Cal., Mr. Wood 
married Belle Johnston, who was born in Mich- 
igan, one of the six children of the late Robert 
Johnston, of whom a brief sketch may be found 
elsewhere in this volume. Of the union of Mr. 
and Mrs. Wood six children have been born, 
namely: Leda, Frank, Walter (who died Janu- 
ary 13, 1905, aged nineteen years), Marie, John 
and Raymond. In his political affiliations Mr. 
Wood is a stanch Democrat, and for a number 
of years served as school trustee. He is a mem- 
ber of Silver Star Lodge No. 135, I. O. O. F., 
and is one of the charter members of Lassen 
Parlor No. 99, N. S. G. W., which he represent- 
ed as a delegate to the Grand Parlor which met 
in Nevada Citv. 



AUGUSTUS CASSIUS HUNSINGER, sen- 
ior member of the firm of Hunsinger & Wood, 
was born at Burnt Prairie, WTiite county. 111., 
November 13, 1856, a son of Benjamin F. Hun- 
singer, a farmer. Early in the "Gos Benjamin 
F. Hunsinger crossed the plains with ox-teams, 
accompanied by his wife and three children, and 
after journeying for six months arrived at In- 
dian X'alley, Cal., where he was engaged in ag- 
ricultural pursuits for many seasons. In 1889 
he came to Susanville, and here resided until his 
death, in 1899. His wife, whose maiden name 
was Electra Gillison, was born in White coun- 
ty, 111., and now resides at Fort Jones, Cal. Of 
the six children born of their union four are 
living. .Augustus Cassius being the third child in 
order of birth. Beginning life for himself when 
of age. Mr. Hunsinger engaged in teaming, for 
ten years driving for Nevells, of Plumas Eureka 
Mine. Locating in .Susanville in 1885. he em- 
barked in the butchering business, his market 
being on the same street upon which his present 
]>lace of l)usiness is located. Twice has he been 
liurned out. but each time he has rebuilt, and has 
added up-to-date improvements. The firm of 
Hunsinger & Wood has one of the neatest and 
most completely fitted markets in the cit\'. with a 
good refrigerator, and all the requisites for sup- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



767 



plyiiit; their patrons with the best possible serv- 
ice. The ice-house, with a capacity of forty tons, 
is in the rear of the market, and nearby is the 
large packing house and electric-power estab- 
lishment, while the slaughter house is a mile and 
a half out of the city. This firm carries on 
an extensive pork packing business, and has the 
well-deserved reputation of producing and cur- 
ing the finest hams and bacon in the county. 

.\t Plumas Eureka Aline, in 1883, Mr. Hun- 
singer married Fannie Woodward, who was lx)rn 
in the Mohawk valley, Plumas county, a daughter 
of George Woodward, now residing in Johns- 
ville, Cal. Mr. and Mrs. Hunsinger are the 
parents of six children, namely: Jessie P.. of 
Oakland, Cal. ; Lola, Martha, Willa, Leland and 
Alice. Politically Mr. Hunsinger is a Democrat, 
and for the past fifteen years has been a member 
of the board of school trustees, serving in 1900, 
when the new brick public school building was 
erected. Fraternally he is a member of Lassen 
Lodge No. 149, F. & A. M., of Lassen Chap- 
ter, R. A. M., and of the Rebekahs, and is past 
grand of the Odd Fellows lodge, of which he is 
a member. Mrs. Hunsinger is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church and one of its act- 
ive workers. 



CHARLES PERRY. An old settler of Sierra 
county, Charles Perry was torn in St. Louis 
county, Mo., April 29, 1824, and was a son of 
Jack and Theresa (Marshall) Perry, natives re- 
spectively of Canada and St. Louis county. Mo. 
During an early day his father settled in Missouri 
and purchased from Spaniards a tract of sixty 
acres lying fourteen miles west of the city of 
St. Louis. When the Indians began to commit 
depredations and endangered the lives of the 
settlers he enlisted in a volunteer company and 
aided in subduing them. Aiter an active life 
covering eighty years he died at his home place 
and on the same farm occurred the death of his 
wife at about ninety years of age. Tlicir son, 
Charles, remained on the home farm until his 
marriage at the age of eighteen years, after 
which he was employed on a steamer running 
up the Illinois river, then on a boat amning 
23 



south to New Orleans, also worked on a levee 
and handled freight in St. Louis. For four 
years he was employed during the winter months 
as a wood chopper in Illinois, his work being 
in Calhoun county. Meantime in the summer 
he assisted in running wood boats down the 
Mississippi river. As a pilot he had few sujx;- 
riors in those days; every mile of the river-bed 
was known to him, and he displayed skill in 
piloting the boats safely to their destinations. 

Relinquishing all of his activities in that sec- 
tion of the country, Mr. Perry in 1852 came 
across the plains to California, bringing with 
him a yoke of o.xen and a wagon. His first 
location was at Devil's Gate, where a brother- 
in-law had a trading post. The winter w^as spent 
there, and meanwhile he erected a bridge across 
Sweetwater creek and was paid $3 per wagon 
by emigrants desiring to cross. After having 
conducted the toll bridge during the summer 
of 1853, in the spring of the following year 
he put up another bridge, but emigration was 
small that year and the water low. Selling his 
interest, he went fifty miles up the river to 
Warm Springs, where he carried on a small trad- 
ing post. The following summer he carried on 
a small store at Big Sandy. In .August of 1856 
he arrived in the Sierra valley, where he worked 
at baling hay during the first season and the next 
year took a contract to bale hay for $25 per ton, 
clearing from this work $900 in six weeks. The 
next step which he took was the taking up of 
a ranch near Sierraville. where he accumulated 
a tract of about four hundred acres, and engaged 
in raising stock cattle and in general farm pur- 
suits. After a time he turned his attention to 
the raising of horses and made this his specialty 
until 1895, when he sold the land and the stock. 
( )n retiring from ranch work he removed to 
Oak Park, a suburb of Sacramento, where he 
bought four lots and erected a substantial house. 
In March of 1905 he returned to Sierraville, 
Sierra county, where he made his home with a 
daughter, Mrs. Henry Slipner. until his death, 
November 7, 1905. 

Before leaving Missouri Mr. Perry lost his 
first WMfe and after coming to the west he mar- 
ried Miss Margaret Murphy, who was born in 



768 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Ireland, came to the United States at the age 
of fourteen years and settled in California as 
early as 1856. Here. she spent her remaining 
years and died at the age of sixty-five. Ten 
children were bom of their union, namely : 
Amanda, widow of Theodore Blasedell and a 
resident of Sierra county ; George W. of Loyal- 
ton, Cal. ; Mary Jane, Mrs. James I. Noblet. who 
lives at Chico, this state; Stacy A., Mrs. Henry 
Slipner, who lives in Sierraville, her husband 
being a rancher; Mrs. Maggie Swall, of Reno. 
Nev. ; Sophrotiia, who is the wife of Joseph 
Derwatcher, of Sierra county ; Susan, deceased : 
Henry, who died at fourteen years ; Charles, now 
in Alaska ; and Joseph, deceased. In his political 
views Mr. Perry always supported Democratic 
principles, but never maintained any active part 
in local or countv affairs. 



JARED BATES. Prominent among the in- 
telligent and prosperous agriculturists of the 
Sierra valley is Jared Bates, a rancher and 
stockman, living seven miles southeast of Beck- 
with. He is an experienced farmer, and in the 
pursuit of his chosen occupation is exercising 
great skill and excellent judgment. A son of 
David Bates, he was born in Concord. Somer- 
set county. Me., September 21, 1840, coming 
from substantial colonial stock. His paternal 
grandfather, Jared Bates, for whom he was 
named, lived to the ripe old age of ninety years, 
spending his entire life in Maine, his home be- 
ing near Augusta. 

David Bates was likewise a life-long resident 
of Maine, dving on the farm which he had im- 
proved, at the age of seventy-one years. He 
married Sarah Partridge, a native of Maine, 
and the descendant of one of the older New 
England families. She died when comparative- 
ly voung, being but forty-eight years of age 
when she passed to the higher life. 

Born and reared on a farm, Jared Bates ob- 
tained his early knowledge of books in the dis- 
trict schools, remaining with his parents until 
becoming of age. Fired with the patriotic en- 
thusiasm of a long line of New England ances- 



tors he offered his services to his country dur- 
ing the Civil War, enlisting, December 7, 1861, 
in the Fourth Maine Light Field Artillery as 
gunner, but afterwards being promoted to the 
rank of sergeant. The first winter he spent 
with his compan)- in Augusta, and in the spring 
was ordered to Washington, where for ten 
weeks he was ill in a hospital. Recovering his 
health, he joined his regiment at Fort Ramsay, 
\'a., and subsequently took part in the follow- 
ing-named engagements : Cedar Mountain, 
South Mountain, Md. ; .-Xntietam ; second battle 
of Bull Run; Chantilly ; Battles of the Wilder- 
ness, north and south : Brandy Station : Mine 
Run ; Gaines' Mills ; Spottsylvania ; Cold Har- 
bor ; and in all of the engagements at the siege 
of Petersburg, the battery that he was connect- 
ed with firing the first shots into that city. Mr. 
Bates first enlisted for three years, and at the 
expiration of the time veteranized and though 
often a participant in fierce battles, he was never 
wounded. On June 15, 1865, in Augusta, Me., 
he was honorably discharged from service with 
a record . for courage and bravery of which he 
may well be proud. 

Returning home, J\Ir. Bates purchased a farm, 
which he managed successfully for about eight 
years. .Selling out in 1873 he came to Califor- 
nia, locating in the Sierra valley, and for two 
years worked in the large dairy operated bv his 
brother-in-law. Then, with a partner, he 
bought out the proprietor, and continued dairy- 
ing two years, when the partnership was dis- 
solved and the property divided. Mr. Bates 
then invested his money in land, buying one 
hundred and sixty acres of his present home 
farm, to which he has subsequently added by 
purcha.sie. having now a clear title to ten hun- 
dred and fifty acres of choice land. For many 
years he made a specialty of dairying, keeping 
from twenty-five to sixty cows, but since 1902 
he has given up dairying, and now devotes his 
attention to raising stock, hay and grain. He 
keeps from one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
dred head of cattle, mostly Herefords, and is 
nnich interested in breeding and raising horses, 
having from twenty-five to forty Percherons. 
]\Iarch 8, 1868, in Somerset county, Me., Mr. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



709 



ilatcs married .Mrs. .Mary A. Savage, who was 
Ijorn in Maine, and they have one child, Ulysses 
Grant Bates, who is interested in business with 
his father. Politically Mr. IJates is a sound Re- 
publican, but has steadily refused all official 
honors. Several years ago he secured a charter 
for the establishment of the South Mountain 
Post, G. A. R., at Loyalton, and gave to the post 
its name, but the membership was so small that 
the organization had to be given up. 



JOSEPH H. FLETCHER. The residence 
of the Fletcher family in California covers prac- 
tically the entire period since the discovery of 
gold, the first of the name in the state having 
been Thomas H., a native of Belfast, Me., and 
a seafaring man by occupation, for some years 
the captain of a vessel that sailed the broad 
waters of the Atlantic ocean. However, after 
his marriage to Mary Ann Brown, a native of 
Brownsville, Me., he abandoned the sea and 
sought an occupation that would permit him to 
remain with his family. For some years he was 
engaged in mercantile and lumbering industries 
at Oldtown, Penobscot county. Me., but u]x)n 
learning of the discovery of gold in California 
he made arrangements to dispose of his property 
in the east in order that he might try his for- 
tunes in the then unknown regions of the west- 
ern coast. During the year 1850 he and other 
sailors purchased a ship and sailed around the 
Horn, reaching San Francisco after a long but 
uneventful journey, .\fter a brief experience in 
the mines of Georgetown he proceeded to 
Downievillc, lx)ught a pack train and engaged 
in freighting between Marysville and Downie- 
ville. During the year 1852 he also became in- 
terested in a mercantile establishment, although 
he did not then relinquish his management of 
the pack-train. After buying an interest in the 
Gold Bluff mine near Downieville in 1857 he 
acted as its superintendent for some years, but 
the mine did not prove to be a paying undertak- 
ing and he eventually abandoned its working. 

Coming to the Sierra valley in 1863 Mr. 
Fletcher engaged in operating a sawmill near 



Sattley. At first this was run by water ix>wer, 
but in 1870 he introduced steam, making of the 
mill a first-class plant with modern equipments. 
Unfortunately he carried no insurance and when 
the mill burned to the ground he suffered a loss 
of $30,000. In politics he voted with the Re- 
publican ])arty, but did not maintain any active 
part in political afTairs nor did he ever seek 
office. At the time of his death in 1881 he was 
sixty-six years of age. His wife, who had come 
to California via Panama with her three chil- 
dren, died at San Francisco at the age of eighty 
years, firm in the faith of the Congregational 
church, with which for years she had been iden- 
tified. 

.'\mong the children of Thomas H. l-'lelcher 
and his wife there was a son, named Joseph H., 
who was born in Penobscot county. Me., July 9, 
1843. At the age of fourteen years he came to 
California. Prior to that time he had studied in 
public schools and afterward he attended the 
Collegiate Institute at Benicia. On leaving col- 
lege he became connected with his father as a 
sawyer in the mill, also worked on a ranch. In 
1882 by the running of a wagon over him he 
suffered the loss of the left limb, which it was 
necessary to amputate below the knee. On re- 
covering his health he engaged in the drug busi- 
ness at Johnsville. Plumas county, and mean- 
while became actively associated with the local 
work of the Republican party. \\'hen attending 
a county convention as delegate he was nomi- 
nated for recorder and at the election won by a 
flattering majority, although he had made no 
special effort to win and had done little can- 
vassing. On his election he sold the drug busi- 
ness and removed to Quincy to enter upon his 
official duties. Two years later he was again 
elected to the office and at the expiration of his 
second term he was appointed justice of the 
peace at Quincy, later serving as coroner and 
public administrator for four years. Upon re- 
tiring from the latter position he removed to San 
Francisco, where now he makes his home at \o. 
374 Shotwell street. Since 1902 he has traveled 
in California and Nevada as the representative 
of a San Francisco wholesale house dealing in 
clothing, shirts and neckwear. Though no 



770 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



longer a resident of the Sierra valley he often 
visits his old home and his visits are always wel- 
comed by his former associates, for he is a 
genial, companionable man, with an interesting 
fund of anecdote and a broad range of knowl- 
edge. In 1866 he married Miss Mary A. Himes, 
who was born in New York. Eleven children 
were born of their union, but they suffered a 
deep bereavement in losing all but two of them 
while they were yet young. Those now living 
are George T., a millwright at San Francisco, 
and Esther M., wife of A. J. Lorshettcr, of San 
Francisco. Ever since casting his first ballot for 
Abraham Lincoln at his second election Mr. 
Fletcher has supported Republican principles and 
candidates, and has kept posted concerning the 
issues of the age. 



MRS. MARGARET A. DROEGE, former- 
ly Margaret Sauer, was born in Ober-Hessen, 
Germany, August 20, 1848, and was reared and 
educated in her native country until she was four- 
teen years of age. During the year 1862 she 
landed in the United States, coming immediately 
to Plumas county. Gal., where she has since re- 
sided. In 1865 she was married to Adam 
Droege, who is a native of Prussia, coming to 
this country in 1852. Three children were bom 
to them, all in Indian Valley, viz. : Frederick, 
who resides at Quincy, this county ; Frances, who 
married Asa Gray, of Quincy ; and W. Roy, who 
is on the home farm, and assists in its manage- 
ment. 

A short time after their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Droege came to Indian Valley and pur- 
chased the home ranch, consisting of one hun- 
dred and ninety acres of valley land, and home- 
steaded one hundred and sixty acres of timber 
land adjoining. This was all improved, and they 
erected upon it a comfortable residence, good 
barns and other out-buildings, etc.. and it is now 
a valuable piece of real estate lying near Tay- 
lorsville, where general farming and stock-rais- 
ing are carried on with splendid success. Mr. 
Droege has mining interests near Greenville, this 
county, which occupy the greater portion of his 



time and attention, and he is thus compelled to 
leave the greater part of the management and op- 
eration of the ranch to his wife and son. As 
Mrs. Droege is thoroughly efficient, she is suc- 
cessful in the performance of the duties which 
have thus fallen upon her. Energetic and tactful, 
she is a most estimable woman, ever at the front 
when duty calls. 



ISRAEL K. NYE. A successful rancher and 
dairyman of Indian valley, Plumas county, is 
Israel K. Nye, who resides near Taylorsville. 
He was born in Berks county, Pa., September i, 
1844, and spent his boyhood with his parents on 
the home farm, attending the common schools 
until about fifteen years of age. When he was a 
young lad his parents removed to Dauphin coun- 
ty. Pa., farming on rented land there until their 
deaths. In 1878 Mr. and Mrs. Nye came to Cal- 
ifornia, settling in Taylorsville, Plumas county, 
where he mined until 1893 with fair success. He 
then rented the Blood ranch in Indian valley and 
carried on general farming and dairying until 
1 901, at which time he rented the Thompson 
ranch. This consists of about seven hundred 
acres, three hundred of which is good farm land 
and the remainder in timber, and in connection 
with this he operates his own land of two hun- 
dred and forty acres (mostly grazing land) at 
Lone Rock in this county, also one hundred and 
fifty acres on the north arm near Taylorsville, 
where he carries on a dairy business during the 
winters. He has over one thousand acres of land 
under his control, and has been successful in its 
management, being now on the road to financial 
independence. 

In 1871 Mr. Nye was married to Miss Elmira 
A. Carpman, who was born in Dauphin county. 
Pa., and five children were born to them, viz. : 
Amos A., who died when eight years of age; 
Gracie, who married Charles Adams of Taylors- 
ville ; Galen, who resides in Pennsylvania ; Plu- 
mas and Walter, both at home. In politics Mr. 
Nye supports the Republican platform, and both 
he and his wife were brought up in the Lutheran 
church. Mrs. Nye is a most estimable woman 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



771 



ami a devoted wile and niollier, making her hus- 
band a helpmeet in the truest acceptation of the 
term. She has been carrying on the farming op- 
erations during the absence of her husband, who 
has other interests to occupy his attention. 



H. C. FLOURNOY. One of the prominent 
and successful citizens of Plumas county is H. C. 
Flournoy, who is a native of this state, and a 
son of Robert S. Flournoy, a pioneer settler of 
California, a full account of whose career will 
be found elsewhere in this volume. H. C. Flour- 
noy was born at Taylorsvilie, Plumas county, 
October 14, 1865, and when he was a year old 
his parents removed to a farm, where he spent 
his childhood and attended the public school. 
\Vlien about eighteen years old he took charge 
of the ranch which his father had deeded to him- 
self, his brother and a sister, consisting of some 
four hundred and fifty acres, three hundred of 
which were under cultivation, the remainder in 
pasture land. In 1892 he was candidate for the 
office of clerk and auditor, but was defeated in 
the election by only one vote. In November, 
1894, however, he was the successful candidate 
for both of these offices, and the following 
month gave up the management of his ranch in 
order to devote all of his time to his official du- 
ties. In 1898 he was elected to the same offices 
on the Democratic ticket in a county that was 
three hundred Republican. In 1902 he was nom- 
inated for re-election, but was defeated, after 
which he became manager for J. M. Engle, a 
real estate and mining promoter of Plumas 
county. 

September 28, 1903, when the Plumas County 
Bank was opened at Quincy, Mr. Flournoy, who 
had been the principal promoter of the move- 
ment to organize this bank, became its cashier 
and manager, which position he has since held. 
Of the two hundred and fifty shares of stock in 
this organization, he at one time held forty, but 
has since disposed of part of his holdings. The 
capital stock of the bank is $25,000. The organ- 
ization has proved a very successful one and has 
had a steady growth. 



December 9, 1896, Mr. Flournoy was married 
to Flora Gansner, the first white girl born on 
the old Camp French Bar, on the east branch of 
the north fork of Feather river, in this county. 
She was born in May, 1868, and has spent her 
life in this county. Her father, Florian Gans- 
ner, is a sawmill and mining man of this county. 

In politics Mr. Flournoy is a Democrat and 
has been taking an active part in political move- 
ments since he was a young man. Fraternally 
he is identified with Plumas Lodge No. 88, I. O. 
( ). F., and with the Native Sons of the Golden 
West, Ouincy Parlor No. 131, having passed all 
the chairs of both organizations. Aside from the 
management of the bank, lie has extensive min- 
ing interests in I'lumas county. Personally he 
is a man of magnificent physique, standing six 
feet three and one-quarter inches in height, and 
with qualities of mind and heart corresponding 
with his physical appearance. Having no chil- 
dren of their own, Mr. and Mrs. Flournoy have 
ado]5ted a daughter, Tennye Zola Flournoy. 



LOUIS NELSON PETER. A prominent 
attorney of Quincy, Plumas county, is Louis 
Nelson Peter, who was born in this county, 
-March 24, 1872, the son of William Thomas 
Peter, a successful rancher and prominent citi- 
zen of the county, an account of whose career 
will be found elsewhere in this volume. His 
mother, Sarah Isabelle Evans, is a native of Fay- 
ette county. 111. Mr. Peter spent his boyhood 
on his father's ranch, attending the public 
schools until he was twenty years of age, when 
he entered the San Jose Business College, from 
which he was graduated in the spring of 1893. 
The following fall he entered the law office of 
Judge C. E. Mclaughlin of Ouincy, now on the 
bench of the court of appeals of California, and 
in 1895 was admitted to the bar. The follow- 
ing year, 1896, he began practicing his profes- 
sion, in which he has since continued. 

Mr. Peter has for some years been quite prom- 
inent in politics and in 1898 was a candidate on 
the Democratic ticket for district attorney 
against U. S. Webb, the present attorney gen- 



772 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



eral, but was defeated by only ten votes in a 
strong Republican county. In 1902 he was 
again nominated for the same office and this time 
was elected by a majority of fifty-two votes and 
has proved an efficient officer, performing the 
duties pertaining thereto to the satisfaction of 
his constituents. 

February 22, 1899, Mr. Peter was married to 
Miss Jessie Johnson, a native of this state, hav- 
ing been born in Plumas county at Big Meadows, 
and a daughter of Burwell Johnson. Three 
children have been born to them, viz.: Mabel C, 
Louis Nelson, Jr., and Earl Vern. Fraternally 
Mr. Peter is identified with Quincy Parlor No. 
131, N. S. G. W., of which he was secretary for 
several years. He is of a genial, kindly disposi- 
tion, and is very popular both in social and polit- 
ical life. 



ARTHUR W. KEDDIE. Whatever their 
nationality or previous environment, the citizens 
of Quincy are one in their admiration for their 
home city and their faith in its possibilities. 
Among its residents none is more loyal or en- 
thusiastic than Arthur W. Keddie, who is one 
of California's pioneers and has witnessed the 
gradual development of the local industries as 
well as the growth in population. For a great 
many years he carried on an extensive abstract 
business and as surveyor and civil and mining 
engineer had established a large patronage, but 
he has recently turned the abstract and engineer- 
ing work over to a ]>artner and is now devot- 
ing his entire time to the interests of the West- 
ern Pacific Railroad. As assistant chief engineer 
of the road he has charge of the project under 
way to construct the road through Beckwith 
Pass in the Sierras and by way of the North 
Fork of the Feather river. The selection of a 
route for the great transcontinental railway 
through Plumas county represents I\Ir. Keddie's 
thought and labor for the past thirty-five years 
and it is with just pride that he witnesses its 
consummation. As an evidence of the regard in 
which he is held by his fellow-citizens we quote 
from a local paper concerning his recent ac- 
complishment : 'Tn dollars and cents it is not 



easy to estimate the value of Mr. Keddie's serv- 
ices to his employers. To him the people of 
Plumas county owe a debt of gratitude which 
few of them fully appreciate. When the West- 
ern i'acific Railway Company shall have placed 
one hundred miles of road within the limits of 
Plumas, and the development of our forest and 
mineral resources shall have begun on a large 
scale, our people will better realize the value of 
his efforts." 

A. W. Keddie is a native of Perthshire, Scot- 
land, and was born June 27, 1842. His parents 
removing to Canada, however, when he was 
only one year old he has no personal knowledge 
of his native land, and until twenty-one years 
of age remained an inmate of his parents' Can- 
adian home. At an early age he had displayed a 
])redilection for surveying and after completing 
his apprenticeship as a civil engineer, took a 
practical course under the Canadian government, 
all of which was accomplished by tlie time he 
had reached his twenty-first year. At this age, 
in the fall of 1863, he came to CalifoTnia, and 
for about a year practiceil surveying in and 
around San Francisco, but in 1864 he came to 
Plumas county and from that day to the present 
his interests have been centered in this part of 
the west. The immediate cause of his removal 
to this county was for the purpose of making 
a survey between the American and Indian val- 
leys. By the time he had resided in the state 
five years he was entitled to his naturalization 
papers, and as a citizen of the United States in 
1868 he was nominated and elected surveyor of 
Plumas county. The following year he was 
appointed L'nited States deputy surveyor, a posi- 
tion which he has held uninterruptedly up to 
the present time. During his early career as 
surveyor he made a map of the county for the 
use of the supervisors before the government 
surveys had been made, and later Mr. Keddie's 
survey was accepted for government use. 

Returning to Canada for his bride, June 9, 
1869, Mr. Keddie was united in marriage with 
Miss Margaret D. Barnes, who was a native of 
England, but was reared in Canada. At her death 
November 16, 1901, besides a devoted husband 
she left four children to mourn her loss, as fol- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



r3 



lows : Margaret K., the widow of C. H. Kahrs ; 
Helen, the wife of Gilbert Palmer, at home ; Will- 
iam Arthur, assistant engineer on the United 
States geological survey works in Nevada, hav- 
ing graduated from the L'niversitv of Nevada ; 
and Edith, who is also at home with her father. 
Mr. Keddie is thoroughly versed in the history, 
plans and principles of the Republican party, of 
which he is a stanch supporter, and for several 
years he served as chairman of the county central 
committee. His fraternal affiliations include mem- 
bership in Plumas Lodge No. 60, 1*". & .X. M., 
of which he was master for twelve years ; Granite 
Chapter No. 94, R. A. M., at Loyalton ; and the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. Personally 
Mr. Keddie is a man of cjuiet tastes, modest and 
unassuming, though the work which he is ac- 
complishing is making a marked impress upon 
the trend of events in California. The record of 
his life is entitled to a place of distinction in the 
annals of the state. 



JAMES MEGOWN. Plumas county has 
been the scene of many mining experiences 
since gold was discovered within its confines, and 
among those who participated in them the name 
of James Megown figures prominently. He 
traces his ancestry to Scotland, whence the pa- 
ternal grandfather removed to Ireland, and in 
County Down his son James, the father of our 
subject, was born. He was a participant in the 
War of 181 2, in which he engaged in hauling 
ammunition. 

James Megown, Jr., was born in P.utler county. 
Pa., November 29, 1819, and was reared in that 
county until the family removed to New Brigh- 
ton, Beaver county, same state. There he sub- 
sequently learned the brick-layer's trade, io\- 
lowing this for some vears in addition to taking 
contracts for the erection of blast furnaces and 
similar structures. During the gold excitement 
of 1856 he was one of those who left their homes 
in the east and came to California by way of the 
Isthmus of Panama. His first experience was 
at Eureka South, Nevada county, where he 
mined during the summer, and then came to 



Plumas county, and in the vicinity of his present 
property carried on mining and prospecting. In 
i<S57 he purchased the Burton gulch, also in this 
county, and after working it one year gave it up 
to establish a brick-yard in Nevada City. For 
several years he carried this on with splendid 
results, and in the meantime erected a number 
of buildings. The latter business he was en- 
abled to follow throughout all the seasons of 
the year, and when the water season was on he 
followed mining in addition to his other duties. 
He is the owner of the famous Megown quartz 
mine, located about six miles northwest of 
Meadow X'alley, which for several years pro- 
duced large quantities of gold, but which is not 
now in operation. Mr. Megown anticipates sell- 
ing his mine in the near future, as owing to his 
advanced age he is no longer able to run it. 

November 18, 1846. Mr. Megown was married 
to Miss Nancy Moore, who was born in Beaver 
county, Pa., and came to California about the 
year 1875. Mr. and Mrs. Megown became the 
parents of six children, but with one exception all 
are deceased. The only child living is James 
C, who is a brick-layer in San Francisco. Polit- 
ically Mr. Megown is a Republican, and al- 
though he has always taken a keen interest in 
affairs of a public nature, he could never be in- 
duced to hold office. Before coming west he was 
made a Mason in Union Lodge No. 259, A. F. & 
.\. M., at New Brighton, Pa. 



ANDREW MILLER. During a long period 
of busy years the business interests and stock in- 
dustrv of Plumas and Lassen counties were ably 
represented by the progressive pioneer whose 
name introduces this article. By birth a German 
and by training an .American. Mr. Miller com- 
bined the thrift of the one race with the enter- 
])rise of the other and thus became the possessor 
of cpialities admirably ada])ting him for the suc- 
cessful prosecution of such affairs as engaged 
his attention. .\s a pioneer of 1849 he witnessed 
the development of California from the earliest 
period of .Xmerican occupancy and aided in fos- 
tering its industries and promoting its prosper- 



774 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



ity. Among the people of that section of north- 
ern Cahfornia where long he made his home he 
is remembered as a loyal citizen, efficient in- 
cumbent of local offices, sagacious merchant and 
enterprising stock-raiser, a man who without 
aid from others accumulated a competency and 
left to his heirs a goodly estate as well as the 
memory of an honorable life. 

Born in Bavaria, Germany, June 8, 1826, An- 
drew Miller was a boy of twelve years when he 
accompanied his parents to the United States 
and settled in Missouri. In the spring of 1849 
he joined a party bound for the gold mines of the 
trans-mountain region. The journey was made 
with ox-teams and horses and proved uneventful, 
but fatiguing. It was during September that he 
arrived at Hangtown (now Placerville), where 
he tried his luck in the mines for a year or more. 
No special good fortune awaited his industrious 
efforts, so he turned to other avenues of em- 
ployment, and began to run a pack train from 
Sacramento and Marysville to the different min- 
ing camps. As early as 1855 he opened stores 
in Humbug valley and Marion Flat, also with 
a partner owned and operated a general store in 
Susanville. When the building of the wagon 
roads caused the packing business to be unprofit- 
able he sold his teams and gave up freighting, 
after which he devoted his time to merchandis- 
ing. 

An appointment as receiver of the L'nited 
States land office at Susanville caused Mr. Miller 
to remove to that city in 1874 and for twelve 
years he filled the position with characteristic 
enterprise and fidelity. Upon retiring from of- 
fice he returned to Plumas county and settled in 
Humbug valley upon a tract which he had ac- 
quired as early as 1856. To the original prop- 
erty he added from time to time until eventuallv 
he acquired about eleven hundred acres, a part 
of which was fertile valley land, while the bal-, 
ance was timber and grazing land. The raising 
of stock was his specialty and brought him ex- 
cellent returns in the course of the vears. Mean- 
while he became active in politics. When the 
Republican party was first organized in Plumas 
county he assisted in placing its affairs upon a 
substantial basis and was one of its founders. 



In recognition of his activity he was tendered 
the office of supervisor in i860 by members of 
his party, and again, thirty-five years later, he 
was made a member of the same board. When 
the postoffice was established at Longville in 
i860 he was chosen' the postmaster and continued 
in the office for a long period, while at the pres- 
ent time the family still have charge of the office. 

The marriage of Mr. Miller took place August 
24, 1862, and united him with Miss Lydia A. 
Russell, who was born in Maine, August 20, 
1838, and came to California via Panama in 
i860, hoping that the change of climate might 
prove of benefit to her health. Since then she 
has continued to reside in the west, with health 
restored under the invigorating influence of the 
genial climate of the mountain regions. In her 
family there are six children, namely : Maude, 
who married P. K. Heard and lives in Modoc 
county, this state ; Keith R., a business man of 
Sterling, Cal. ; Frank L., who with his youngest 
brother has charge of the home ranch; Mabel 
L., who resides with her mother and has charge 
of the store and office at Longville ; Perley J., 
of San Francisco; and Markel, who with Frank 
superintends the home place and also has charge 
of an adjoining property of one hundred and 
sixty acres. 

interested in fraternal matters, Mr. Miller 
was associated with the blue lodge, chapter and 
commandery at Susanville, and in his life en- 
deavored to exemplify the noble teachings of 
Alasonry, as well as the doctrines of the Congre- 
gational church, to which he gave earnest alle- 
giance. When death called him* from the center 
of his activities, December 6, 1903, the loss was 
felt to be a deep bereavement for family and 
friends and a distinct loss to the citizenship of 
Plumas county. The year after his demise the 
home was burned to the ground by accident and 
immediately afterward the family built on the 
same site a commodious hotel, where in the sum- 
mer they board city guests seeking the fine air 
of the mountains and the excellent hunting and 
camping facilities offered. The sons have suc- 
ceeded to the management of the ranch which 
is now owned by their mother, and tliev also 
have mining interests inherited from their 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



75 



father, so tliat with stock-raising, dairying and 
superintending the family's business and mining 
affairs they as yet have found Httle leisure for 
participation in politics or social n;atters, al- 
though they are public-spirited, progressive and 
generous in contributions to movements for the 
upbuilding of their community. 



L. S. WILSON was born in Bethany, Genesee 
county, N. Y., September 25, 1833, a son of 
John and Laura (Howard) Wilson, both na- 
tives of New Hampshire. When he was a lad 
of sixteen years John Howard volunteered in 
the war of 1812, after his service was over re- 
turning to New York, remaining there until 
about twent\-five years ago, when his son 
brought him to California, the mother having 
died some time previously. Here his earth life 
came to a close, and his remains were interred in 
Fort Jones cemetery. 

L. S. Wilson was reared to young manhood in 
Bethany, N. Y., receiving his education in the 
common schools, and when nineteen years of 
age set out on his independent career. Going to 
New York City he obtained employment as 
clerk in a mercantile establishment, but was 
there only six months when he was seized with 
a desire to come to the gold fields of California. 
In the spring of 1853, notwithstanding the fact 
that he possessed limited means, he took steam- 
er at New York, and rounding Cape Horn, ar- 
rived in San Francisco, where he remained but 
a short time. Going to Auburn, he found him- 
self without funds, and accepted the first em- 
ployment that offered, which happened to be 
waiting on table in one of the hotels. As soon 
as he had saved a little money he engaged in 
mining, but w-as not very successful, and hav- 
ing a brother in Siskiyou county, he started for 
that county afoot. Upon his arrival there he 
obtained employment with a Mr. Calahan, and 
some time later purchased the ranch upon 
which he now lives, near Etna Mills. 

Mr. Wilson was married to Martha Smith of 
Iowa, and six children were born to them, three 
of whom are living, as follows : John M., re- 



siding near his father ; Laura May, who married 
F. I. Wctmore of Etna Mills; and L. S., Jr., 
who lives on the home ranch. Mrs. Wilson died 
several years ago, and is buried in Fort Jones 
Cemetery. Fraternally Mr. Wilson is identified 
with Evening Star Lodge, F. & A. M., at 
Etna, and the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, being one of the two charter members of 
the lodge at Fort Jones. He is a public spiritetl 
man, and it was through his efforts that Etna 
today enjoys the benefits of a public reading 
room and library. On the Republican ticket he 
at one time made the race for assemblyman, but 
was defeated by William Irwin, who was after- 
wards governor of the state. He is a self-made 
man, and having worked hard and obtained a 
competency for his family, he is now living re- 
tired from the activities which for so many 
\ears engaged his attention, and in the evening 
of life is enjoying the fruits of his labor. 



LODOVICO DOTTA. Prominent among 
the enterprising and progressive farmers of 
Plumas county that have met with success in 
their chosen occupation is Lodovico Dotta, of 
Vinton, the owner of a productive farm, lying 
in the Sierra valley. Since purchasing his 
ranch, he has labored wisely, and by the exer- 
cise of his native industry and his able business 
capacity he has rendered it one of the finest 
and most attractive estates in the communitv, 
having the land largely under cultivation, and 
finely improved. He was born in S\vitzerland, 
March 19, 1844, and was brought up on a farm, 
receiving a practical education in his native 
hamlet. 

Leaving home when ,a youth of twenty years, 
Lodovico Dotta determined to seek for himself 
more favorable opportunities for bettering his 
financial condition in America, and October 23, 
1864, landed in New York harbor. Imfnediately 
continuing his journey westward, he arrived 
in San Francisco on November 28, of that vear, 
and from there went to Eldorado county, where 
he was employed in prospecting and mining for 
a number of winters, while during the summer 



776 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



seasons he managed a small ranch and orchard 
he had bought in Garden valley. In 1879, on 
account of ill health, Mr. Dotta sold out his 
possessions in that place, and came to the Sier- 
ra valley, where he worked as a farm hand for 
four years. Investing his money in land here 
in 1883. he purchased his present ranch, and has 
now eight hundred acres in his home place, and 
six hundred acres of grazing land among the 
hills. He carries on general farming success- 
fully, and is specially interested in dairying, 
keeping about forty-five cows, from this branch 
of his industry reaping a good annual income. 

February 14, 1898, Mr. Dotta married Claud- 
ina Ponci, who was born in Switzerland, and 
came from there to America in 1896, arriving in 
New York November 22. Four children have 
been born of the union of ?»lr. and Mrs. Dotta, 
namely : Josie, Rinaldo, Anita, and Lodovico, 
Jr. Politically Mr. Dotta is a sound Democrat, 
but has never cared to hold any public office. 



ROLAND BASS, a native of California, is an 
extensive stock raiser of Lassen county, in which 
business he has been engaged throughout his 
mature years. The youngest in a family of eight 
children, he was born in Elysian valley, Lassen 
county, March 23, 1875, a son of Richard D. and 
Mary (Carlyon) Bass, natives respectively of 
Kentucky and Cornwall, England. The descend- 
ants of pioneers, they both inherited the spirit 
of the early days and in 1853 joined the western 
trend of civilization, with ox-teams and neces- 
sary equipment setting out for California. 
The journey was one of hardship and priva- 
tion and continued for four months and twelve 
days from the date of starting. Safely ended 
at last, in Plumas county Mr. Bass sought 
employment in the mines and remained so occu- 
pied until the fall of 1857. Deciding to estab- 
lish a home in the state, he then came to Las- 
sen county and in Elysian valley purchased the 
squatter's righ.t to property which he continued 
to own up to the time of his death, which oc- 
curred November 11, 1904. He became one of 
the most successful stockmen in this section of 



country, acquiring extensive property in Las- 
sen county and a large stock range in Last Chance 
valley, Plumas county, where he had immense 
herds of cattle. He was recognized as one of the 
leading citizens of Lassen county and was held 
in the highest esteem by all who knew him. He 
is survived by his wife, who still resides on the 
home farm. 

Reared on the home farm Roland Bass re- 
ceived his education in the public school of 
Janesville, and in the meantime learned the stock 
business under the able instruction of his father. 
At the age of eighteen years he began inde- 
pendent operations in this line, establishing the 
brand a circle and bar. He has met with success 
in his venture and bids fair to rank among the 
successful stockmen of northern California. He 
owns a range of twelve hundred and eighty acres 
on Last Chance creek, in Plumas county, where, 
during the summer, he keeps a large herd of cat- 
tle. Mr. Bass has established a home in Lassen 
count}', having married in Reno, Nev., Miss 
Anna Hansen, a native of Janesville, this county. 
Her father. Christian Hansen, a native of Den- 
mark, came to California in the early tlays of the 
state and located in Janesville, where he followed 
his trade of cooper until his death, which oc- 
curred in igo2. His wife is still living and makes 
her home in Janesville. Of their five children 
Mrs. Bass is the oldest. Mr. and Mrs. Bass are 
the ])arents of one son, Edward McDonald. Mr. 
Bass is associated politically with the Democratic 
party, and socially he is a member of Honey Lake 
Parlor, N. S. G. W. He is an esteemed citizen 
of Lassen county, besides the inheritance of a 
good name having built up for himself an hon- 
ored position in the community. 



CHARLES E. EMERSON. Throughout the 
length and breadth of Lassen county the name 
of Charles E. Emerson is . a household word 
among the people ; not only by reason of his 
present service as a county official, but also by 
his connection with a large number of important 
commercial enterprises vitally contributory to the 
progress of the region. Indeed, scarcely an en- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



777 



terprise has been ])rojccted of recent years for 
the permanent development of the comity which 
has not been fostered by his sagacious judgment, 
and not a few undertakings owe their origin to 
his fertile brain and keen foresight. A life- 
long resident of this locality, he was born in 
1868 in Susanville, where he now resides, and is 
the son of the well-known pioneer, Charles Em- 
erson, who crossed the plains in i860, settled in 
Susanville, served in the Indian troubles, became 
prominent in the county and Iniilt. on the present 
site of the Odd Fellows' building, one of the first 
hotels in this section of the state. After varied 
experiences as a miner in different portions of 
the Rocky mountain region, at this writing he 
acts as manager of a mining cnmpanv in Old 
Mexico. 

When eighteen years of age Qiarles E. Emer- 
son began to teach school and the next vear he 
was chosen principal of the Susanville grammar 
school. For seven years he engaged in teaching, 
but meantime he had turned his attention to com- 
mercial pursuits and had acquired mercantile in- 
terests which he still holds. As a merchant lie 
has had various reverses, the most serious of 
which was the loss of his building and stock of 
gCK)ds by fire on three different occasions. Ulti- 
mately he determined to erect a structure as 
nearly fireproof as a building can be, and with 
that end in view he planned the erection of what 
is conceded to be the most substantial structure 
in Lassen county, a building 96x140 feet in di- 
mensions, three stories in height, with basement, 
the brick for the entire block having been manu- 
factured at local brick yards. The office and 
dining-room of the Emerson hotel occupy the 
first floor and the large store conducted by Mr. 
Emerson is also on this floor. On the second 
floor is Emerson hall, equipped with a suitable 
stage and provided with other conveniences that 
make it the best room in the county for concerts 
and theatrical purposes. The hotel was opened 
June 3, 1900, and has since been conducted un- 
der Mr. Emerson's management. At the same 
time he has established a growing trade in mer- 
chandise and agricultural implements. Separate 
from his store is a large fireproof carriage re- 
pository and warehouses. Wholesalers estimate 



that he handles more buggies than any oilier re- 
tail dealer on the I'acific coast. 

Tlie supervision of his large interests in Su- 
sanville does not represent the limit of Mr. Em- 
erson's commercial enterprises. Among his 
other interests may be mentioned the general 
store and the creamery at Standish, of both of 
which he is proprietor and which have been made 
important industries under his pushing leader- 
ship. The creamery manufactures twenty-one 
thousand pounds of butter per month, which is 
shipped to the cities of Nevada and also to San 
Francisco. While all of the enterprises pre- 
viously mentioned have been vitally associated 
with the development of the county, perhaps 
none in which he has an interest bears a closer 
relation to local development than the Lassen 
& Willow Creek Water Company, Incorporated, 
of which he is president and the leading spirit. 
The object of the company is to tap Eagle lake 
and bring its waters through Willow Creek val- 
ley to irrigate the broad expanse of Honey Lake 
valley. Without question it is the greatest en- 
terprise of the kind started in northern Califor- 
nia and when completed will do more to develop 
the natural resources of Honey Lake valley than 
any other plan yet inaugurated. In addition he 
is interested in the development and reclaiming 
of Honey Lake island, and has interests in Wild- 
horse mine in Nevada and Inskip mine in Huttc 
county, this state. 

At Susanville, in 1887, occurred the marriage 
of Mr. Emerson to Miss May, daughter of 
Luther Spencer and niece of the late Judge E. V. 
Spencer, of Susanville. During an early tlay 
Luther Spencer crossed the plains to California, 
after which he followed the carpenter's trade 
and engaged in the manufacture of lumber. 
During the trouble with Indians he offered his 
services and aided in defending the homes of the 
settlers. After an active and honorable life he 
passed away in Susanville in 1875, six years 
after the death of his wife, who was Mary Fran- 
ces Funk, a native of Pennsylvania. In his wife 
Mr. Emerson has found a capable helpmate, one 
possessing the gentleness, refinement and intel- 
ligence tliat win for her ready and permanent 



778 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



friendships. They are the parents of four chil- 
dren, Marie, Tro, Wes and jNIae. 

After attaining liis majority Mr. Emerson be- 
came identified witli Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. 
& A. M., of which he acted as past master for 
two terms ; and later he became a member of 
Lassen Chapter No. 47, R. A. M., Lassen Com- 
mandery No. 13, K. T., and Islam Temple, N. 
M. S., of San Francisco, while with his wife he 
affiliates with Hesperian Lodge No. 112, Order 
of the Eastern Star, at Susanville, in which Mrs. 
Emerson is past worthy matron. On the organ- 
ization of Lassen Parlor No. 99, N. S. G. W., 
he became one of its charter members and later 
was honored with the office of president. Among 
other fraternal relations are his associations with 
the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. Politically he has been a 
stanch and faithful upholder of Republican prin- 
ciples. On the regular party ticket in 1898 he 
was elected assessor of Lassen county by a ma- 
jority of four hundred, and four years later he 
was again elected to the office by an increased 
majority, to serve until January of 1907. This 
office he has filled with credit to himself and to 
the satisfaction of the people, discharging all of 
its duties with promptness and efficiency. To 
conduct so many business responsibilities, in ad- 
dition to filling a county office, demands that a 
man be mentally and physically well balanced, 
and no one can boast of more thorough equip- 
ment in this respect than Mr. Emerson, who has 
a keen, vigorous, alert mind, in a sound, stalwart 
and robust body, and is therefore able to assume 
manifold responsibilities impossible to one of 
less athletic physique. 



JOHN WESLEY HOSSELKUS. The re- 
cent demise of J. W. Hosselkus removed from 
Lassen county one of her prominent and success- 
ful ranchers, his property lying five miles 
southeast of Susanville. His father, Daniel Hos- 
selkus, was born in Herkimer county, N. Y., and 
was a descendant of an old Dutch familv of Hol- 
land. He was a carpenter, mason and farmer 
at Coryville, where his death occurred. His 



mother, formerly Deborah Kellogg, was also a 
native of New York state, and was a member 
of an old New England family. She died in the 
town of Oakfield, N. Y. Both parents were con- 
sistent members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. Six children were born to them, four 
daughters and two sons, but of this number on- 
ly one daughter is living. John Wesley, who 
was next to the oldest child, was born May 
26, 1833, at Coryville, N. Y., and received 
his early education in the public schools of his 
native county, afterwards attending the academy 
at Coryville. He learned the mason's trade from 
his father and followed this in connection with 
building until 1863, when he came west via the 
Isthmus of Panama from New York City. From 
Aspinwall he came to San Francisco on board 
the Constitution, arriving in San Francisco in 
July, 1863. F^rom that city he went to Indian 
valley, in Plumas county, where he remained a 
week, then went to Susanville, where he pro- 
cured work on a building for Miller & Kings- 
ley, which was being built of stone. He fol- 
lowed the mason's trade in Plumas and Modoc 
counties until 1873, when he purchased the ranch 
which was his home the remainder of his life. It 
consists of four hundred acres of land on the 
south side of the valley five miles south of Su- 
sanville, upon which he raised large quantities of 
hay and grain, and also ran a dairy here. There 
are large meadows on this farm, and water for 
irrigation purposes is obtained from the Gold 
River ditch. 

Mr. Hosselkus was as successful a farmer and 
stock-raiser as he was a mason. He was a stock- 
holder of the Lassen County Bank and super- 
visor of the first district of Lassen five years ; 
also trustee of Richmond school district many 
years. In politics he was a Republican, and fra- 
ternally was identified with the Masonic order, 
also belonging to the Eastern Star, with which 
Mrs. Hosselkus is still identified. 

In Susanville Mr. Hosselkus married Mrs. 
Sarah Todd Emerson, daughter of James and 
Mary (Gray) Todd, both of whom died at Phil- 
adelphia, Pa. Her brother. Dr. William Todd, 
served as surgeon of a regiment, No. 19 Penn- 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



779 



sylvaiiia Volunteer Infantry, and is now practic- 
ing his profession at I'hilatlelpiiia. Another 
brother, Joseph, also served in the Civil war in 
Company G, First United States Mounted Rifles, 
and he now resides in Lassen county. Mrs. 
Hosselkus came to California in the "505, and in 
1863 removed to Honey Lake valley. There are 
two step-sons, Hon. James T. I^ird, ex-state 
senator; and Charles E. Emerson, county as- 
sessor of Lassen county. 



PETER HENRY A'CGT. A native of Ger- 
many, having been born at Laar, Westphalia, 
April I, 1853, Peter Henry Vogt was reared on 
a farm, and obtained his education in the com- 
mon schools of his native locality. His father, 
Casper, was also born in Germany, where he 
spent his life. Twice married, three children 
were born of the first marriage, all of whom 
are deceased, and of the five children of the 
second marriage four are living, Henry having 
died at Adin, Cal., in 1904. The mother of 
these children, formerly Fredricka Banner, was 
a native of Germany, where she passed her en- 
tire life. 

The second child in order of birth, Peter H. 
Vogt was sixteen years of age when, in 1869, 
he came to the New World and located for a 
time in St. Louis, Mo. After working there at 
various occupations until 1871 he then came 
to California. .Settling in Honey Lake valley he 
entered the employ of John Hulsman. with whom 
he continued for nine years, during which time 
he had accumulated sufficient means to enable 
him to become a property owner. Purchasing 
the McDow mill, seven miles from Susanville, 
he operated this for several years, then purchased 
the old Lynch place and engaged in the manu- 
facture of lumber there, later removing to Las- 
sen creek, two miles from the Lynch place, and 
continued in the lumber business. In 1903 he 
sold his saw mill to Thomas H. Wilson and pur- 
chased two hundred acres of land on Lassen 
creek, which he improved and upon which he 
.successfully engaged in stock raising and farm- 



Mr. Vogt was married twice, the first time 
in Susanville to Lizctta Hulsman, who was a 
native of Germany, and died at Susanville. His 
second marriage was with Mrs. Mary Eliza 
(Menefee) Smothers, at Susanville, the daughter 
of Nimrod William Menefee. The latter, who 
was a native of West \'irginia, came to this state 
in 1857 across the plains, going first to Carson 
valley, then to Sonoma county, this state, later 
to Eldorado county, and finally to Willow Creek, 
where he died. Her mother, formerly Mary F. 
Sheckles, a native of Kentucky, is still living, 
and resides on the old home place. Mrs. Vogt 
is one of three children, all of whom are living, 
both of her brothers, William N. and James B. 
residing at Willow Creek. ^Mrs. \'ogt was mar- 
ried first to Jacob C. Smothers at Willow Creek. 
Mr. Smothers was a native of Kentucky, and 
died at Hayden Flill. Two children were born 
of this marriage, viz., Laura, Mrs. Hartson, of 
Honey Lake valley; and Perry William. Mrs. 
Vogt owns a farm in Willow Creek valley of a 
hundred and si.\ty acres, a portion of which is 
meadow land, and upon this farm a successful 
stock business is carried on. Mr. Vogt is a 
self-made man, and though he has had reverses, 
has nevertheless been-verv successful. 



WILLIAM T. BURNHAM. Pleasantly lo- 
cated on the Grizzly valley road, six miles north- 
west of Beckwith, is William T. Burnham, a 
ranchman and stock-raiser, who is contributing 
his full share towards developing and advanc- 
ing tlie agricultural interests of this section of 
Plumas county. A native of Ontario, Canada, 
he was born May 20, 1849. When he was but 
an infant his paretits removed to St. Lawrence 
county, N. Y.. where he was brought up and 
educated. 

At the age of twelve years William T. Burn- 
ham began to be self-supporting, and as a wage- 
earner assisted in supporting the family also. At 
first he worked for his board only, attending 
school winters, but as soon as old enough to re- 
ceive wages he always gave a part of his earn- 
ings to his parents as long as they needed it. 



780 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



Leaving his native state in 1878, he crossed the 
country to Churchill county, Nev., where for six 
years he was employed in the Eagle Salt works. 
Becoming then associated with a mining com- 
pany as an employe, he spent a few months in 
Dayton, Nev., and was then sent to Washoe, in 
that state, where he had charge of a shaft for 
si.x months. The company closing its. works, he 
was engaged in ranching for a short time, after- 
wards being employed for awhile at the Pyramid 
Lake mines. In August, 1885, he came to Plumas 
county, and for more than a year worked on a 
ranch in Beckwith. In October. 1886, with three 
companions, he took a contract for putting in one 
million feet of logs in this section, and filled the 
contract, for which he failed to get his pay. Aft- 
er that venture, in company with Messrs. Benja- 
min L. Jones and Tliomas Jones, he worked for 
wages in a mine, and was also engaged in pros- 
pecting. In December, 1896, investing the money 
that he had accumulated in real estate, he pur- 
chased his present ranch, containing three hun- 
dred and twenty acres of land, one hundred acres 
being hay and grain land in the valley. He also 
homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of ad- 
joining land, and took up a timber claim of forty 
acres of valuable land, to which he has a good ti- 
tle. In the management of his' property he has 
shown marked ability and skill, and is quite suc- 
cessful. Politically he has been identified with 
the Republican party since taking out his natural- 
ization papers, in Quincy, this county. 



PETER LASSEN, pioneer and frontiersman, 
was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. .August 7, 
1800, and after receiving an education in the 
common schools learned the trade of a black- 
smith. In 1829 he came to the United States, 
and after spending some time m different east- 
ern cities, came west to Keytesville, Charlton 
county. Mo. In 1839, with twelve others (two 
of whom were women), he formed a company 
and crossed the plains and mountains to Oregon, 
arriving at The Dalles in October. 1839. Mak- 
ing their way on to the Willamette valley, they 
wintered in Oregon Citv. 



In the spring of 1840 they came by vessel to 
California, landing at Port Ross, then a Russian 
trading post, and thence made their way to 
Sutters camp, near the mouth of American river, 
and fifteen days later went on to San Francisco. 
Soon after tliis Mr. Lassen went to San Jose, 
working at his trade through the winter. In 
the spring of 1841 he purchased some land near 
Santa Cruz, where he built and operated a saw- 
mill. This he afterwards sold in 1842. receiv- 
ing as pay one hundred head of mules which 
he drove to Sutter's camp. There he engaged 
in stock-raising, ranching on an adjoining fann, 
at the same time working at liis trade for Cap- 
tain Sutter and taking his pay in stock. In 
1843 he with John Bidwell and James Bruheim 
pursued a party of emigrants who were on their 
way to Oregon, overtaking them at the present 
site of Red Bluff, and recovered some stolen 
animals. The northern end of the valley was 
then entirely unsettled and Mr. Lassen was so 
pleased with the country he selected a tract and 
applied to Governor Micheltorena for a grant 
of land, which in due time he obtained and in 
F"ebruary, 1844. he located on it. building the 
first civilized habitation north of Marysville. 
The grant was on Deer creek, in what is now 
Tehama county. It was from his place that 
Fremont started on his journey from the Sac- 
ramento valley to Oregon in 1846, and Mr. Las- 
sen a few days later guided Lieutenant Gillespie 
in search of the Pathfinder, overtaking him that 
memorable night on the banks of Klamath lake. 
.•\fter the discovery of gold in 1848 Mr. Las- 
sen started with Paul Richardson as a companion 
to find a good trail for the emigrants into the 
upper end of the valley, the intention being to 
divert emigrants from the usual route, that is, 
the Humboldt and Truckee route. They found 
what was afterwards known as the Lassen route. 
Two years before this a company from the 
Willamette valley had laid out what is known 
as the southern route to Oregon, running from 
Fort Hall west to Goose lake, thence to Tule 
lake and on to Modoc county, across Lost river, 
around the lower end of Klamath lake, through 
the pass to Rogue River vallev and thence by 
the Hudson Bay trail to the Willamette valley. 



HISTORIC/VL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 



7sl 



The route followed to Yreka and vicinity in 
1851, and later years was the old southern 
Oregon trail as far as Klamath lake and thence 
to Yreka by way of Sheep Rock. Mr. Lassen's 
route followed the Oregon road as far as the 
headwaters of Pitt river, then branched south, 
following down the stream until north of Las- 
sen Peak, passing around the eastern base of 
the mountain to Mountain Meadows, then on 
west to Big Meadows, then on to the lieadwaters 
of Deer creek, following that stream down to 
Lassen's ranch. Messrs. Lassen and Richardson 
reached Fort Hall in the summer of 1848 and 
induced a train of cniigrants to try the new 
route to California. Mr. Lassen conducted tlu' 
twelve wagons that com|josed the train, safcl\', 
though the_\- encountered some rugged and dif- 
ficult mountains until the}- reachecLBig Meadows, 
and in one of these valleys they stopped for a 
time to recruit the stock and supply themselves 
with provisions, being unable to proceed in the 
condition they then were in. Here they were 
overtaken by a partv of Oregonians on their way 
to the gold fields and with their aid reached 
Lassen's ranch in safets'. 



In 1849-50 a cutoff was made, or as it was 
sometimes called, "Lassen's Horn" route, sar- 
castically comparing it to the journey around 
Cape Horn, The point of divergence from the 
main route down the Humboldt was indicated 
by a post stuck in the desert sand, across which 
was nailed a shake bearing the inscription "Las- 
sen's road to guide the unwary emigrant ;" but 
it was not very popular on account of the deep 
snows. Lassen was unfortunate on his grant 
and went to Indian valley. I'lnmas county, in 
1 85 1, and with Isadore Meyerwitz and (Jeorge 
E. St. I'elix took up a ranch and opened a 
trading post. .\ few years later Messrs. Lassen 
and Meyerwitz came to Honey lake, the first 
actual settlers of the valley. Mr. Meyerwitz 
was drowned in the lake in 1856 and noble- 
hearted Lassen met his death by a shot from a 
rifle in 1859. Indians are sup])ose<l to have killed 
him when he was in the mountains with his 
st(X"k. The big pine tree where he first camped 
in the valley is still standing on the farm he 
located and in the shadow of this pine is a 
monument erected to liis memory by the Ma- 
sonic fraternitv. of which he was a member. 






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^J£i>^ INDIANA 46962 



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